Joey Barton wanted Celtic, turned down by club says Peter Lawwell
When it comes to Joey Barton, one has to take anything the man says with a grain of salt. Such is the case with his latest claim that Celtic practically begged to sign the English midfielder before he signed with Sevco.
So, it should come as no surprise that Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell remembers things a bit differently according to an interview with BBC Scotland.
At question is the telling of Barton’s story in his upcoming autobiography (we’re guessing he didn’t actually write it though).
An extract from Barton’s upcoming autobiography, ‘No Nonsense’ – parts of which have been published in the Daily Mail – said that days before the player signed for the Light Blues he “took a call from an agent, who had been contacted by Peter Lawwell”, adding: “The message he conveyed was straight and to the point, ‘Is there anything we can do together? Can we have a conversation?'”.
Lawwell remembers the story going very differently, although he does admit to having a conversation with an agent about the potential of signing Barton — only it was Barton who wanted Celtic and not the other way around.
In true Lawwell fashion, he didn’t mince any words on this alleged interest on Celtic’s behalf according to BBC Scotland:
“I think Joey’s been had by a bit of a matchmaker here,” Lawwell said.
He would go on to tell his tale on how all of the alleged Barton to Celtic went down:
“I remember it well, we had just announced Brendan (Rodgers) as our new manager and I was with our company secretary in London at the time.
“An agent called me saying that Joey was going to sign for Rangers but he would really prefer to come to Celtic and were we interested in signing him, but it wasn’t something we wanted to pursue.
“These things happen to players sometimes in football, but needless to say we wish Joey well at his new club.”
Let’s remember these claims are coming from an alleged life-long Celtic fan, who has put that love out on Twitter on multiple occasions and somehow managed to sign for Sevco and deny his love for the Hoops altogether.
Oh, and from a man who isn’t just facing a ban from that new club he signed for in the offseason, but also one who is now having his betting habits looked in to by the Scottish FA.
We’ll let you decide which person is more believable…
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