Joey Barton has grown his backroom team over the summer with the additions of Danny Ventre, Glenn Whelan and Greg Short, and there was fourth new - but also familiar - face stationed by the dugout for Saturday’s draw against Shrewsbury Town.
Barton has his son Cassius with him for the game, with Gasheads remembering him from the celebrations on May 7 when he punched the air in unison with his dad in front of the Thatchers End following the 7-0 win over Scunthorpe.
The 10-year-old is down in Bristol from the family home on Merseyside for the last week of his school holidays following the fourth arrival to the Barton household, his brother Etienne, who was born last week.
Whereas most kids during the summer holidays are knocking about at camps or staying with their grandparents, as parents juggle personal and professional commitments, Cassius was treated to a front row seat at the Mem to soak up the full atmosphere of a matchday.
Initially positioned on the bench with the rest of the staff, due to him - obviously - not being a registered member of the coaching team, he moved to just to the side of the dugout where he remained for the 90 minutes.
“I did sit him on the bench and the fourth official said, ‘you can’t sit there’, so he went just behind the advertising hoarding,” Barton said. “He loves football and obviously I’m on Daddy Day Care duty because my missus has got a four-day old, a four-year old and a seven-year old who are relatively high maintenance.
“So he’s come down this week because it’s his last week before he goes back to school. He wanted to sample the atmosphere.
“When you’re the manager, luckily you can do stuff like that, if you’re the assistant manager or coach you can’t. so they’re the perks of being the manager’s son. He obviously has to listen if I get a bit of stick and abuse which thankfully I didn’t. So now it’s safe to bring him to the Mem, this time last year it wasn’t.”
While Cassius’ presence was for logistical reasons, it’s also for practical purposes given he’s shown a passion and curiosity about the industry, perhaps even beyond playing.
It continues a tradition for Barton was used to spend his Saturday afternoons at non-league Knowsley United watching his dad Joseph play in the North West Counties league during the 1980s and early 1990s.
“He’s well-versed in it,” Barton added. “He’s always in and around the players. There were photos of last season of him on my shoulders. If you go back to Burnley when we won the league he’s on the pitch with me. He’s been in a football dressing room.
“I was fortunate, my dad played for Knowsley United and part of my daycare was, Saturday afternoons, I was in the dressing room, warming the keepers up, or whatever, and taking everything in.
“He’s a mad keen football fan and loves football and just sitting there, quite quiet, and just observing. Whether he wants to have a career in the game, whether he wants to be an analyst, or a physio, whatever he wants to be, I don’t know but, for me, do I let him play Fortnite on a Saturday afternoon or sit him on the bench or near us?”
Rovers unfortunately weren’t able to follow Barton’s personal celebrations with three points over Shrewsbury but the manager was still beaming with pride when asked about his fourth child in the post-match press conference.
Cassius is named in tribute to boxing icon Muhammad Ali, his daughter Pieta was named after his grandfather and Sporting Chance founder Peter Kay, who was a mentor to Barton during and after his time in the clinic.
On Saturday, Barton revealed the backstory to the naming of Etienne, with another guiding light in his life celebrated. Former rugby coach and sports psychologist Steve Black passed away earlier this year having worked directly with Barton at QPR, and then remained a close friend, confidant and huge influence.
As Barton explains, the roots of Etienne’s name go back to his time in Marseille as he and Black would always try and meet up whenever he was in Toulon with Jonny Wilkinson.
“It came about quite strangely,” Barton said. “We were stumped for baby names. I’ve been correct four times out of four, we’ve never found out - my missus has only got a 50 per cent ratio. All along I thought it was a boy, we had a scan and there were lots of hair so she said, 'it's definitely a girl'.
"We had three or four girl names, but weren’t really keen on them and we had one or two boy names. Then my missus said, ‘what about Etienne, I like Etienne for a boy?’ Obviously, I played in France at St Etienne and I remember the band St Etienne when I was young.
“And then, weirdly, Blackie used to always leave me voicemails, especially in a mad, barmy French accent and he’d leave the voicemail under the pseudonym of Etienne Le Noir, which is roughly Steven Black in French. We used to laugh about it but my missus had no clue about it, so the minute she said it to me, I was like, ‘if it’s a boy then 100 per cent’, because it’s too much of a coincidence to say that.
“Blackie is a huge influence on my life and wherever he is up there he’ll be chuckling down. He’s a great man and hopefully my son turns out to be as good a man as what Blackie was.”
Saturday's game was also tinged with regret as it unfortunately coincided with the wedding of Black's daughter Emma - which had been cancelled during Covid only for Black to pass away before it could be rearranged. Barton, of course, couldn't attend but transfer consultant Eddy Jennings was a guest, albeit with little time to get over any hangover on Sunday.
"Eddy's trying to find me players but he's gone. I'll let him get a few beers in him and have a dance and then I'll be onto him at 8am because we need to get players in!" Barton added.
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