Joey Barton would enjoy playing

Friday, 15 April 2011 09:53

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Never thought the day would arrive that we'd see the names James Horan and Joey Barton in the same sentence. On the face of it, neither would have a lot in common. One, not Horan, has previous (literally); he spent some time getting to like the taste of porridge and he has been known to have been involved in the odd unsavoury scrape in a career that has been known to have been described in more than one newspaper article as 'troubled'.

James Horan is, of course, a totally different personality. An absolutely gifted Gaelic footballer, Horan is described by those who know him well as a 'gentleman' and in reality, he's as far removed in terms of character from Barton as it would be possible to get.
Yet, last week, both sportsmen gave remarkably candid and compelling interviews.
Last Sunday evening, on the way home from a scoreless but interesting Super League game between Ballina Town and Westport United, I found myself bracketing the pair together.
As I drove, Horan was providing Midwest Radio with a remarkably candid interview after Mayo's loss to Monaghan. It was the kind of interview that you seldom hear from a manager of any team in any sport and it was possible to hear the frustration in his voice.

'Didn't work hard enough'. 'Didn't have enough ambition or desire'. 'Choose not to win the game when it was there to be won'. 'Didn't tackle enough'.
The word 'didn't' peppered the conservation and, you know, when it was all over, no listener could have been in any doubt but that the right man was selected to succeed John O'Mahony last year.
Horan was brutally honest in his assessment. In this age of management protecting players from criticism, some might say too honest, but the listeners (and I imagine later on in the dressing room, the players too) were left in no doubt.
Horan was the boss and if the players didn't sort themselves out, there would be no shortage of others to take their place.
Every time I hear or read an interview with James Horan, the same words keep popping up. He talks about players working hard all the time. It is the ethos at the core of his modus operandi.

And, of course, he's dead right. Forget the sport, but all great sporting practitioners work hard - all the time and not just when it suits them or when the television cameras are nearby.
That's why they're great. They test themselves every time they play. The best piece of advice any manager can ever give a player is to let him know there is absolutely no earthly reason why he cannot work harder than his opponent.
It's quite straightforward really but it's not grasped well enough. An opponent might have more talent and ability but that should never stop anyone working hard. Everyone that wears a football jersey should be made aware of that simple truth.
Does anyone really believe that someone like Rory McIllroy was born a great golfer? Yes, he had natural ability, but it was the hours after hours of graft on the golf course that allowed him to become a great golfer. Greatness doesn't simply happen; it's earned.

Back then to Joey Barton and his place alongside James Horan. The Newcastle midfielder gave an interview to a French football magazine last week and in it he described Frank Lampard as declining, Steve Gerrard as injury prone and, best of all, Gareth Barry as the teacher's pet.
Don't know much about the latter, apart from being constantly bemused at his regular selection for the English national team (YouTube one of the German goals from last year's World Cup match with England, think it was the third, and you'll understand the bemusement), but it's hard to argue with his views on Lampard and Gerrard.

Talk to any Chelsea fan and they'll tell you Lampard still hasn't found his best form since returning from injury, while no one can deny that Gerrard is often injured and indeed has just been ruled out for the season.
It wasn't Barton's first time offering such honest views. Last year, he gave a withering appraisal of the celebrity culture that has attached itself, and in his view, destroyed the professional game in England.
He also reckons England won't win the World Cup in the next 50 years unless they change the way they play the game.

Barton doesn't seem to care about who he offends, as he probably knows he'll never get selected by England again, but his honesty is admirable and it's a pity his peers in the professional game appear do disinterested in offering any view that would be even mildly challenging to the listener/viewer.
His past misdemeanours may not have endeared him to many but his last serious spat was four years ago and he does appear to have sorted his life out.
He's also a more than decent footballer and he's had a good season for Newcastle.
I doubt very much that he knows James Horan but I imagine that he might enjoy playing for him. Think too that Barton would love the physical challenge of Gaelic football. But don't be waiting for it to happen any day soon.