JOEY BARTON MADE light of his return from a 13 month betting ban to land his first job in management with third tier side Fleetwood Town by suggesting he contact bookmakers to see what the odds would have been for that to happen.
The often controversial 35-year-old former midfielder — capped once by England — signed a three-year contract to succeed John Sheridan, who led the club away from relegation after joining on a short-term deal in February.
“I suppose we can contact some bookmakers to give us a price for what it was for me coming out of a betting ban and into a managerial position,” Barton said.
“It’s one of the weird idiosyncrasies that tends to go on the roller-coaster journey that’s certainly my life and professional life. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I’m thankful for the opportunity.
“It’s a fantastic football club, obviously on an upward trajectory and a great place for me to start a coaching journey.”
Even prior to his betting ban, former Manchester City, Newcastle United, QPR, Marseille, Rangers and Burnley midfielder Barton’s chequered career had been beset by controversies, including training ground punch-ups and on-field fights.
In December 2004, he stubbed a lit cigar in the eye of young team-mate Jamie Tandy during Manchester City’s Christmas party. He was fined by the club, while Tandy sued Barton and won £65,000 (€75,000) in damages.
Away from football, Barton was jailed for six months in May 2008 after admitting common assault and affray during an incident in Liverpool the previous December.
And in 2012, while playing for QPR, Barton was sent off for elbowing Carlos Tevez on the final day of the season at Manchester City. He also kneed Sergio Aguero and tried to headbutt Vincent Kompany before leaving the field in an incident that saw him banned for 12 matches.
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To be fair Pauric Duffy makes plenty of valid points about the GPA’S ideas not being good enough….more one sided games we don’t need and MOST importantly clubs would suffer even more
Agree with joe brolly that Jim mcguinness’s plan was the best option, his plan linked the league, provincial and all Ireland championships into a truly exciting season at all levels. but out of all the exciting ideas put forward, I can’t believe they have brought the Tommy murphy mark 2 to congress, basically they’ve gone with the lamest idea on the table. No Duffy has the cheek to say if this rubbish doesn’t get passed we should just accept the status quo. Typical of the top brass in the GAA at the moment, lacking any real vision.
How about trying the old way for a few years again, you get beat, your out. That would put the bite back in it.
Straight knockout is ridiculous given the training schedules these days, it’s more games needed, not less.
I don’t necessarily think more games is the answer. The same number of games but more competitive is the way to go. More games would be a nightmare on club players
dont agree, it’s not the number of matches holding up club games, it’s the 5 week gaps between games and county managers not releasing players in those gaps that is killing the club game, almost every county player interviewed wants more game and less endless training. fans want to goto more games. But do agree that as a dublin fan, of both codes, i want to see dublin playing the top counties, not a winning a turket shoot.
Lots of strong points there from Padraic. 116 games in the year would be scandalous.
The GAA prides itself on its democracy but they’re brazenly denying and chance of democratic debate on this issue, which those playing the game at the highest level favour.
The GAA appear happy to put their head in the sand until the GPA grows a pair or the fixtures fiasco blows up in everybody’s face.
Every system has its flaws unfortunately. A two tier system is probably the best option but would never be accepted by most counties. The club system runs a tiered championship so why shouldn’t inter county?? You can put forward the argument that any county can put a competitive team of 15 players out but it really doesn’t seem to be the case. Tough decisions needed because the current champion consists of three competitive games, semis and final while most of the rest are usually non fixtures