You think you’ve climbed job is my toughest ever...
DOWN in the muck and nettles of League Two, three of the bottom five clubs are managed by former England internationals Nigel Clough, Keith Curle and Joey Barton.
And as the Three Lions open a Pandora’s box of opportunities to wreak havoc in Andorra’s box today, Barton is fighting to turn the tide at Bristol Rovers.
As a player, Our Joey was too often running on a short fuse for meditation, prayer, and harnessing positive energy through spiritualism to hold sway.
But as he contemplates his toughest gig in football – reversing Rovers’ slide through the Football League foothills in a job he describes as his “Everest” – we can only admire Barton’s belief that faith will move mountains.
It’s been a lousy few weeks for the Gas. Our heating bills are going to go through the roof this winter, and Barton’s club are living dangerously after just three wins in 10 games.
After today’s home date with Carlisle, he will sit back and watch a foregone conclusion in the Pyrenees with no regrets his own England career was more peep show than mismatch. “Mine only lasted 18 minutes when I replaced Frank Lampard against Spain at Old Trafford in 2007,” said Barton (below).
“But for 18 minutes, I was the best central midfielder available to represent my country, and nobody can ever take that cap or those 18 minutes away from me.
“For a working-class lad from Liverpool, it was the highest possible honour to wear the England shirt. And yet you think you’ve climbed the mountain, but this job is my Everest.
“This is the toughest mountain I’ve ever had to climb.
“Since I’ve been here, Bristol Rovers have won seven games out of 30, which is nowhere near good enough. If we win only seven of the next
30, we’ll be out of the Football League.
“If I thought it would make us play better and win, I’d take my cap to the stadium on Saturday and see if it makes a difference.
“I doubt if Nigel and Curley wave their caps around the dressing room to motivate their players (at Mansfield and Oldham respectively).
“It takes more than playing for England to change the culture of a football club. The challenge for all of us is to find a way out of the bottom end of the table as quick as we can.
“I’m trying to use all the tools in the kitbag – going back to when I was 14 or 15 and everyone told me I wasn’t good enough to make it because I was too small. I proved people wrong but I had to scrap all the way, and it’s the same as a coach. “I’m trying to stay calm by meditating as much as I can. I’ve been going to church for an hour to find positivity from the spiritual world. “And I want to give Gasheads among the people of Bristol some respite from the endless negativity of a Tory government who don’t care about the people who put them in office.
“One minute they are removing £20 of Universal Credit, the next they are drinking champagne and one of them is singing that she’s having the time of her life!
“We are the sick man of Europe. Friends in Marseille, from when I played in France, ask me, ‘How are British people not on the streets?’. They don’t understand how we put up with it.”
Rovers, who took 42,000 fans to Wembley for a play-off final 14 years ago, are probably the drowsiest of English football’s sleeping giants.
Barton, 39, recognises the potential – but the slump must end soon. “We are a big-city club and we need to wear that as a badge of honour, but we also need to recognise the challenge,” he added.
“Bristol Rovers have been around 99 years longer than me, but their highest-ever finish in the league was sixth in the old Second Division in 1955.
“My lowest-ever finish as a player was fifth, in the second tier, with QPR – and I want this club to aim high, and breathe in the air of a higher altitude.”
‘I’m trying to stay calm by meditating as much as I can’