Fresh from his outing at Leaders in Sport this week, Joey Barton has been busy putting together more ideas which allow him to bring his point across and engaging with fans.  Not just fans of Joey himself but football fans in general.

His aim is to showcase what it is like to be a professional footballer through a series of videos and blogs, dispelling some of the myths that exist around the sport and the media portrayal of them.  As part of this he has invited fans to submit their questions to him which he will answer in the features being produced.

On his website he puts more meat on the bone as to what it is and why he wants to do it;

Our professional lives are  documented more and more thanks to the likes of in-house media channels such as QPR TV and OM TV – who’ve really set the bar in terms of daily content about your club. Whilst these are great for gaining insights around the club, interviews and information leading up to games, there’s little content surrounding the individual players and I intend to gives you access to this.

I’m currently pulling together ideas on how to best document this, but before all that, I have a proposal for you. I want this content to be about your learning and understanding of us as professionals, so my first video will be a Q & A session in which I answer your questions. I’ll setup an interview and collect a series of your questions to help build a better understanding of being a footballer.

It’s another example of the love/hate figure that Joey Barton has always been.  On the field he puts his everything into the game, which leads to him going OTT on more than one occasion.  His outspoken views and rants on Twitter have often helped those in the hate camp but sometimes what he does offers a fresh viewpoint and interesting perspective that others in his position are afraid to do.

During his panel session alongside Fulham defender Jon Arne Riise, he went on the attack against the FA, the media and also Alex Ferguson, saying;

“I am not here to disrespect Fergie, he is a great manager, the icon, the pinnacle of British management.  But he couldn’t put on a coaching session to save his life.  I’ve spoken to people about him and he can barely lay out cones.  This is not a coach, this is a manager.  There is a big, big difference between a coach and a manager.”

It may not be the best way to get fans on your side, laying into one of the most decorated managers of all time and then describing the current England team as “s*** at the minute” before elaborating with, “How bad it is? People go on about the golden generation but they haven’t won anything so they are not the golden generation. We have good players who were given to good, mostly foreign, coaches who have become better. Lampard with Mourinho, Gerrard with Houllier and Benitez, then we give them to mediocre coaches at England.”

This is a man who knows how to get headlines, though the media jumped on it as a chance to showcase how mad he is!

The new series on being a footballer I’m sure will be no holds barred.  Love him or hate him, it will certainly offer something we haven’t seen before from a man who doesn’t hold back on what he thinks.  You can get involved by submitting your questions on his website here.  Entry for questions finishes on Monday (14th Oct) so get yours in now.