Never afraid to speak his mind, and despite not being one of the best known footballers, Barton has managed to rack up 1.4 million followers on Twitter.
He tweets on anything from music to politics, and football.
This last weekend after being benched by manager Mark Hughes who is thought to be unhappy with Barton’s use of expressing himself over the social media website Twitter, Barton, after being dropped from the team said: “Going to take a little twitter sabbatical before I say something I’ll end up regretting. Have a good few good weeks people.”
The news of him quitting Twitter has made a few of the sports writers happy though.
“Presumably he didn’t intend this to be a joke, but it is very funny. After 4,598 tweets it’s a bit late for that, Joseph,” chuckled the Dailey Mail, before launching into a 1,300 word attack on the “arrogant” and “sanctimonious” midfielder.
The Times was slightly less incandescent. “As a result of his growing fame, Barton landed a book deal, a column for The Big Issue and wrote for the op-ed pages of The Times, which must be a first for a QPR midfield player,” wrote Matt Dickinson. But he added that Twitter had turned him into a “absurd self-parody”.
“Twitter seemed a harmless medium but it has created a monster, with Barton as famed for his rants as his football. Now he does neither.”
