Alan Shearer remembers being manager of Fleetwood boss Joey Barton: It was all over in an hour!
Alan Shearer remembers vividly his experience as Joey Barton's manager, though it didn't last long.
Shearer took charge of his beloved Magpies for eight games at the end of the 2008-9 season in an unsuccessful bid to keep them in the Premier League.
He discussed his only venture into management with Gary Lineker and Ian Wright on a Match of the Day podcast.
The talk turned to Barton and Anfield, where the midfielder was recalled after injury but it didn’t end well, as Shearer explained. “He got sent off, so I only had him for an hour of the eight games.
“You can laugh about it now –I wasn’t laughing at the time when he got that red card.
“He was injured for the first four games, then he got fit. We decided to play him at Anfield.
“We were getting beat 3-0 and it could have been six or seven because Liverpool hit the woodwork three times.
“We were just about to take him off and he does that tackle on Xabi Alonso in front of the Kop. It was a straight red card and that was it. I never saw him again.”
Shearer had realised boyhood Evertonian Barton would be a target for Liverpool fans but added: “We’d been struggling in midfield and didn’t have legs in there. It was one area we thought he’d improve. We told him: ‘You know you’ll get criticised going back to Anfield?’ He said no problem.
“Anyway, we were just about to take him off as he hadn’t played in a while. He then scythed Alonso down in the corner in front of the Kop, straight red card and that was it. He was suspended for the next three games, so I only had him for an hour.
“As you can imagine I wasn’t best pleased! There was a bit of a row in the dressing room, Gary!”