Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Barton sets his stall out to Rovers chief Wael
JOEY Barton has held talks with Bristol Rovers president Wael Al-Qadi where he presented his blueprint for what the club needs to do this summer in order to achieve an instant return to League One.
Rovers’ relegation to Sky Bet League Two was confirmed with defeat at Portsmouth last Saturday but, in truth, it had been all-but rubber-stamped the previous week with the 2-0 loss to Milton Keynes Dons, which left them needing a football miracle to survive.
The time since has allowed Barton and his staff to plot, plan and draw up their vision for what Rovers need to be, both on the playing side of things and as an organisation, as the former Newcastle and Manchester City midfielder addresses what he calls a “cultural malaise” in Bristol.
Barton’s presentation, with AlQadi in Jordan and attending via Zoom, included some contractual decisions, transfer plans – both in and out of the club – a pre-season schedule and possible additions behind the scenes to affect and change the club overall.
Speaking ahead of yesterday’s meeting, Barton revealed: “We’ve put a plan together, to give him (the president) an idea of where we see it, because there’ll be a lot to change, right through the organisation, and it’s important we’re all on the same page and we all have the same blueprint to move the club forward.
“We’ve obviously had many, many discussions, but this is a case of putting it all together because we know where we’re going to be.
“The internal stuff, the structure from an organisation standpoint – the two need to dovetail. We’ve got to be improved off the pitch as well improvements on the pitch to be a successful organisation.
“There’s a huge appetite to do that.
Relegation is humbling, a lot of people egos get deflated and opinions get stood up.
“You can have an opinion on something but, at the end of a season, the League table doesn’t lie and I think we have to be humble enough to accept that we have to make changes in order to do the club proud and have a successful season next season.”
Barton met with Ipswich manager Paul Cook, who achieved promotion out of League Two with Chesterfield and Pompey, this week, and had his former Burnley teammate Michael Duff, who has just led Cheltenham to League One football for next season, on the phone.
He plans to speak to Plymouth manager Ryan Lowe, who achieved promotion last season, Micky Mellon, formerly of Tranmere, and John Coleman, of Accrington, to grow his knowledge and understanding of what lies in wait from August.
Of the utmost priority, however, is recruitment as when asked what his first job for the summer is, he replied deadpan: “Get better players in. Simple. We’ve got to get rid of the deadwood. The rot has set in and it’s got to be cut out very methodically and as efficiently and effectively as possible.
“We lost 26 games out of 44 and on current trajectory could lose 28. You don’t want to be associated with losers. You want them to be out the building, because it’s contagious – you can catch it off them, because they’re negative ... pessimistic.
“There’s no way you can turn over the whole playing staff, it’s about what’s doable. And some people can catch the winning bug as well.”