Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton felt "incredibly honoured and privileged" to be invited by Olympique Marseille fans to join them in the away end at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this week.
Barton spent a season playing in the south of France, creating a "special bond" with the fanbase, and he took up the invite to be their guest for the 2-0 Champions League defeat on Wednesday. The 40-year-old would be treated to the full fan experience, taking part in the pre-match march to the stadium and
The Rovers boss played 33 times on loan at Stade Vélodrome in 2012/13, helping OM achieve a second-placed finish. He believes he did not perform to his full potential with the club, but it was a memorable time and he holds the club close to his heart.
"I’ve been fortunate enough to play for some incredible clubs with incredible support," Barton said. "When they ask you and invite you and your children back to be part of a special occasion for them – the first time they’ve had a Champions League fixture where they can attend in I think seven years – and they are prepared to pay for a ticket to bring you there and want you to be part of the experience, I feel incredibly honoured and privileged.
"I don’t think I played my best football in Marseille. I think I played OK but I certainly played better football elsewhere, but I have made a special bond with the supporters.
"Grey hair and a fat belly now, and the fact they still remember me… I think I scored one goal and was just OK."
It has been quite the few weeks for Barton's 10-year-old son, Cassius. First, he joined his father for a full experience of matchday against Shrewsbury Town, spending time in and around the dressing room and sitting beside the home bench.
He also joined his dad for the evening out in North London, waving a giant flag in the away end, and Barton believes it is important to give the boy a deep understanding of the game from different perspectives.
The Rovers boss also admitted there is a hint of jealousy on matchdays, particularly when something special happens, picturing what it would be like to be among the Gasheads in the away end.
"The one thing that happens to you as a player is when you come and you look under the wizard’s curtain, it changes your relationship with the game and you realise it is a business," Barton said. "I’m keen to show my son a different side of the game. Obviously, the business side because that’s what we do, but also that there is a pure fan element of it.
"I went and I thought it must be great. Come in, sing your heart out, support your team, win or lose you’re on the booze, go back with your mates and you don’t have to worry about managing people or the psychology or dealing with the press and all the stuff that goes with it.
"There was a part of me that was like ‘It would be nice to come back to this’, but you don’t get to watch the game. You’re just caught up in the atmosphere, taunting the opposition fans or singing songs for your team and players.
"I’m lucky enough to have that relationship with the fanbase and I do even at the Mem when I come out and see the Thatchers End or I come out and see our away support. There is still a part of me that goes ‘My god, I’d love to be in there with them today’.
"It must be incredible. Certainly Rochdale and Port Vale away last year, I’d rather be watching it from the away end than in that six-by-six technical area where all you do is end up arguing with the fourth official and the opposition bench."
Barton has always been a football obsessive, be it as an Evertonian in his youth or following his dad Joseph, a semi-pro player, in action for now-defunct Merseyside non-league outfit Knowsley United.
His time in the stands on Wednesday brought back a lot of memories.
"I’m a football fan," he said. "I started as a football fan and that’s still where I see football from. It’s why sometimes I say what I say and I behave the way I behave because I’ve never lost that pureness of I was a paying supporter on the terraces and standing outside training grounds waiting for autographs and climbing on walls and peering over fences to watch sessions. I was dead lucky to become a player but I’ve never forgotten that.
"We’ve got to all remember that we’re all football fans at heart. We all watched Match Of The Day and we all went in the street and practised being the players we idolised, bought the football kits, wanted to wear the boots like them, wanted to do the celebrations that they did.
"That, for me, is when football is at its best, when people remember that love. It can get out of balance sometimes because it is ultimately a business and we’ve just had a prime example of that with Chelsea spending £200-odd-million and then getting rid of a manager that has won a European Cup.
"There are very few industries where you win the highest club accolade, usually if you work for a company and pull off the highest accolade, that protects you for two, three, four, five, 10 years. You usually get stronger but in football you get weaker and people expect you to do it again.
"It is a volatile industry, but you’ve got to remember the fan bit, no one can ever take away from you. They can sack you as a coach, sack you as a player, if you’re not good enough they can not pick you in the team, get rid of you, but they can never take away for you that you’re a football fan and that you love the game."
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