This job has saved my sanity
JOEY AIMS TO GO FROM IDLE TO IDOL
JOEY BARTON faced some dark days after the betting ban which effectively ended his playing career.
He had once been good enough to play for England but, at the age of 33, he suddenly found himself with no purpose in life – and it scared him.
Barton’s FA ban, for breaking gambling rules by placing 1,260 bets over 10 years, forced him to stop playing for Burnley in April 2016.
To get over the football-shaped hole in his life he took to being a radio pundit and started a podcast – but he was desperate to get back into the game.
That was why he took on the challenge of managing League One Fleetwood – and now he believes he has every reason to spring out of bed in the morning.
He said: “The devil makes work for idle hands – so just going on a golf course might have got me into a lot of trouble.
“My personality is quite energetic, so sitting in the house doing the garden – which is what I did for the initial part – quickly became very difficult for me.
“I had a couple of days when I struggled to get out of bed.
“Depression isn’t part of my nature. I’m quite optimistic, but people talk about that darkness descending and I was like, ‘What am I doing?’.
“Getting out of bed at 11am or noon. Luckily I had great people round me saying, ‘Hey, what’s going on here? You OK? Let’s talk through this.’ When I was younger I never had that process.”
Barton was freaked out when he stopped playing as he suddenly realised he had no idea what he wanted to do.
He said: “I’d get out of bed and think, ‘What am I going to do today because I’m bored with playing golf ?’
“I had all these ambitions. I wanted to climb Everest, go to the Amazon, go on holidays. Then you realise you don’t actually want to do that.
“I wanted to go skiing because, as players you were contractually forbidden from doing that. Then I can do and I think, ‘I don’t want to do this.’
“It’s like the betting. I’ve not got into betting when I can bet and then when I can’t bet I was betting. Do you know what I mean?”
The former Manchester City midfielder admits he has not always been the best at getting across what goes on in his head.
He said: “I’d love you to have 24 hours sitting behind these eyeballs. It might be a scary ride for you. You’d probably be scarred for life. But it would help me communicate to you better.
“My purpose since leaving school was to be a professional footballer and then that’s gone and you never know whether you can get that back.
“That’s scary. When you think, ‘What is my purpose?’.
“Now I jump out of bed because I’ve got a purpose – to be the best version I can possibly be as a coach and a manager.”