Yeah he's always been an aggressive character. But let's not pretend he wasn't interesting and considered such, or stood out for talking about things most footballers weren't.
He was interesting enough for the guardian to report on him becoming a member of the national secular society in 2015.
Interesting enough for Stephen Evans, the society’s campaign manager to say its “great to have the Queen’s Park Rangers midfield general on the team”.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...ecular-society
Interesting enough for the same paper to give him an article on his thoughts on rainbow laces
https://www.theguardian.com/voluntar...why-i-laced-up
Obviously our views on people will change over time, but when they do, I don't think we need to re-write history and pretend they were always thought of that way. I think calling Barton "interesting" in the past is a fair assessment really.