Joey Barton red-faced as pundit he attacked nominated for prestigious award

Joey Barton’s words have come back to bite him after Izzy Christiansen was nominated for a prestigious award for her punditry. The former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder has launched a series of tirades on social media attacking numerous female football analysts, including Christiansen.

Barton was unimpressed with ex-Lioness Christiansen’s view on how Erling Haaland will be impacted by the recent injury to Jack Grealish. The pair built up a strong rapport last season on their way to an impressive treble, but have struggled to replicate that partnership so far this campaign.

“I will say, I think he (Haaland) might be missing Grealish a little bit and I think it’s massive for Man City to have Jack Grealish back on the bench because I think in the final third, what he brings to that team is that kind of difference in creativity”, she claimed on Sky Sports.

“As soon as Jack Grealish gets on the pitch, I think this man here, Haaland will start, you know he’s had a little bit of criticism. Not much but there’s been questions because of the chances he’s missed but he has been scoring. But as soon as Grealish comes back from the side, I think we’ll see even more from that man.”

But Barton felt that Christiansen’s analysis was incorrect and once again he took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to express his opinion: “Who let the Cabbage patch kid in the studio? Why is she talking about Men’s football?”

However, the consensus appears to be that Christiansen is one of the United Kingdom’s finest pundits. She has been recognised by Sports Journalists’ Association (SJA) in her nomination for the prestigious SJA Poundit of the Year award.

Previous winners include the likes of Ally McCoist, Emma Hayes and Gary Neville and the SJA have shared their criteria for meeting their requirements: “‘Tone, expertise and delivery’ – the three main broadcasting qualities that those judging the SJA Pundit category look for when compiling the shortlist.”

Christiansen joins McCoist, Brian O’Driscoll, Ian Wright, Jamie Carragher, Karen Carney, Lianne Sanderson, Nasser Hussain, Nedum Onouha and Roy Keane in being nominated for the award, an esteemed company as Barton’s criticisms were emphatically shut down.