The New Year often provides an opportunity to take a good, hard, look at ones self and, as dawn cracks on 2010, English footballer Joey Barton has got his own piece of self reflection in early.

Barton, a high-profile professional athlete with a recent past that diplomats might care to refer to as 'troubled' but others would call 'psychotic', has declared many members of his profession to be 'knobs'.

I have been - cough, splutter - privileged to know several professional footballers over the years.

I have their mobile phone numbers, have eaten lunch with them (usually at their expense but not always), visited their homes, and driven in their cars.

Some of these guys are stars who have won the World Cup while others are scratching to make a living in difficult circumstances just like most of us.

Thankfully, most are and were grounded blokes who realised that once they'd reached the top of their profession they were indeed in a privileged position and gave that opportunity the respect it deserved.

A small minority, though, could be described as Joey Barton so eloquently cares to.

Total knobs.

The difference between my opinion of professional footballers and Barton's view of many of his colleagues is that he's a current member of the often-secret club that professional footballers belong to.

Barton, who plays for Newcastle United in England but who also put in time at Manchester City before being off-loaded, did not hold back during a recent interview with the BBC's Radio 4.

"Most footballers are knobs," he said.

"I meet a lot of them and they are so detached from real life it's untrue."

Barton, 27, was a ratbag before entering rehab, quitting drinking, and finding some perspective on life.

He served time in prison for assault, stubbed out a cigarette on a teammate, and beat up another at training.

Troubled?

Total knob.

"Driving around in flash cars and changing them like you change your socks, wearing stupid diamond watches and spending money like it's going out of fashion in the middle of a recession when some people are struggling to put food on the table for the kids – it's not the way to do it," he said.

Rehab, he said, "Gave me the tools to understand myself, basically. It helped me grow into a man. I was earning £20,000 a week and yet I didn't even know how to behave, I was just a child. You grow up in an environment where, as long as you're a good player, you're told that you're the best all the time."

"I must have been as close as you can get to self-destruct. I had two choices, basically. Either you carry on what you're doing and your career's gone, or you address it."

Star footballers often disdainfully swat away the media - until, that is, they come hunting for a job when their playing careers are finished and no one cares who they are - but Barton claimed being in the spotlight may have saved his life.

"I am very thankful to the media of [the UK]," he said.

"There's stuff I got away with. But I'm very fortunate, because of my profile and the job I do and the fact that I'm in the public eye, it got addressed. And it's only the fact that I'm grounded by the trouble I've been in that's forced me away from being in the football world."

"I don't want to be famous," he said. "It was never for me about the cars, the women, the money – whatever people perceive to come with it. I love football, I want to play football."

"Whether you're the best footballer in the world, or the best golfer or the best cricketer, you're a human being. You might be good at that, but you might be crap at life."

Hopefully, a pleasant tale of redemption to kick start 2010.

Now, as for the other knobs... Happy New Year!

(oh, and psssst: it's not just footballers).


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