Rangers have secured a major transfer coup to mark their return to Scotland’s top flight, bringing in Joey Barton on a free transfer.
A member of last season’s Championship Team of the Year, the one-cap England international has turned down the chance to stay at Premier League new boys Burnley and opted to move north of the border.
With more than 250 Premier League appearances to his name, Barton is certainly the calibre of player capable of improving Mark Warburton’s squad.
So much so that the club released a trailer for his exclusive first interview as a Rangers player.
But some Gers fans have been drawn to this old tweet, sent all the way back in 2012.
It’s not the first time Barton has found himself in mild trouble for comments made in the past. His arrival at Burnley was accompanied by the dredging up of a series of old tweets in which he badmouthed both the club and the town.
Playing for a rival club to the one you support is nothing new – the likes of Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen played for Liverpool after growing up following Everton – but the Old Firm rivalry is not like most other rivalries in football.
Some Rangers fans are willing to offer Barton the benefit of the doubt.
https://twitter.com/TheBigBlueBear6/status/734782362249273345
https://twitter.com/BkG1984/status/734837881735372805
What about all the Rangers fans Celtic signed, Joey! no problem, if you do it for the gers, then that's fine by me
— Rikki Duncan (@RikkiD64) May 19, 2016
And another name came up repeatedly
https://twitter.com/RossAdamson97/status/732179488818221057
Folk banging on how bartons a celtic fan due to past tweets? Mo johnston & scott allan spring to mind 🙄🙈🇬🇧
— Muzz (@muzz_1872) May 14, 2016
But that isn’t the overall consensus.
well this is gonna go down well if you did ever join us Joey for fuck sake 😂👍🏻
— JJordan (@adidas1nglasgow) May 23, 2016
https://twitter.com/nick_elt/status/731505779652608001
https://twitter.com/GregLeft/status/731494899439312896
