Joey Barton: Xabi Alonso and I had history… I blamed him for stealing my Liverpool move
CONTROVERSIAL Rangers bad boy reveals motive behind his 2009 red card shame at Anfield
JOEY BARTON admits he hacked down Xabi Alonso as he felt the Spaniard “stole his move to Liverpool”.
Barton was given his marching orders for a late challenge on the Spanish midfielder as his Newcastle side were defeated 3-0 by the Merseyside outfit back in 2009.
The Rangers midfielder, who has been suspended by the club for three weeks after a furious training ground bust-up, has now revealed the malicious intent on his part to foul Alonso.
And he claims it was due to feeling “jealous” that his own move to Anfield five years earlier had been scrapped due to the club preferring the now Bayern Munich man.
Recalling the incident in his new autobiography, ‘No Nonsense’, Barton wrote:
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“Had things panned out differently, I could have made the obsessive debate about the mutual suitability of the Gerrard-Lampard axis redundant.
“From what I gathered, Steven Gerrard agitated to get Liverpool to sign me in 2004, because he felt we had the potential to forge a partnership.
“I met with Gerard Houllier at Melwood, and agreed everything verbally. A deal was close to being concluded but then he was sacked that summer. It was never revived.”
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He continued: “Xabi and I had history. He blamed me for knocking him out in what he thought was a deliberate clash of heads in one of our earliest contests, and I blamed him for stealing my move to Liverpool.
“All that remained to be agreed with City was the fee, when Rafa Benitez took over from Gerard Houllier. I was in Dubai when I was informed that he had instead decided to sign a kid from Real Sociedad who had just broken into the Spanish national team.
“That turned out to be £10.7m well spent. Xabi is one hell of a player, whose passes have a great range and accuracy.
“Whenever we played, I sought to get the game on my terms, which were relentlessly physical.
“(In 2009) Thirteen minutes remained. Liverpool were two up, cruising and playing keep ball. The Kop conducted an incessant, infuriating chant of ‘Ole, ole, ole!’
“Xabi retained the ball near the corner flag fractionally longer than was prudent. That gave me the opportunity to fly in, and disguise my malicious intent as best as I could. Alonso milked the moment with a barrel roll. I expected a yellow and was shown a red.”