Winning on a Saturday means everything to Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton. Well, almost everything.
So when he says "I want to be the least successful manager I know," allow us to explain. The Gas boss is a man motivated by legacy, not only the imprint he himself will leave in BS7 when his tenure comes to an end, but he wants to inspire a coaching dynasty.
Barton, a man influenced hugely by American sports culture, wants what they call a coaching tree – a network of people who started under his tutelage before going on to forge their own careers in the dugout. That is why in every team meeting at The Quarters, his players are instructed to bring a notepad and pen; he wished he did the same as a player, knowing now just how valuable those titbits of knowledge could eventually be.
Steve Black, Barton's beloved mentor who was a highly-regarded coach in both football and rugby and sadly died earlier this year, also played a big part in shaping Barton's desire to give a platform to those around him.
Barton sees management potential in many of his players, with Glenn Whelan – who he has tipped to manage his country one day – the first to make the transition and the Irishman is part of both the playing and the coaching staff, alongside Danny Ventre and Andy Mangan, who is working towards his UEFA Pro Licence with the Welsh football association.
There would be little surprise if Paul Coutts and others follow suit and join the staff when the time is right, and another player Barton believes is on that pathway is Sam Finley, who has captained the team superbly while Coutts has been injured.
"Absolutely, Sam could do it," Barton said. "People like him and he differs from me in that regard, but he’s a good people person. He’s got great people skills. You’ve seen with Whelo now, who is on the bench sometimes or in the squad sometimes, but that’s the job for me. The job is bringing these leadership qualities out of men.
"If that transmits into life after football, I’m hoping they pick one or two things up. I’m banging it into them every day and by repetition, I think some of them go home and when they sleep on a Saturday or Sunday night, they will have certain things I said to them throughout the week running through their mind.
"If they just remember 15-20 per cent of those things… I ask them every single day that our lads come into every meeting with a notebook and I tell them to write down, mainly because I never did that as a player and we never did that as a coaching group.
"We’re going ‘Write that down because you might not be thinking about coaching, but in 15 years’ time if you’ve got a bit of a scrapbook with a load of sessions, ideologies and coaching points in, that will be a good reference point for you to start your coaching journey’.
"We’re trying to get all of our lads to be better than we’ve ever been. We want all our lads, and some of my coaching staff are clearly going to go and manage. We want to create a football dynasty.
"Steve Black was brilliant for me and created that yearning for knowledge and constantly wanting to evolve and learn. It’s natural that we pass that back on to the young men who spend a lot of time with us."
Barton made an immediate transition from player to manager, taking charge at Fleetwood Town in 2018 after his playing career was curtailed by a five-month ban from the FA for betting breaches. Therefore, he is not part of another coaching tree, although he was heavily influenced by former Burnley manager Sean Dyche after their time together at Turf Moor.
For the Gas manager, he says it will be not enough when his career ends to only have had personal success. He says he wants to plant a thriving and blossoming coaching tree.
"That was one of the big things," Barton continued. "I’m hugely influenced by American sports and the NFL is one of them.
"One of the things I’ve picked up is no coaching dynasty has grown. Look at Alex Ferguson and all the success they had, but the lads who came after him weren’t better than him.
"I see my job as being I want to be the least successful manager that I know, I want to be the skintest person I know because that means I’m in the right company and doing the right things.
"There’s nothing worse, and I’ve been it, where you’re the apex of the room. What do any of us learn from that? You want to be the thickest person in the room because that means you’re in the right rooms.
"With our lads, we’re constantly trying to stimulate out of them this thirst for knowledge. Always keep learning and stay a student, no matter how old you get.
"We’re lucky in terms of we’ve got a lot of people who care and also a lot of people with a lot of potential in the future. There are 91 other clubs in England, but if you think from a coaching perspective, if you want to coach football you can travel the globe.
"There is the women’s game opening up, the collegiate system and internationally – you can go anywhere you want and coach football. Most mums want their kids out of the house after school, so even if you don‘t make it in a professional space, if you’ve been a top player and you want to do a coaching school and turn that into a revenue stream.
"Football is an incredibly powerful game and I think you should encourage people to want to pass on that message of working hard, being a good teammate, being a good trainer and doing everything you can to impact your group in a positive manner."
Barton's press conferences are often fuelled by his confidence and fearlessness to speak his mind without fear of looking foolish if things do not go to plan, but there is also a philosophical side to him and he opened up on the human impact of being the man in the dugout.
He said: "The apex (of coaching) is being a manager and I stood around on Saturday when we were 1-0 up and I was like ‘All these people…’
"I don’t feel pressure, I’ve got a weird constitution, but I’m like ‘These people are all turning up to watch our team’. There are really proud moments in that; they’re singing and they really believe in the group we’re building.
"Some boisterous fans were like ‘We’re so happy we’ve got our Rovers back’ and for me, that is priceless. Our players are creating lifelong memories here and we just feel we’re at the start of our journey.
"We got back to level par last summer and we genuinely feel that if they love us now, imagine what they’re going to be like if we achieve what we think we can achieve here.
"The key is staying humble, staying hungry and keep trying to improve every week."
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