In a recent interview with GQ magazine, Joey Barton was asked if any players he has remind him of himself. “I do, yeah”, was the response of the Bristol Rovers manager, without obviously divulging the names of the individuals.
It’s difficult to know whether the question was formed around character or playing profile but, among this Gas squad, the most obvious mirror to what Barton was on the field during his Premier League career with Manchester City, Newcastle United and QPR is Sam Finley.
Tenacious, aggressive, wily but with technical smarts that often go unnoticed, a lot of the work Finley gets through over 90 minutes, echoes the approach Barton brought to the game a decade or so ago.
