"Most footballers are knobs"

Views: 685 | | Flag | Print |
So who do you think said that? Those of you that listen to Radio 4 (in the UK) might know already. The rest of you might be surprised to hear that it was Joey Barton, Newcastle United's "bad boy".

Barton was interviewed this morning because Tony Adams, former Arsenal and England Captain and founder of the Sporting Chance clinic, was the guest editor. Barton attended the Sporting Chance clinic to learn anger management.Joey Barton

He came across, as he has before, as quite forthright yet humble (and I think I said that before he got into trouble last time). It has now been two years since he has had a drink, having realised after attending his anger management course and still finding trouble, that alcohol was actually the common denominator.

He was asked why footballers seem to get into so much trouble, which was when he pronounced that basically "most footballers are knobs", which he explained as buying the flashest cars and changing them "like their socks", wearing ridiculous diamond watches, and so on. But he also raised the important issue, that footballers are not raised in the real world. Professional football in the UK is different to the big American sports, for example, that takes its pros from the college system which means that, at least to some extent, they have to give some attention to their education and mix with other students. As Barton explained it, in the UK, kids are taken into football clubs and treated as special from 8 or 9 years of age, and become extremely well paid, high performing athletes who are "crap at life". They never grow up.

I'm not close enough to professional football to know if the academy system is changing this, or whether professional football clubs are doing more to teach their young players social and personal skills, or to take responsibility for their behaviour, but if not they must.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Rob Robson on Twitter
Tags: alcohol, anger management, behaviour, joey barton, life skills, personal skills, professional football, soccer, social skills, sporting chance, tony adams, trouble
Posted December 30, 2009 at 1:55 AM by robrobson in Football Psychology, Sport Psychology | Permalink | Comments(0)



Comments

There are currently no comments for this post.

Post A Comment

Join now or login to comment

If you are a sports professional and would like to promote yourself or build a network we recommend going straight to professional registration. However, if you are in a hurry you can come back to this later.

Raise your game. Sign up now!
Read more first


Sport Psychology, Organisations and Leadership

Share this blog post:

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

September 2010
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930 

Search Rob's Blog



iStadia


Directory of Sports Professionals

  Sports Business Directory (Corporate Members)
  Browse all members

Sports Articles

  Browse Articles by Category

  Top Article Tags

Sports Blogs

  Top Blog Tags

Sports Jobs

  Sports Jobs UK

  Sports Jobs USA

  Sports Jobs Australia

Members' News

Sports Events Calendar

Sports Forums

Sports Clubs

Information & Support

  About iStadia

  FAQs

  Help

  Contact

  Terms & Conditions

  Privacy Policy

Detailed Sitemap

iStadia Marketplace

  Sports Books

  Sports DVDs

  Sports Journals

  Sports Conferences

  Training Courses

  Software

  Equipment

Copyright © 2010 iStadia Ltd. All rights reserved.
Clicky Web Analytics