Boss Barton /Midfielders make best managers

0 New Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton at the club’s Highbury Stadium. Joey Barton took his first steps as a manager with Fleetwood yesterday when he was introduced to the media, three days after his 13-month FA ban for illegal betting had ended.

Barton, 35, signed a threeyear deal in April and is relishing the new opportunity because he believes midfielders make the best managers.

“Pep Guardiola is the best coach but was a midfielder who had no pace and no skills,” Barton said. “Mauricio Pochettino, a very similar profile. Zinedine Zidane would probably buck the trend but he was a midfielder. I am taking great refuge in the fact that midfielders tend to make really good coaches.”

Barton believes Steven Gerrard, another midfielder, will be a success at Rangers.

“I expect him to do phenomenally well because everything in his life to this point would suggest he’s going to do that,” Barton told the BBC.

“At some point in the future, somebody’s going to get it right there and when they do that place [Ibrox] will be ready to take off.”