Joey Barton has hit out at former Bristol Rovers captain Luke Leahy, citing his celebrations as disrespectful during Tuesday’s loss to Shrewsbury Town, speaking to the Bristol Post.
Leahy opened the scoring for the Shrews against his former club inside three minutes, he immediately ran over to celebrate in front of the 748 Rovers fans who had made the journey to Shropshire for the midweek fixture.
The fixture marked the final away fixture of the season for Barton’s side, but the English boss feels their fans deserved more from their former captain.
The celebrations would anger Rovers fans themselves, as he would celebrate in front of the travelling support, pointing at them and holding his gaze towards them, before turning to acknowledge the home support also.
Leahy’s time at Bristol.
The 30-year-old spent two years at Rovers, joining from Walsall in July 2019. He was captain of Barton’s side in the back end of the 2020/21 season, which saw the side relegated to League Two.
Leahy, who has spent his time in League One since joining Walsall from Falkirk in 2017, would not remain with the club for the campaign which would see them immediately promoted back to League One making the switch to Shropshire.
Across two years at Rovers, Leahy would make 85 appearances for the club, netting on 10 occasions. Following their relegation, the club would offer him a new contract, however, he would opt to stay in League One with Shrewsbury, where Steve Cotterill has reinvented him as a defensive midfielder.
Barton’s controversy.
This is not the first time Barton has made controversy for comments towards a player. In February, the BBC would be forced to apologise as their radio coverage would pick up comments made by Barton.
Barton could be heard in the background of post-match interviews of what many believed to be the former Newcastle midfielder offering out Imps players following a 1-0 defeat to the Imps.
The incident and what’s been said.
Manager and player would reunite at the full-time whistle as they would share words whilst Barton completed his post-match duties.
Leahy would be holding his man-of-the-match champagne which he was awarded by the hosts sponsors. And during his interviews, Barton would make his annoyance with his former captain clear.
“I’ve always got on with Luke, but I think it’s disrespectful to the Gasheads. He’s got his fingerprints all over a relegation as the skipper and he scores a goal here tonight and wants to noise them up. He should have more respect for our fans.”
“Tremendous (support), and that’s why I was saying to Luke there when I came to the football club, he was the captain and the standards were absolutely dog **** right across the board and he was the captain of it,”
“And then he scores against us and he’s celebrating against our fans and I think it’s incredibly disrespectful. But that’s him.”
“I don’t know what our fans have done other than vote him player of the year. He deserted a sinking ship that he was captain of. I get he’s got his club, but does he need to go and celebrate in front of our fans? I thought it was a strange decision from him.”
Writers View
Barton is a very controversial manager and given the nature of the situation, it is no surprise to hear his annoyance with his former skipper.
However, as a player, Barton was no stranger to controversy himself, this is also something that seems to follow him as a manager in recent times.
It is important for him as a manager that he focuses on finishing this season strong and keeping himself and his players focused on next season.
