Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton has stepped out of the shadows and leveled a forthright accusation against Watford captain Troy Deeney of ‘oportunism’ in light of concerns the latter has been raising over the Premier League’s Project Restart plans.
Deeney has been vociferously letting off steam that proposals to resume football next month were not safe and that testing players instead of frontline NHS staff could not be justified.
However, Barton has seen it fit to lambast Deeney of trying to force the season to be declared null and void in order to secure another season in the League’s top-flight division.
Barton, the former Burnley, QPR and Newcastle player also zeroed in on Brighton’s Glenn Murray and suggested both he and Deeney were after another season of top flight wages.
On Twitter, Barton wrote: “Glenn Murray and Troy Deeney are in a relegation scrap. If they don’t want to play, I understand it. Don’t play then. Stay at home. There will be a lot of young players at Brighton/Watford, desperate for an opportunity and who will fight to save their respective clubs.
“In my opinion, the only players/clubs who don’t want to go back, are the ones with either a relegation battle they want to avoid or nothing to play for. Every competitor wants to compete. Players have trained admirably through these crazy times, they deserve at least a shot.
“If Troy doesn’t want to play or doesn’t feel safe enough to, then that’s his choice. Let’s not kid ourselves about what is going on. Big money to be had in the premier league, who wouldn’t want another year of that towards the end of your career? Got to admire the opportunism.
“Massive bonuses for staying in the @premierleague pro rata. Squad on huge bonus for survival. Hundreds of thousands of pounds per man. No wonder they want it null and voided. You can’t blame them.”
Hooray! Now that’s shooting straight from the hip without any b******t and speaking with forked tonguesm unlike some others.
Kudos to you, Barton!