Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton sounded off on a whole host topics: Sir Alex Ferguson, the FA Commission, the English National Team and the current ways that English football talent is developed.
Speaking at the Leaders in Sport summit at Stamford Bridge, Joey Barton said:
‘The English national team are shit. What’s the point of this commission? It’s quite a smart move if you’re Greg Dyke because you’ve got eight other people in front of you when we fail at the next World Cup and it’s a smart move from the Premier League to isolate themselves from it. (quotes via the Daily Mail)
‘I just don’t get it. (Greg Dyke should) at least have the balls to say: “This is what I want to do and how I’m going to do it.”‘
The FA is archaic. It is completely and utterly out of its depth. It doesn’t even run the major league in our country. The PL is in a massive battle, really, because they don’t really care about English football. They care about the PL and the PL as a product.
‘The FA’s responsibility is to care about English football and English football’s development but they have no power bar banning players and stuff.’
‘I don’t think we have great (English) players. They’ve won titles but it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily great players. They play with great foreign players.”
Pretty good stuff there, Joey Barton has never been one to shy away from speaking his mind, but this time he made sure to include a “balls” and “shit” in there. I really wish American football players spoke like this. They never show as much candor as this specific English footballer.
Joey Barton also claims Sir Alex Ferguson ‘couldn’t put on a coaching session to save his life’.
Yet he claims he was not trying to disrespect the former Manchester United manager and instead point out why the English national team is shit.
Joey Barton said: ‘We rate managers but we don’t rate coaches in this country. I don’t mean to disrespect Sir Alex Ferguson – he was a great manager but he couldn’t put on a coaching session to save his life.
‘He couldn’t even put out the cones. There is a big difference between a coach and a manager.’
But Joey Barton still wasn’t done. This is just a sampling, he had even more choice soundbites. Read them all at The Daily Mail.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan and 1620 The Zone, he also writes for Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks), Facebook, and RSS