‘I used a poor analogy – it won’t happen again’
to write to me and remind me of that. You hope to use better analogies in future, but it was with no malice or offence intended to anybody.”
The Rovers boss sparked criticism after the 3-1 defeat to Newport by using the term to lament his players’ inconsistency.
“I said to the lads during the week, the team’s almost like musical chairs,” he told reporters on Saturday. “Someone gets in and does well but then gets suspended or injured.
Someone gets in for a game, does well, but then has a holocaust, a nightmare, an absolute disaster.”
‘Holocaust’ generally means destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, but it is commonly associated with the genocide of millions of Jews and other minorities by the Nazi regime in 1940s Germany.
Barton insists he meant the term only in a general context, though he admits he still should not have used the word in the realms of football.
The club’s decision to decline requests from media for a response has also been criticised. When asked if he understood why people were upset by his comment, Barton replied: “Yeah. Yeah,” before taking a question on the matter not being addressed by the club for days.
He said: “I just think it’s a case of my next natural chance to speak to the press. I’m forced to speak to you every week after the games, lots of the times when I don’t really want to do it, but it’s part of the job.
“It’s our duty to be word perfect and not create controversy. I do get the world we live in and the people we work with and some of our acquaintances have to produce content and produce the opportunity to get people’s attention by clicks.
“I get that everything we say, even this I’m saying now will no doubt be pieced together in such a way that it will be there to grab and capture the attention of people that use social media, internet, blah, blah, blah.
“I felt that was the way to deal with it rather than the club releasing a statement. For me, it was a poor analogy to use in the modern-day world, and it won’t happen again.”