Joey Barton shows why he isn’t England material

Although Roy Hodgson isn’t a man who has an easy ride ahead of him this year, his selections for the England squad for the upcoming European Championships were made a little easier this weekend, as Joey Barton once and for all ruled himself out of a squad that is already full of enough "big characters".

With Barton once again putting himself in a ridiculous and humiliating situation during a televised league game, he has been left once more in an unenviable position after he appeared to strike out at several players after picking up a deserved red card halfway through what was a magnificent game of football.

Barton himself has seen his career blighted by the sheer petulance that he seems to continually demonstrate, whether when attacking Arsenal's Gervinho to provoke a response at the start of the season, or through more damning behaviour that he has himself admitted when tweeting to his followers after the Manchester City game: "Can do nothing but apologise to the players and the fans. Still don't think its a sending off. Tried to take one of their players with me..."

With comments like these (and worse that don't deserve a mention), Barton has displayed all of the reasons why the British public have started to show a certain level of disdain for the so-called stars of the football world.

If Barton finds himself fortunate enough to be retained by QPR, he will face a lengthy ban that effectively starts from now, with the midfielder wasting the talent that once could have seen him force himself into the England team playing in Ukraine and Poland.

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