Joey Barton has recently launched his own blog which will no doubt be the platform for great discussion and controversy over the coming months, but it will also give us great insight into his life and the football world – which we love here at ThePlayersNet!
Barton of course had a controversial end to the season after getting himself sent off against Manchester City and he has consequently been banned for nine games and left out of QPR’s trip to the middle east. Consequently, he has been training with Fleetwood Town, and he took to his blog to tell us all why. Check it out.. and check his site out too at www.joeybarton.com
“There’s been a lot of interest regarding me training with Fleetwood, it wasn’t something that I was so bothered to talk about and I’m surprised by the level of interest, naive of me maybe.
The simple fact is that on top of my much deserved punishment by the FA and then of course QPR, I’ve also been omitted from the senior QPR squad that are now out in Asia, which is of course even more gutting than the original punishment. I respect that Mark Hughes makes his own decisions of course, and fair play to him for doing what he believes is right.
QPR want me to train with the young guys and the reserves in the meantime. The possibility of a loan move has been mentioned, where there’s been interest from several European clubs and a lot of Championship clubs too, as you may expect.
So, why would I train with Fleetwood?
I have become a little disenchanted with the game in the last 6 months after what I have put myself through and I desperately want to fall back in love with the game. I feel that training in the lower leagues will give me a reality check and maybe help me become a better person, a little more humility will serve me well. The lower leagues is where the hunger for the game is at its greatest, at least where players are concerned.
I want to re-ignite that passion for the game, something that I ordinarily have an abundance of. No monetary bullshit. No media bollocks (though apparently there still is!). No prima donnas. Just pure, old school, mortgage/livelihoods on the line, balls-out football.
It’ll help me appreciate all that the Premier league offers me now and in the future.
What else can I do? Work hard, fall back in love with the game and keep my fingers crossed that I can once again earn my place in a QPR shirt.”
via Training with Fleetwood | Joey Barton.