Adrian Durham took a dig at Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton by claiming recent events could leave Everton U-23 coach David Unsworth sitting smugly.
The talkSPORT broadcaster pointed out that while Barton was being stopped by police leaving Barnsley’s stadium after an alleged incident between him and Daniel Stendel (Source: Sky News), Unsworth was guiding Everton’s young lads to the Premier League 2 title.
Durham pointed out that Barton had previously dubbed the Toffees coach a “glorified P.E teacher”, while on talkSPORT, but claimed after recent events Unsworth could now sit smugly for a while.
“Not bad for I quote a glorified P.E teacher, remember all that, Unsworth getting criticised by Barton? Yeah Barton had a right go at him,” said Durham on talkSPORT (18:38, Tuesday April 16th).
“Remember? Well David Unsworth has just coached Everton’s young lads to the Premier League 2 title so congratulations, he can sit smugly for a while.”
OPINION
The most shocking thing about Durham’s dig at Barton and indirect defence of Unsworth is that co-host Darren Gough didn’t remember the Fleetwood manager ever ranting about the Toffees coach. Barton’s remarks dominated the news at that time, as he was ruthless in tearing Unsworth apart when the 45-year-old was in charge of the senior side. While Unsworth is probably too classy to take pleasure in any of Barton’s recent troubles, it’s clear that the former Newcastle United midfielder was out of order to ever slam the Toffees coach the way he did. While Unsworth’s temporary reign in charge of the senior side wasn’t a glorified success, he never deserved to be torn apart the way Barton did and it just shows you how remarks can come back to haunt someone. It’s unlikely that the Fleetwood Town boss would be so quick to publicly condemn a manager now after spending time in the hotseat himself.