League One club, Bristol Rovers, have officially announced that they have taken the decision to sack former Fleetwood Town boss, Joey Barton, as their manager.
The decision comes after The Gas were held to a 1-1 draw by Stevenage at the Memorial Ground on Tuesday evening. That made it just one win in their last five League One matches for the Gloucestershire-based club.
They have managed just four victories in their 13 matches so far this season as they sit in the bottom-half of the table after an impressive summer transfer window had led many to suggest that they would challenge for the top six and the playoff places.
Barton had come under a lot of scrutiny and pressure with the club’s supporters after a belief the club were significantly underperforming for some time.
The 41-year-old Huyton-born controversial figure was sacked by Fleetwood in 2021, too, for similar reasons of underperformance after relatively big spending with The Cod Army.
Barton began his youth playing career with Everton and then played for Liverpool and Manchester City before becoming a professional player for Manchester City in 2002.
During his career, which saw him play for City, Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers, Olympique de Marseille, Burnley and Rangers, as well as a cap for England, was marred by incident upon incident.
The current favourite for the Bristol Rovers job is Dean Holden, who was sacked by Charlton Athletic earlier this season. Both Neil Harris and Ian Holloway have also been mentioned with the former sacked last month by League Two side, Gillingham. Another name reportedly in the frame, Andy Mangan, will take temporary charge of the team with the likes of Glenn Whelan, Danny Ventre and Anssi Jaakkola offering their support.
Bristol Rovers’ upcoming encounter is a game at home to Northampton Town, who they pipped to automatic promotion from League Two in the 2021/22 campaign.
