Part-time philosopher Joey Barton has evidently just finished reading the collected works of Yer Da.
In summarising Everton's limp defeat to Leicester City - after which Neville Southall saw fit to deem the next two months as among the most important in Everton's history - Barton rounded on Everton's caretaker manager, David Unsworth.
Speaking on TalkSPORT, Barton said that Unsworth would not succeed as Everton manager owing to his weight, as he resembled a steward.
I saw him getting onto the coach as Everton manager the other day, he doesn't look right. He's waddling onto the coach. I was reading a British Army service manual the other day and one of the things it says is 'you've got to be fit to lead your troops into battle'. Now I'm not saying you can't manage Everton if you're overweight but it certainly doesn't look right.
He's standing in his suit on the touchline, he doesn't look like a manager for me. He's a glorified PE teacher who shouldn't be in charge of a men's team. Look at him on the touchline... he's more like a steward.
For the line "Now I'm not saying you can't manage Everton if you're overweight but it certainly doesn't look right" see "Now I am saying that you can't manage Everton is you're overweight".
When asked to comment after the game, Unsworth admirably refused to do so, saying that "it's not a problem what Joey Barton says, I couldn't care less".
This is, of course, utter garbage from Barton. Unsworth may not succeed at Everton owing to his relative inexperience coupled with their dreadful transfer window, which replaced a world-class striker with a number of one-paced midfielders and forwards. Unsworth, meanwhile, has performed extremely well in his role as manager of the Everton Under-23s. They are currently second in the Premier League 2 Division One table, two points off Liverpool and ahead of the likes of Arsenal, Spurs, Man City, Chelsea and Man United.
Above all that, however, since Unsworth arrived at the club, a raft of young players have been blooded in the first-team: Johnjoe Kenny, Tom Davies, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Matthew Pennington, and Mason Holgate among them.
Then again, perhaps it is understandable that Barton would be influenced by the military having watched proceedings at the King Power yesterday, given the absurd, gaudy spectacle that Remembrance Day has become at football grounds in England. It has even started to mimic the genius cartoon drawing of David Squires.
Worth a try... pic.twitter.com/JZPA6AvRwD
— David Squires (@squires_david) October 29, 2017
