JOEY BARTON is looking forward to the day when fans return to the game.

The charismatic 38-year-old has been busy rebooting his managerial career at Bristol Rovers, following his three-year spell at Fleetwood Town.

The former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder, who also won an England cap, joined the Memorial Stadium outfit last month in a bid to keep Rovers in League One. 

While his new club lost 3-2 to Charlton on Tuesday evening, there have been plenty of encouraging signs that Barton can guide his new team away from the relegation trapdoor and build a bright future for the Bristol club that play in blue and white quarters.

Speaking exclusively to the Morning Star, Barton – who is far more considered and engaging than the bad-boy caricature propagated by some people suggests – believes that the game of football may have been complacent before the coronavirus crisis. 

“I think that, before Covid, there may have been a sense of fans being taken for granted,” he explained, before adding, “but when the pandemic came around, I think the whole of football, certainly in this country, became fully aware of how important fans are to the game and how important full stadiums are to the game. 

“Not just in terms of the atmosphere that a ground full of fans can generate, but also in respect of players’ performances. Players react differently under pressure. Whether that is good, positive pressure, that can tend to make you grow, or even negative pressure that could put you in a shadow — either way, pressure can make you grow as a player. 

“And without that, without fans in the stadium, it can just feel like it’s a training-ground experience. Fans make games. Without the backing of supporters, the game wouldn’t be what is.

“Getting fans back across the board, including here at Bristol Rovers, is vital to the long-term health of the game. The sooner they’re back, the better for everybody.”

While Barton may have a long charge sheet,“every saint has a past and every sinner a future,” to quote Oscar Wilde’s dictum. Not least because the former Marseille player is an intriguing character — after all, there aren’t many footballers who have quoted George Orwell and George Washington, along with Friedrich Nietzsche and Morrissey. 

Thinking-man’s footballer Barton certainly brought the Rovers fan base onside early in his tenure. 

Sharing a pre-Covid video of the club’s rousing anthem Goodnight Irene on social media with his 2.9 million Twitter followers was a good start. The terrace song is a paean to love, agony, pain and regret, as well as a rousing hymn adopted by Rovers loyalists a full decade before Liverpool first sung You’ll Never Walk Alone. 

Barton reflects: “The good thing about coming to a new club is the opportunity to meet a whole host of new people and fans, and unfortunately, through the situation with Covid, I haven’t met as many people as I’d have liked to. 

“I’ve only met a skeleton of the staff so far, through people being furloughed — as well as people who would normally be in and around this football club, who are not here at the minute.”

However, Barton is relishing his new challenge at a club renowned for deep roots in its community. 

During Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end food poverty among children, when a match with Accrington was postponed due to an outbreak of Covid in the Lancashire side, Rovers stepped up — with the club urging fans to donate the £10 they would have spent on watching the game on iFollow to North Bristol Foodbank instead. 

The club’s caring ethos certainly chimes with Barton, who is known for his left-wing leanings and echoes the great socialist football managers such as Brian Clough, Bill Shankly, Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson in underlining how important community and solidarity can be. 

“This is a club rooted in the community and influential in its community — and that side of things, it is vitally important,” insists Barton. “We have to make sure we interact with fans and our community in challenging times and good times and try and give them a small lift. 

“It’s important for us to buy into that, because if we expect people to turn up and scream and shout for their club and the team for 90 minutes on a Saturday, then the flip side of that is that it’s only right that we try and help in any way we can. 

“Meaning we want them to feel how special it is for us to have their support on a match day or at any moment, home and away, and as a club in general. We are always conscious of that.” 

So, it comes as no surprise that the gregarious Barton is already looking forward to when lockdowns are over. 

“I have to say every single person I’ve met here at Bristol Rovers has been incredibly positive. I think fans coming back are important for the whole football industry. I’m certainly looking forward to fans returning here at Rovers.”

Given Barton’s clear connection with this particular Bristol club, Rovers fans will certainly be ticking off the days until that longed-for moment comes.