{"id":584039,"date":"2021-02-22T06:17:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T11:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=584039"},"modified":"2021-02-22T06:17:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T11:17:02","slug":"bristol-rovers-confirm-joey-barton-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/22\/bristol-rovers-confirm-joey-barton-appointment\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol Rovers Confirm Joey Barton Appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/31\/fleetwood-town-appoint-simon-grayson\/\" target=\"_self\">Fleetwood Town<\/a> manager <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/93bfa675\/Joey-Barton\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Barton<\/a> has officially been announced as the new manager of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/21\/bristol-rovers-sign-defender-george-williams-on-a-permanent-deal\/\" target=\"_self\">Bristol Rovers<\/a>. The former player turned manager arrives with some task on his hands. As it stands, Rovers are just two points clear of the relegation zone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Those at the top will hope the appointment of Barton brings much-needed stability as they head into what is a make or break period for their survival hopes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Barton, having left Fleetwood Town after a bust-up with the club&#8217;s chairman, will be hoping to reignite his managerial career at Bristol Rovers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Barton Announced as New Bristol Rovers Manager<\/span><\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83e\udd1d We are delighted to announce the appointment of Joey Barton as our new first-team Manager! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BristolRovers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BristolRovers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jrYzDLX5ci\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/jrYzDLX5ci<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bristol Rovers (@Official_BRFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Official_BRFC\/status\/1363809475300372480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 22, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Survival the Priority<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As previously alluded to, survival will be the first priority for new manager Joey Barton. The former Fleetwood manager comes with his controversy, yes, but he more than proved his capabilities at his former club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">When he left Fleetwood, they were sitting comfortably in 10th. And it is the comforts of mid-table that Rovers will be aiming for in the long-term. For now, however, their focus must be on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/15\/birmingham-city-at-threat-of-league-one-drop\/\" target=\"_self\">League One<\/a> survival.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Barton will be glad to have a second chance in management so soon after a departure to forget at Fleetwood. He will know the difficulty of the challenge that lies ahead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Defensive Improvement Needed<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Having conceded 11 goals in their last five games prior to Barton&#8217;s appointment, defensive stability is something the new manager must work on. Should they solve their defensive woes, survival will almost be guaranteed; it can also lay the foundations for future stability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">If the recent 3-1 victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/01\/charlton-athletic-sign-midfielder-matt-smith-on-loan-from-arsenal\/\" target=\"_self\">Portsmouth<\/a> is anything to go by, Barton certainly has a capable squad at his disposal. Now, with that squad, he must find stability and the consistency needed for a permanent place in League One.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The job will be a welcomed challenge for Barton.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"UvnRBpslS75Jv0KwBl8NcQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1288913464\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'UvnRBpslS75Jv0KwBl8NcQ',sig:'j9wT47W9MaVGtRQ43hI3BSVKZ6AmxfbnKIMPj8eCTmI=',w:'594px',h:'352px',items:'1288913464',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton has officially been announced as the new manager of Bristol Rovers. The former player turned manager arrives with some task on his hands. As it stands, Rovers are just two points clear of the relegation zone.\u00a0 Those at the top will hope the appointment of Barton brings much-needed stability [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3402,"featured_media":584042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,30],"tags":[504,244,430,188,136],"class_list":["post-584039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","category-news","tag-bristol-rovers","tag-fleetwood-town","tag-joey-barton","tag-league-one","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Tom Cunningham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}