When Joey Barton signed for Ligue 1 club Marseille most were surprised to see him take on the challenge as few English players venture out into Europe, particular ones known for their fondness for the typical 'British style of play' - which is a kind way of saying kicking the ball and people as hard as you can- as the former Man City man was.
He only spent one season in France but he managed to develop a special relationship with the Marseille fans who loved his fully committed style, however, the thing best remembered from his season abroad will always be an unfortunate press conference that went viral.
Barton was filmed speaking in a faux-French accent to his translator, who then spoke actual French to a room full of football journalists, and Barton received all sorts of stick back home after Steve McClaren's Dutch twang a few years earlier had established that this was a crime you must not commit.
Speaking on Talksport on Monday, Barton revealed that he did it without realising, until it hit him after there was no undoing what had been done.
"I've just done a McClaren!"@Joey7Barton tells @SportsBreakfast the story behind THAT hilarious French accent... pic.twitter.com/A5S0gp20qR
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) September 4, 2017
I started going slowly and nobody's laughing, everybody's nodding, my translator is buzzing off the pace I'm setting, he ain't going "slow down", so I'm like 'I'm nailing this. I'm nailing it.'
I've got no clue I'm speaking like an absolute imbecile at this stage.
I start catching myself, you know, doing hand signals, and being very Gallic with my hands, and I've looked up to see my brother and my mate, and they're gone. They had tears [rolling down their face].
But everybody else in the room was straight-faced looking back at me. So, bear in mind I must be 15 minutes in here, I've answered a load of questions, it's being recorded, and I've had that...
"Oh no. I've just done a Steve McClaren." I had the slow realisation of that, and I said before going out my biggest fear was doing a McClaren interview.
Nightmare.
He let his guard down for 15 minutes and lived to pay for it. Fair play to him for seeing the funny side of it now, although he's had to take some amount of stick since it happened.
If you missed it originally, it's even funnier knowing the story behind it:
