Joey Barton believes Aaron Collins’ head may have been turned by the “noise” around him surrounding international football and potential transfer interest and has stripped his star striker of the Bristol Rovers captaincy following his aberration against Wycombe Wanderers.
Barton was furious with his top-scorer after he ducked out of a header against the Chairboys on Tuesday night and has since handed him an “effort error” penalty, revealing that players are actively moved out of the club if they reach three.
Collins is still some way from that extreme consequence but, in the meantime, has had the captaincy taken away from him and despite “moping” around the building on Thursday as he was shown a brutal post-mortem video of his indiscretions in the eyes of his manager, has apologised and accepted he was in the wrong.
The 25-year-old didn’t train at The Quarters on Thursday, due to a few knocks sustained against Wycombe, and Barton says he’s a doubt for Portsmouth, but not due to his physical state, more if he’ll elect to select him, with Collins having started each of the Gas’ 36 League One fixtures this season.
“I think he’ll be fine (for the weekend),” Barton said. “It’s just whether I pick him, that’s the reality of it. He certainly won’t be captaining the team because he’s lost that privilege and I think it’s a real privilege to lead the club, and he’ll learn the hard way that it’s not just something that lands on your arm in somebody’s absence.
“There is a level of performance and a level of commitment that you owe to the history of this football club when you take on that leadership role on a matchday. For Aaron, hopefully he puts himself in a position that he learns a lesson from it and we never have to tell him again.
“Knowing the type of lad he is, it’ll have hurt him because he is somebody who gives it his all and you can see the amount of times he ends up on his backside, his commitment to the group. But I just feel these last two games he’s let maybe the noise and the outside world affect his performance and I’ve got to make sure very, very quickly that is stopped.”
The concept of “effort errors” have been borrowed from Premiership rugby club Saracens with former captain Kelly Brown having previously addressed the squad due to his connections with non-executive director Chris Gibson.
The theory is such that, as a professional, the absolute minimum requirement as a teammate is to put in your maximum, on the training ground and a matchday, and anyone falling short of that baseline requirement can then cause a disastrous ripple effect through the squad, damaging the collective ethos and culture.
“We’ve shown him the clip this morning that I’m on about,” Barton added. “He’s captain of our football team and he jumps for a header, thinks he’s going to get clattered and ducks and there’s nobody behind him. Unfortunately, it’s not acceptable. Sometimes you have to put your body on the line.
“Everybody else in the team is doing it and there’s no excuse for not doing that. I think it’s an insult to the quartered jersey and the people who pay your wages. In no uncertain terms, via the Bristol Post and the comms after the game, we showed Aaron the video back and he understands.
“Skills errors? It’s our jobs as coaches to help you with, but I class that as an effort error. He hasn’t done anything other than been a really good teammate and a good team person but every now and again you have to explain to the lads that effort errors would not be accepted at this level.
“That’s his first one. For me, you get three of them. Second one, it’s your final warning. Third one, you’re leaving the building and I don’t care who you are. If you don’t commit 100 per cent to the jersey, no man for me is bigger than the badge on the front of the jersey, no matter how big the name on the back is and how much smoke is blown up its backside.
“The badge on the front of the jersey is way more important than the name on the back. All we ask is you give 100 per cent effort. The skills stuff, making mistakes, we’re with you on that. But ducking when there’s an aerial challenge, I think it’s insulting and Aaron’s aware of that and assures me it won’t happen again.
“A mistake of effort, you start to get really concerned about that because when they occasionally arise in your culture you have to be very, very quick to stamp it out because that can be contagious. We can’t just leave our top scorer as immune to it, which I think has happened in the past here.”
Collins missed out on Wales selection just a few hours before the encounter with Wycombe, in a season in which he’s scored 15 league goals and added 11 assists, but has just one strike in his last eight appearances, hitting a lean spell at the wrong time.
Barton has previously admitted that Championship clubs are monitoring Collins’ development after a stunning breakout campaign in League One, and this summer there is likely to be a strong degree of interest in the Newport-born forward who is under contract until 2025.
That extra attention appears, at least in Barton’s eyes, to have been an unwelcome distraction and momentarily interrupted his focus for the Gas.
“Aaron has been a major source of goals and inspiration for us and certainly in the last two games, I don’t know whether he’s had his head turned a little bit, thinking is he going to get called up, or whatever, maybe looking beyond this season now that we’ve gone a little bit higher in the table in recent weeks,” Barton said. “And if you take your eye off the prize for a second against anybody in this division, teams are so closely matched, you’ll get your comeuppance.”
SIGN UP: To receive our free Rovers newsletter, bringing you the latest from the Mem
READ NEXT:
