Legal experts looking into Barton claim
JOEY Barton could face legal action over last week’s explosive press conference ahead of the League One clash with Sunderland.
The Daily Mail report that boss Barton’s accusations that his predecessors at the club were “negligent” in their duties and had “set them up for failure” is being looked at by solicitors.
Although he did not mention them by name, Ben Garner and Paul Tisdale were, of course, Rovers’ managers this season before the 38-year-old took over.
Since arriving at the Memorial Stadium in late February, Barton has launched several criticisms of matters behind the scenes, from recruitment to individual player quality and the overall culture.
When asked how quickly the players can take on board his coaching and instructions before a game, Barton said: “Whatever has gone before me has been negligent. If they were doctors, they should be struck off for what’s gone on here before, but we can’t do anything about that.
“At some point those coaches will probably want to take me to task on that and I’ll have no issue in showing them what they got wrong and where they got it wrong, and they’ll be better for it, so if they want to get on the phone and have a conversation with me, no problem at all.
“But the job that’s been done before we got here is negligent and they’ve set these boys up for failure and we’ve got to try to reverse that trend.”
Barton went on to highlight the example of players being put through a two-and-a-half hour training session on the Friday before a match, something that could well be detrimental to a player’s fitness.
Garner started the League One season and having presided over a revamp of the Rovers squad, in tandem with director of football Tommy Widdrington, winning three of 11 League matches this term, at 0.9 points per game before he was dismissed with the Gas 18th in the table.
Tisdale took over and won three of 15 games, at 0.66 points per game, with Rovers falling deeper into trouble in 20th before Barton was hired. The former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder has won two of his ten games, at 0.7 points per game, with Rovers now 23rd in the table and with eight games left to preserve their League One status.