Joey Barton sends best wishes to Fleetwood Town's namesake Tommy ahead of the Ryder Cup

Fleetwood Town boss Joey Barton hopes his pal, golfer Tommy Fleetwood, wins the Ryder Cup and brings it to Highbury.
Tommy Fleetwood is part of the European team at the Ryder CupTommy Fleetwood is part of the European team at the Ryder Cup
Tommy Fleetwood is part of the European team at the Ryder Cup

The 27-year-old might be from another Lancashire coastal resort, Southport, but a combination of his surname and Barton’s coaching role meant the Town boss revealed the golfer is a fan of the League One side.

The golfer is part of Thomas Bjorn’s European team that will take on the Americans at Le Golf National in Paris, France from today.

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Barton said: “I know Tom is a big Evertonian as I was as a youngster but he also is a fan of Fleetwood – weirdly, because we have the same name as him so he does interact with Fleetwood.

“I spoke to him when he got in the squad and I sent him a text on Thursday wishing him all the best.

“He is talking about coming to a game; I said ‘make sure you bring the Ryder Cup’ because I think Europe will win the Ryder Cup.”

As Fleetwood embarks on his first Ryder Cup adventure Barton says he is learning every day in his first foray into management.

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Saturday’s clash will be Barton’s 10th league game, and with his team 10th in the table, he said he could not wish for a better place to start his journey.

He said: “I love it. I am learning all the time; I am learning about the levels, learning about the games, the teams we are playing.

“You are learning and something else happens and you think, ‘I did not expect that to happen’ but you are banking every one every time.

“I don’t think as a 35, 36-year-old manager taking a job I could not have wished to have a better place to be in terms of learning and experience.

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“The flipside of that is I have to taper my own expectations because I expect to be perfect or as close to perfect as I can all the time.

“I was talking to my university lecturer the other night.

“You walk into your first lecture as a student and you don’t know what the three-year course is going to hold for you.

“You would hope to be progressively learning and getting smarter with more complex parts of it.

“We are exactly the same in a teamwork part of it. They have had real chunks of accelerated learning.

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“I think we have got a really good culture in the building and that will take us where we need to go.

“As long as we foster and harness that and don’t lose track then we are going to be fine and we are going to get where we need to be.”