Joey Barton’s barbs at Scott Brown, the Celtic captain, and Brendan Rodgers, the Parkhead manager, are motivated by jealousy, according to former Hoops skipper Tom Boyd.
Boyd, speaking in his capacity as club ambassador as Celtic donated £7,000 to this year’s Glasgow Taxis’ Outing Fund for Sick Children, laughed off Barton’s comments from the TalkSport studio this week as he has taken aim at Brown and Rodgers.
The 33-year-old has claimed that Brown “wasn’t in his league” and queried the hype around the former Liverpool boss who “has won nothing”.
Boyd, though, was quick to serve a reminder that Barton has arrived at Rangers this summer after making it known in the past that he had an affinity for Celtic.
“Joey is certainly saying a lot before the campaign even starts. He’s doing a lot of talking but, listen, it’s just a bit of banter,” said Boyd.
“I think it’s spurred by a bit of jealousy because Brendan never came in for him. We do know that he is a big Hoops fan because he’s said so in the past.
“So his comments about Scott are probably down to him being annoyed that he’ll be playing against Broonie rather than alongside him.
“We’ll see how that develops over the course of the season. However, I don’t think that you can say that Joey doesn’t know what he’s let himself in for with the whole Old Firm thing.
“He’s already caught people’s imagination. Not a lot usually happens at this time of year and he’s made a couple of comments and got people talking about him.
“He’s not actually played any football yet so we’ll see how that develops. Yes, he is a very good footballer but we’ve yet to see whether he can walk the walk up here.
“Joey has a decent pedigree and he can have a huge influence on the park but there’s a long way to go and we’ll wait and see whether he can back his talk up.”
Boyd believes the jibes will have fallen on deaf ears at Celtic Park. The Parkhead side return for the beginning of pre-season training on June 20th. There will be a week at Lennoxtown before the club embark on a 12-day trip to Slovenia where they will play four games.
The Treble winning captain has dismissed any suggestion that the comments will have riled Brown up ahead of a season in which the two players will go head-to-head.
“Knowing Scott, he won’t even have read Barton’s comments about him and he certainly won’t worry about them. He’s the captain of Celtic and Scotland so comments from opposition players won’t get to him,” said Boyd.
“Scott doesn’t need anybody to wind him up or motivate him for any game at all. He’ll take all of this in his stride because he’s come up against bigger and better players than Joey Barton and come out on top.
“I wouldn’t say that Joey has underestimated the Scottish game. He’s a very smart lad and he’s just giving the media some ammunition for the season ahead.
“Ultimately, it’s just a bit of chat and, as I say, I think he’d rather be pulling on the hoops than the blue of Rangers.
“Of course, what he’s said has put more pressure on himself to perform but this isn’t the first time he’s said something controversial. I think he’s just missing the football.”
Meanwhile, Boyd would like to see Rodgers make the signing of another striker the top priority at Celtic Park this season. Leigh Griffiths had an outstanding campaign with 40 goals, but the former defender believes he needs some assistance.
"He [Leigh] produced, but it would help the squad if there was someone there who could maybe push him on to 50 goals next year if he does have competition,” he said. “We will wait and see.
"I would think the key thing for Brendan is to try and get some consistency.
"We had some poor performances last year and I think that is one of the reasons why Ronny lost his job. But we also had some good performances, very good performances and exceptional performances.
"It’s about trying to get that consistency of performance over the course of a season and that will be part of Brendan’s remit.
"He can maybe do what Martin O’Neill did and make players better than they were before. You think back to guys like Bobby Petta. Maybe Brendan can do something similar.”
Boyd was promoting is on hand at the Glasgow Taxi Outing's 71st Annual Children's trip to Troon.
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