Joey Barton

“My dad was preparing me for a life in Knowsley and Huyton, one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. A Labour heartland that becomes austerity heartland when the Tories are in power. Your options aren't the same as in Chelsea and Westminster, where my son was born.”

“I have fought addiction to gambling and provided the FA with a medical report about my problem.”

“Perhaps I shouldn't say it, but I'm maybe a little too intelligent to be a footballer.”

“I am not alone in football in having a problem with gambling.”

“When I was younger, it was a lot more about the physical. As you get older, you understand that it's more about the mental side, both for your body and your motivations. It's the famous Smiths lyric, isn't it? 'Does the body rule the mind, or does the mind rule the body?' I feel the mind controls the body a lot more than I used to.”

“A lot of institutions and other sports are quite liberal and forward thinking but, for some strange reason, football has never adequately broached the topic of sexuality. It speaks out about racism and uses the power it has as a sport to do some great charity work, but it's never really managed to address homophobia in football.”

“Nobody wants to play only eight games for a club, you want to have more of an impact than that.”

“I've never done particularly well when the onus has been on me to go on and create and do things.”

“Isn't it easier to toe the line? Subsequently I have learnt that, at times, it is.”

“The tallest trees catch the most wind. That comes with the territory of being me.”

“I just say: 'Make bold statements and work towards them. Say you are going to be the best player in the league and work towards it. Don't come in and play it down. Be bold.'”

“What they say about being in prison is true. That moment when the door closes, time stands still.”

“The media were quite critical of me when I was up there. That's the nature of the industry when you're Joey Barton and you go and play for Rangers who are a massive club in Scotland.”

“There's nothing wrong with betting if it's controlled - it's when it becomes out of control and people bet beyond their means.”

“Rangers is a fantastic football club.”

“At the age of 20 I was earning more money than everyone in my family. And I'd never grown up. I was still a child, it was like a Peter Pan world.”

“If you look at it, slow plodding midfielders tend to become good managers. Look at many great managers and they tend to be of a certain type. Pep Guardiola is the best coach but was a midfielder who had no pace and no skills. Mauricio Pochettino was of the similar profile.”

“My reputation will precede me until the time I die, and for some people that can't come soon enough.”

“How can you get players to exert themselves physically when you're out of shape?”

“As a player I set out to become the best player in the world. Obviously I don't live in a fantasy world, and I know that I never reached that as a player.”