Barton has recently carried out a sustained attack against women in football on social media, drawing strong criticism from throughout the game
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Joey Barton's sustained misogynistic attack on Eni Aluko has taken another grim turn, with the former Premier League midfielder disturbingly claiming that the pundit is "in the Joseph Stalin / Pol Pot category".
Sacked as manager of League One club Bristol Rovers in October, Barton has been widely condemned in recent weeks for a string of aggressively sexist posts on X, with Aluko becoming a particular focus of his toxicity.
On Friday, Barton – who has claimed that women "shouldn't be talking with any kind of authority" about men's football – took aim at Aluko and fellow pundit Lucy Ward as they appeared on ITV's coverage of the FA Cup third-round tie between Crystal Palace and Everton, bizarrely comparing them to notorious British serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Eni Aluko is a regular pundit for the likes of ITV and Amazon Prime (Image credit: Getty Images)
The ex-Manchester City and Newcastle player wrote: "How is she [Aluko] even talking about men's football? She can't even kick a ball properly. Your [ITV] coverage of the game...last night took it to a new low. Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, the Fred and Rose West of football commentary."
ITV responded on Saturday with a statement labelling Barton's remarks "contemptible and shameful".
But, unperturbed, the 41-year-old followed up with another troubling X post on Sunday afternoon. It read: "On reflection, I feel I've been a tad harsh on Eni Aluko by comparing her to Rose West. Had a bit of time to consider the impact of my words after [ITV's] statement. She's clearly in the Joseph Stalin / Pol Pot category. She's murdered thousands if not millions of football fans' ears in the last few years..."
On reflection, I feel I’ve been a tad harsh on Eni Aluko by comparing her to Rose West.Had a bit of time to consider the impact of my words after @itvfootball big statement. She’s clearly in the Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category. 👍She’s murdered hundreds of thousands if not… https://t.co/jX9XpFyAVqJanuary 7, 2024
Clearly, Barton has absolutely lost the plot – and the analogies he's drawn over the last few days have been particularly sickening.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
As leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pot orchestrated the Cambodian genocide which resulted in the deaths of up to 2m people between 1975 and 1979.
Some 40 years earlier, as leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin enacted the Great Purge, and some historians argue that he was ultimately responsible for the deaths of more than 20m Russians.
Tom Hancock started freelancing for FourFourTwo in April 2019 and has also written for the Premier League and Opta Analyst, among others. He supports Wycombe Wanderers and has a soft spot for Wealdstone. A self-confessed statto, he has been known to watch football with a spreadsheet (or several) open...
