Barton: "On Form I Am As Good As Anybody"
By Tyne-Talk
July 20 2010
Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton has told The Evening Chronicle that he is as good as any player in England and is on form with those players who went to the World Cup, putting himself on par with Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, who in a combined team effort failed spectacularly to achieve in South Africa.
Barton who is known to be hot headed on the field, with 4 red cards and 49 yellow cards in the last 8 seasons said;
"First and foremost, I want to do well for Newcastle United. But watching some of the performances in the World Cup over the summer, I think that on form, I'm as good as anybody in this country.
I don't say that lightly and I have to go out and prove that, but surely every midfielder in this country should be thinking like that?
They should be looking at it and saying, ‘That's where I want to be and that's where I can go'. That's my goal, and if I break into the England squad, it proves that I am doing fantastic for this football club. At the end of the day, I was an England international as a box-to-box midfield player.
I don't say this lightly, but I'm a much more rounded footballer now than I was when I first signed for this club. Injuries have restricted my chances to show that.
If I can sustain fitness for a long period of time, I'm very confident of finding the form that got me in the England squad."
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Bellers was a gobsh;te but he could afford to be a lot of the time.
So hopefully he will remember this when/if he starts to get into trouble