“Genghis Khan has got a very bad reputation, not unlike myself. But he was quite innovative in lots of things he did.”
FFT is sat in Joey Barton’s office, just off the M4-M5 junction – when we set off for Bristol on this sunny day, we couldn’t have predicted that the interview would begin like this. Over the years we’ve chatted to numerous Football League managers, but none have talked at length about a fearsome Mongolian ruler barely a couple of minutes into our conversation.
Barton has always been different, though. On his desk at Bristol Rovers’ Quarters training ground sits Jack Weatherford’s best-selling book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. It would have been incurious of us not to ask why, and we sense he’s not disappointed when we do.
“It’s the second time I’m reading it,” he explains. “It’s fascinating – I’m obsessed with world history. He was the first person to unite the Steppe tribes, plus there were his tactics around siege warfare. They also figured out how far a horse could run. Say they could run at top speed for 28 miles, they’d put a staging post with men and lots of horses at 26 miles. So I get a message, jump on a horse and ride as fast as I can for 26 miles, pick up another horse and keep doing that so the message gets relayed across the empire. They were in Vienna – if it wasn’t Genghis, it was his sons. They say about 70 per cent of the world’s population can relate their DNA back to the Mongols.”
Barton has always been a juxtaposition, a mesh of contrasting personalities, and it’s perfectly illustrated on one side of his office. On the wall is a UFC photograph, a nod to the more combative elements of his character, which have spilled out at various moments during his long career in football, often to his detriment. Below it, a cabinet full of copious books, tapping into his more cerebral side. He’s already used many of these tomes for inspiration amid a managerial career that’s now five years
