Straight-talking press conferences and memorable quotes are very much part of the Joey Barton experience, and the manager's quotes signpost the incredible journey Bristol Rovers completed this season.
From the depths of the autumn when the Gas were lagging behind their rivals to the pure joy of the final day when Rovers completed their remarkable surge to promotion, it has been an unforgettable season for their manager.
Here is the story of Rovers' season, told through his press conference highlights...
'I know we're going to get promoted'
There really is only one place to start. This press conference ended up becoming the meme of the season.
Fresh off a 4-1 thumping at Exeter City in August that showed the Gas were, at that time, well off the pace of their rivals targeting promotion, Barton was not backing down. When asked whether his confidence had been dented by a chastening start to the season, he uttered the fateful words.
"I know we’re going to get promoted," he said. "No doubt about that."
For much of the season, it was a source of schadenfreude for fans of other clubs with the Gas out of the promotion picture, but Barton and his players would have the last laugh.
'I'm not Jesus of Nazareth'
The manager's resolve would be tested just a couple of weeks later at Barrow, where Rovers threw away a lead against 10 men as a frustrating start to the season continued.
The manager has referenced the subsequent press conference several times, saying he could recognise the scepticism of the reporters posing the questions. Credit where credit is due, Barton has delivered on everything he promised so far.
But at the time, it was tough for him and difficult questions were starting to be asked.
Standing beside the Holker Street pitch, Barton said: "I’ve got my professional life at stake here because if I can’t get Bristol Rovers promoted out of this division, I’m not going to get the top jobs I want, I’m not going to get to work up the food chain for these big clubs, so I’ve got a lot invested.
"I’ve moved away from my family, as have lots of the players and staff here, and we’re going to need time to bed in. I only moved into my flat on Monday, I’ve been living out of the boot of my car for the last six or seven weeks, and we’ve had the same with players.
"The fans, I get they’re frustrated, but I don’t think there is a better-placed man in English football to turn this club around. I don’t. I think I’ve got the capability and over time I’ll show like I did at Fleetwood Town, what a good young coach I am, but I’m not Jesus of Nazareth. I can’t turn water into wine.
"You need money to do it, and you need time. Wael (Al-Qadi) has been superb with it. He’s supporting us with the money aspect of it as much as he can within the constraints of it after a relegation, and all I ask for is time to do my job properly.
"I will change this club into a winning organisation, but people are expecting miracles. If you put Klopp in this job, or Guardiola, and you give them the resources we’ve had, and the exit strategies of 28 players leaving out of 34."
"They wouldn’t take the job, because they’ve obviously earned the right not to do that, but I don’t think they would be able to turn it around quicker than we can."
'I know the clock is ticking'
Successive defeats against Hartlepool and Leyton Orient increased the scrutiny from the terraces, and after a 3-1 home defeat to the latter the manager showed a different side.
The confidence that was exuding weeks earlier was being tested, and he admitted Rovers' poor start to the season was "humbling".
"I can’t shy away from the fact," he said. "I’m not an imbecile and I know that clock is ticking, whether it is 10 games, 15 games, because I know the Gasheads want a football club they can be proud of, but I also know that the owner knows what we’re doing and what we’re attempting to do.
"The football club was in a difficult position when I came here and I thought I could turn water into wine. I thought I could change things quicker.
"That hasn’t transpired and I have been humbled by it, but if I want to be a manager and a coach and I want to have longevity in the game, I’m pretty sure this won’t be the only time football humbles you.
"It does it to you as a player and I can speak, four years into being a coach, that at this moment in time you are humbled as a manager because you’re not winning enough games."
'I will step away'
Seven days after the Orient defeat, the Gas picked up a morale-boosting win at Walsall, which was among several important milestones in the season.
But the following week brought more pain with Swindon leaving the Mem 3-1 winners, outplaying the Gas on home turf. It showed the chasm between Rovers and the top teams at the time.
Barton admitted after the game that he had effectively offered to quit in discussion with Wael Al-Qadi, but the owner was having none of it.
"I just spoke to Wael," Barton said. "I had a chat with him in the office afterwards. He is absolutely 100 per cent behind us.
"For me, I don’t want any money out of the football club. I will happily walk away. It’s not about waiting to be dismissed, it’s about changing the culture and changing the football club.
"It’s tough at this moment, it really is, but I’m the third manager in less than a year so I think they have realised changing manager isn’t necessarily the right thing to do.
"I spoke to Wael and I said ‘If you don’t think I’m the right guy for this, there is absolutely no problem and I will step away'. He doesn’t think that. He thinks we are the right group to turn this club around.
"Very, very difficult at this moment in time. I think the things around me with the supporter base maybe get exacerbated by stuff that’s happened away from the field.
"But I am absolutely sure if this club is going to turn around, on and off the pitch, we are the people to do it and I am the man to lead the group."
'Lifting a bit of the gloom'
There were signs of a team emerging in the autumn, but difficult results continued for the Gas. The FA Cup offered a source of relief from the pressure of the league campaign and the Gas relished the chance to take on League One promotion hopefuls Oxford United in November.
The first leg was an entertaining duel that showed a glimpse of what Rovers could be, but the replay was just downright ridiculous as the Gas came from 3-1 down in extra time to win 4-3, with Aaron Collins and Sion Spence the heroes.
After the game, Barton looked to a brighter horizon for the Gas after a gloomy start to the season.
He said: "The club has been downtrodden and in a tough place, and that is what everybody here dreams of giving the Gasheads on a regular basis. I can’t promise 4-3s all the time, certainly my heart won’t take it and I won’t be alive much longer if we keep doing that.
"But what a night, and I’m so pleased for the Gasheads because it’s been tough and that goes some way to lifting a bit of the gloom."
'The Gas are coming'
With the Gas starting to head in the right direction and Barton's confidence rejuvenated, this became a slogan for the season.
In the end, Barton was right. Inexorable momentum had built behind the team, and the work he did to foster that belief – both in the dressing room and the fanbase – should not be underestimated.
The first time he coined this phrase in a press conference, we believe, came pitchside after a 1-1 draw at Swindon in January. That day, Rovers went toe-to-toe with a team that outplayed them just a couple of months previously.
He said: "Now the clowns have cleared out of the club – that’s what they were – professional men can get professional jobs done and we can start moving the chains to give Wael the football club his investments warrants and these fans for their faithful, fanatical support, a team they can be proud of.
"While today I’m disappointed we haven’t won the game, I’m also really pleased with many aspects of the performance. The Gas are coming."
'You have to build a brotherhood'
Barton cut an emotional figure after the first game following the death of his beloved friend and mentor Steve Black in February.
In paying tribute to a man who has defined his coaching methods, Barton gave an insight into the mindset of the squad, and it certainly was a positive sign as the Gas zeroed in on the promotion picture.
"You have to build a brotherhood and a group that really loves each other. A group that demands the highest standards and it’s not easy to get that, that’s why it’s so special when you get it.
"We were given a great blueprint and foundation to build off because of Steve Black and the work he has done with us as a group last year, in the pre-season and just since I met him in my life.
"So, he allows you to pass on his wisdom to these younger players. As a coaching group and a playing group, we wanted to honour him tonight and give him a good send-off with a great performance.
"I think we did between tonight’s game and Saturday. Saturday’s game was the last game I think he watched, he passed away Saturday night sadly."
'Coming through the field like a juggernaut'
By the time March arrived, the Gas were fully in their stride and eating up the ground they had given to their rivals early in the season. A fan of a horse racing analogy, Barton went big in the press before the trip to Newport County.
The Gas ended up on the wrong side of some fine margins that day, but his words were on point by the end of the season.
"The secret is out with us now," Barton said before the 1-0 defeat at Rodney Parade. "I think everybody knows there is a big blue-and-white-quartered horse coming through the field like a juggernaut. We’ve known it silently and secretly for a period, we felt it coming as a group, but now due to the league table and the result in the week and other teams slipping up in the week, the cat’s out of the bag.
"But we’ve got 13 more fences to go, a really big fence at Newport on Saturday. One we’re confident of clearing, but we know it won’t be straightforward. It’s a Becher’s Brook kind of moment and we’ve got to make sure with every fence we meet that we clear it with aplomb."
'From the ridiculous to the sublime'
The drama of the final day of the season against Scunthorpe has pushed the bonkers 4-3 win at Rochdale the week before into relative obscurity.
But without that crazy day, the heroics of May 7 would not have been possible, and Barton knew it.
"The microcosm of our season as encapsulated in that game," he said." It really was, from the ridiculous to the sublime.
"The key for us was getting the three points, whether that was a scabby 1-0 or the most entertaining 4-3 in recent memory for some of the Gasheads. They lifted me up and I was going ‘There’s one to go, can I get down?’ Someone’s nicked my cap, I think my wallet went and, for my insurance, I had a Rolex on that’s gone as well.
"I’m just made up for them. They came out in their numbers. At Blackpool, we spoke this time last year and I was talking to you about giving them a team to be proud of. I had to call it what it was, I had to call a spade a spade about what was going on at the club.
"Thankfully, Wael and the guys at the club believed in what I was talking about and allowed me the time and the patience when we were struggling to change the course of the club’s trajectory.
"Without the 12th man there, those fans, we’re just another football club. We’ve come to Rochdale, three hours away or whatever and with the cost, and we’ve got more fans in the stadium than the home team. I’ve seen that before at Olympique Marseille and Newcastle, but you don’t see that in the fourth tier of English football, you just don’t.
"I’m pleased for them and it sets us up for an exciting final Saturday at the Mem. Soccer Saturday could be interesting in the last part of that game."
'If we win 10-0...'
Going into the final day, the Gas needed a favour from Barrow against Northampton, or to match the Cobblers' result and overcome a five-goal deficit.
The chances seemed remote at the time, but Barton – while speaking with respect for Scunthorpe throughout his press conference – believed the Gas were capable of something ridiculous.
"If we win 10-0, we’re up, aren’t we?" he said. "It is in our hands in that way, but Scunthorpe, no matter how young a side or poor a season they’ve had, it’s very rare you do someone by 10 but who knows? You’ve seen Fulham beat Luton, who are fourth or fifth in the table, 7-0 the other day.
"Madrid thought they were out of the Champions League they scored two goals in stoppage time. It only takes a second to score a goal, but if we don’t get that first goal… Once we score that first goal, it will be 0-0 again and we’ve got to push on.
"We’ve just got to win the game, first and foremost. That will be 23 wins, 80 points on the board and if Northampton better us, fair play to them, they’ll deserve it. The table doesn’t lie after 46 games.
"We’re going to have to dust ourselves and we’ll go and do the play-offs and hopefully take our season from there, but I’m hoping the season is over on Saturday.
"We can keep control of our destiny, but we’re going to have to be absolutely faultless in our performance to do that."
'I can build a proper army'
The Gas had completed a seemingly impossible mission on the final day, thumping Scunthorpe 7-0 to snatch promotion from Northampton on goals scored.
Barton would have been forgiven for basking in a moment of glory, but part of him was already looking ahead.
"The challenge for me now is to build this," he said.
"I think I can build a proper army here in this city, something that has not been done at least in the north part of the city before.
"I’m quite calm, I’m already thinking about next season and pushing this again."
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