Joey Barton has claimed in his new book ‘No Nonsense’ via the Daily Star that he completed a medical with the Irons in 2015.
Barton, 34, eventually joined Burnley and is now at Rangers but he clairebuilt his career, but his controversial history cost him his move to East London – and he has now discussed exactly what happened.
Barton wrote in his autobiography, as quoted by the Daily Star, that he thought West Ham boss Slaven Bilic was ‘impressive’, and he even completed a medical with the club.
However, Barton felt that West Ham fans reacted as if they were signing ‘a serial killer’, but there is no bitterness towards the Hammers over the failed move.
“Slaven Bilic was impressive,” said Barton. “He spoke in detail about where he saw me playing for him, and gave me a summary of my strengths. I trained with the team for a couple of days. I even successfully completed a medical.
“Somewhere in cyberspace it all fell apart. A vocal minority of West Ham fans reacted like they were about to be represented by a serial killer. That’s life and there’s no bitterness on my part,” he added.
I’m half-way through his book at the moment, there’s been plenty of hype associated with it and so far I’m a bit disappointed, but my overall impression is that Barton is a nasty bit of work – a accident waiting to happen!
Barton if you had any balls and were the hard nut that you portray, you would have risen to the challenge and not pussy’d out, fans are fickle but easily won over, our fans are some of the worst fickle moaning *****es you will find in cyberspace but we are honest and we don’t like you, but all fans can be won over with passion skill and determination, but now you will never know, what an opportunity missed
If we had signed him Antonio may not have been signed, I said at the time we should have signed him because dressing rooms need a player like that so no one ever feels too comfortable, I still think we need that type of personality because too many of our players are not leaving it all out on the pitch, we won’t win anything until they do, either the manager makes them like a Pochetino or a Guardiola or a Ferguson type and drops them the moment their level dips or someone in the team has too, like a Bellamy. DiCanio or a Barton type, our team is too “nice” I want to see that drive back COYI !!!
Anyone catch the Celtic v Rangers game a few weeks ago? If Scott Brown can run him ragged then Joey has no place in a PL team. Whilst No32 makes a really good point about us needing a natural leader, it’s a positive influence we need and I think Joey would have been a risk too far.