JOEY Barton kicked off the 2016-17 Old Firm mind games in earnest last night when he insisted all the pressure was on Celtic to win their sixth top flight title in a row. While the appointment of Brendan Rodgers as manager is a statement of intent from across the city to retain their stranglehold over the Ladbrokes Premiership, the 33-year-old midfielder said last night that he is savouring the challenge of wresting the title from the Parkhead side's grasp. Rangers are at the stage in their development, though, where they still have to take it game by game.
"They have got some great players there, they have got a manager who has come from a big club in England," said Barton. "The reality is that the pressure is on them, they have to win the league.
Read more: David Weir - Rangers will learn from Scottish Cup heartache at Hampden
"They have had it all their own way for a long period and now they have got to move it up a gear," added the midfielder, who was playing yesterday in a Pro-Am tournament at Wentworth, in close proximity to Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond. "Aberdeen took them to the wire for a long period and credit to them for that. But, for Rangers, we have got to go in and take it game by game. You don’t win a championship by turning up and saying ‘we are going to win the championship’. It is fought and it is ground out over the course of a year. I look forward to the challenge, I look forward to that gauntlet being thrown down."
Barton, who helped Burnley to the SkyBet Championship title south of the border last season, concedes that the expectation of the Rangers fans is to deliver the league title immediately. "I am not worried about five-in-a-row and things like that," said Barton. "Someone has got to win the league, and we have got to work incredibly hard to make sure that is us. That is the expectation of this football club. Rangers are on 54 league titles, and what sweet way it would be to take your 55th league title.
Read more: So what does Brendan Rodgers have to do in his first few weeks at Celtic?
"It is the greatest and most successful league-title winning side in world football," he added. "But you have got another great club just across the road and they have got ambitions of their own. That is what makes football great. You can’t have one without the other and people north of the border have realised that in recent years. Even the most staunch Celtic supporter will admit that the rivalry is what brings out your best."
Barton will inherit the No 8 jersey worn by Paul Gascoigne, not to mention the likes of Steve Davis and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, but said there was no comparison with the maverick Geordie. "I just couldn’t sit here and put myself in the same breath as Gascoigne, because he is in a different stratosphere as a player to me," said Barton. "If I can have a minute percentage of the impact he had on this football club, I would snap your hand off for that now."
Read more: Brendan Rodgers names Chris Davies as Celtic assistant manager
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel