Arsenal: Joey Barton Says He Could Have Joined Gunners This Summer

A man who regularly cites Friedrich Nietzsche in his tweets, Joey Barton is certainly no stranger to controversy.

In fact, one could say he often elects to seek it out rather than wait for it to come to him.

His well-chronicled summer histrionics aside, when he said (among other things) that he was the best wide midfielder at present of English descent and practically forced Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley to sell him, his determination to seek a future elsewhere have largely fallen flat in the wake of his relatively quiet move to Queens Park Rangers at the close of the transfer window.

All that was enough for the current England international coach, Fabio Capello, to be at his euphemistic best when he declared Barton "dangerous" ahead of the Three Lions' friendly against Netherlands in early August (the match would be postponed due to the London riots).

Capello weighed the potential benefit of picking Barton to his side, and then watched the inevitable headaches send the scale crashing the other way. It's not too hard to say he made the right choice in neglecting to send Barton a call-up.

It should be little surprise then that Barton who, it must be admitted, has been relatively quiet since his early August escapades, was once again thrust into the media limelight Wednesday.

ESPN Soccernet ran an article in which the bad boy said he'd been considering a move to Arsenal in the summer, but thanks to that spat with Gervinho in the first match of the season, any potential deal was "scuppered."

Seriously? This from a guy whom Samir Nasri once tripped in a brilliantly-disguised retributive dig in another August fixture—this time back in 2008, when Barton (fresh off a jail sentence stemming from assault) had gotten involved in spats with both Nasri and then-Gunners defender William Gallas (all during a brief run as a substitute, mind you).

One wonders what kind of reception he'd have gotten were he ever to have made a move to the Emirates.

If that juicy history wasn't enough to "scupper" a move for Barton, then I guess Gervinho's salacious slap did him in. Difficult to imagine if he's yet recovered from that "forceful" blow, so quickly did he drop to the turf that day.

All joking aside, it was interesting to hear Arsene Wenger's take on the heavily-covered Gervinho-Barton incident after that match, when the coy Frenchman sounded as if he'd perhaps considered making a move for the unsettled Newcastle man.

After this latest incident from Barton, thank God he didn't.