THISTLE STAR BARTON IS ENJOYING A NEW LEASE OF LIFE:
HE is the Barton who came, stayed and even conquered. Adam of that ilk has pursued a less gaudy route to redemption in Scotland than his namesake Joey, but if the Partick Thistle player’s story has not been told in garish headlines, it does, in contrast, contain much of profound substance.
The 26-year-old strolls in to a room at Lesser Hampden before training with the casual elegance that marks his playing style, but this is a young man who has experienced pain, both mental and physical, in his attempt to pursue a career in the game.
This is a character who was told that a back condition meant he could never play professionally, subsequently suffered a dreadful leg and ankle break in the one tackle, has been dogged by doubts and fears, has recovered from being courted but jilted by English Premier League clubs and has endured to find solace in Scotland.
He is also a player who has represented two nations, has been signed by two clubs while recovering from injuries that were career-threatening and who wears the No13 shirt at Thistle with pride, despite admitting to the traditional football trait of superstition.
There is much, then, to discuss as Barton settles in a chair and softly, but articulately, rolls out a story of football life in the 21st century. There is no self-pity and no self-aggrandisement. Barton simply tells of a reality that can be both glorious and brutal.
He is a survivor of what he describes as the ‘culture of panic’ that engulfs the professional game in England.
His career at Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End, Coventry City, and Portsmouth was subject to the whims of fate and the equally capricious decisions of managers and clubs. He has suffered and benefited from both.
‘It is strange, but to every bad thing there has been a flip side,’ he reflects. ‘When I was 15 at Blackburn Rovers, I had a hard time with a back problem. They thought it was just me growing up but, six months down the line, I was still having problems and Blackburn said there was nothing that could be done about it.
‘They told me: “You basically can’t run”. And they let me go. That was it. I was upset. I thought that was the end.’ However, Paul Simpson, then manager of Preston North End and father of a school team-mate of Barton’s, offered hope.
‘He told me he knew I was a good player. I went down there and I had a scan, which I had never had at Blackburn, and it showed a double fracture in my back,’ says Barton.
Rest and rehab meant he could play in 2008, six months after he had been told his career was over.
‘I got a second opportunity and I hit it hard,’ he says. ‘At first, I could not run. I was sore at night. I went through a bad time with it. I was kind of giving up on myself in my mind. But I came through it.’
He then played 50 games for Preston before injury intervened once again in 2012.
‘I had a bad leg and ankle break against Walsall,’ he says. ‘It wasn’t intentional. Just the way it happened. I was told this was a bad, bad break. I was panicking. Did people come back from this? But I was reassured by physios and had a strange summer. I signed for Coventry City. They basically paid money for me with a broken leg.’
He then moved to Portsmouth before signing for Thistle in the summer. He has been an impressive addition, winning Premiership Player of the Month for October and scoring the goal against St Johnstone that takes Thistle to Aberdeen tomorrow afternoon for a Scottish Cup quarter-final.
He has undoubted quality, affirmed by playing international football for not one but two nations.
Barton, who has an Irish grandfather, was contacted by Nigel Worthington, the then Northern Ireland manager, and played in a friendly against Morocco in 2010.
He was subsequently approached by the Republic of Ireland and played five games for their Under-21s as the Northern Ireland game was only a friendly, so had not rendered him ineligible.
‘As a boy born and brought up in Lancashire, I didn’t understand the significance of that switch, but my Northern Irish mates at Preston were quick to tell me that it didn’t go down well,’ he says with a smile.
His relaxed demeanour disguises a seriousness of purpose. ‘My style is laid-back,’ he admits. ‘In the past, I have had problems with that. I have played under managers who would say: “You are not trying hard enough”. But I was running the same distance as the other guys. It’s all measurable now.’
He is enjoying playing in Scotland and under Alan Archibald. ‘There is a madness in England at times,’ he says. ‘But the manager here keeps it relaxed. We know it is serious, we know it is important and we have to work, but there is a calmness about it all.’
He then talks about the mentality that is needed to survive in the game.
‘The first thing people talk about is superstition because we as players look at things that have preceded a good result,’ he says. ‘I chose No13 as my number because odd numbers have coincided with good times for me and 13 was the lowest odd number available. I didn’t think anything of it, though I can be superstitious about things like continually wearing an old pair of trainers because I played well after putting them on that day.’
But he regularly opts for reality rather than superstition or even dreams of glory. Asked about further international ambitions, he replies: ‘I have to be realistic and think about other things. I keep it short-term. I want to play in the top six after the split and I want to beat Aberdeen in the quarters. That’s my ambition.’
Experience has taught him that football offers no certainty and can repay hope with despair.
‘When I was at Preston, I was linked with Liverpool and I met with representatives of Stoke to discuss a deal. Nothing happened,’ he adds.
The injuries, the professional uncertainties, the thwarted moves have not dismayed him but strengthened him.
‘This game is really crazy and you have to grow up quickly,’ he says. ‘You have to learn to be a man. And quickly. I look at people I went to school with and they are not really men yet at 25, 26.
‘But in football you have to be. Things can hit you hard. You think you are going to a Premiership
Blackburn let me go and I thought that was the end
club. And you are not. These are life-changing moments. I have had so many ups and downs that I tend to focus on what I can do today.’
He smiles at the image of the ‘cosseted footballer’, saying: ‘Yes, there are players who earn millions, may have no serious injuries and seem to sail through, but that is not the experience of most.
‘Your mental state can be ridiculously crazy. You can have a good game followed by a bad game, so in a week you have gone from being on a high to a desperate low. No wonder players can be depressed. You are up, you are down, so you have to be mentally strong.
‘You are not here to have a laugh. It’s a job. You are here to win on a Saturday because you affect so many people if you don’t.
‘I look at the kitman and the physio. You are affecting their lives, their families. If you win, you come into the dressing room and see the kitman is overjoyed. But if you come in when you have lost, he is down. That hits me. I may be thinking too much, but it is how I am.’ This characteristic has taken its toll. He says: ‘I have had times when I have thought: “Is this for me?”. Even when I was playing my best stuff, there have been times when I’ve phoned my dad and said: “I didn’t enjoy today, what’s going on?”. That is possibly a build-up of the emotions I have been through.’ He is enjoying life at Thistle, living in Glasgow and looking forward to a summer wedding. But he knows life is subject to dramatic, sometimes unwelcome change for a footballer. ‘What I’ve learned is that you have to go through all of that,’ he says. ‘Otherwise you can’t be a player.’ And a man.
You are not here to have a laugh. You are here to win