Joey Barton speaks with comedy French accent in incident reminiscent of Steve McClaren

On-loan QPR midfielder conducts bizarre press conference in French accent

Simon Rice
Monday 26 November 2012 18:38 GMT
Comments
Joey Barton
Joey Barton (GETTY IMAGES)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Not many Brits go abroad in football, but at least those who venture beyond these shores do us proud by giving the lingo a go... sort of.

Joey Barton, the self-styled Nietzsche spouting, Twitter obsessed Smiths fan finally made his league debut for Marseille yesterday before conducting a bizarre press conference.

The on-loan QPR midfielder spoke in English but to help out the natives, put on a comedy French accent.

The incident was reminiscent of Steve McClaren who spoke in English but with a Dutch accent during his time as FC Twente's manager.

The Liverpudlian former Newcastle midfielder has since taken to Twitter to defend himself.

'Steve MaClaren (sic) eat your heart out...'

Before adding moments later: 'In my defence, it is very difficult to do a press conference in Scouse for a room full of French journalists. The alternative is to speak...

'..like a 'Allo Allo!' character which is choose. Its simply a case of you had to be there. #youstupidwomen!'

Barton, who recently claimed "I'm maybe a little too intelligent to be a footballer", has even gone as far as to dub the language 'Bartonese'.

Watch the video below...

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in