Smirking Gabby Agbonlahor has named a former Celtic star as the biggest "s***house" he has ever faced - before ranking Rangers flop Joey Barton as a close second.
The Scottish Premiership has hosted some notorious names when it comes to trash talking on the pitch - with Barton's goading when he signed a deal at Ibrox only backfiring on the midfielder. He declared himself the 'best player' in Scotland upon his move to Rangers in May 2016. However, poor performances and struggles at the club marred his tenure before he returned to Burnley in January.
However, his hardman reputation earned at the likes of Manchester City and QPR was spot-on according to England cap Agbonlahor. However, Barton finished second to former Celtic loanee Craig Bellamy in the ex-Aston Villa striker's rankings. The Welshman spent six months on loan at Celtic Park from Newcastle United and picked up a Scottish Cup winner's medal during his brief stint north of the border.
Agbonlahor told talkSPORT: "I think the perfect s***house is a player who can wind up a fanbase. Someone who can be that annoying player who goes down a lot when you know it’s going to annoy another player, talk crap to your opponent to wind him up, when you celebrate, celebrate in front of the home fans.
“Winding people up on the pitch and making it so someone wants to kick you, someone’s going to get sent off. My biggest one was if I scored I’m going to the opposition fans, I’m standing right in front of your face and celebrating, I used to have the shush, which is like ‘give me abuse but I’ve scored now, so shush’.
“I loved to shoulder barge full-backs and defenders into the advertising board, I’d time it so when they were running I’d shoulder barge them right by the white line into the advertising board so you know they’re coming for you afterwards, screaming and shouting, then you know you’ve got them.
"Number one is Craig Bellamy. I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s so, so chirpy. He would hammer his own team, the opposition, I remember (former Villa centre-back) Carlos Cuellar – he cashed him off about money asking ‘what do you earn, I earn loads more than you’ – he’s that sort of player.
"He’d say anything he could to get under the skin of a defender. I remember Gareth Barry telling a story that when he got to Man City he was on his case. He was small but stocky and could take care of himself, he was definitely the biggest s***house. Number two I’ll say Joey Barton, he was renowned for it. He was the player on the pitch who’d have the most to say, he was so chirpy and he would hammer players, call them s***, call them rubbish.
“We had an incident when we played Newcastle and I think he had something where he kept getting in trouble for fouls so I targeted him that game, whenever he got the ball I would boot him. I shoulder barged him once to the floor and I remember him running over and he flicked my bottom lip. After the game the gaffer saying do you want to take it further with the FA? I said no, I know what Barton’s like, I’ll leave it. Then I remember seeing him in Vegas about five years later in a lift and he said ‘thanks Gabby for not taking it any further’ because I could have made a big deal out of it."
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