Paul Bosvelt shares a striking anecdote about Joey Barton on Friday in an extensive interview with the Algemeen Dagblad. The current technical manager of Go Ahead Eagles played for Manchester City between 2003 and 2005 and then had to deal with the Englishman's antics up close.

“He once came to the club with an air rifle,” Bosvelt recalled years later. “Not a toy thing, but a real one, one of those very big ones. He pointed it at the heads of the French players in the dressing room. Suddenly you saw an infrared point of light above the eyes. And we laughed.”

Bosvelt will never forget the derbies with rival and neighbor Manchester United. “I will never forget that I played against Cristiano Ronaldo. Not only because he was still very young, we also butted heads very hard. But you could never have imagined that he would have such a wonderful career.”

Tackle

Bosvelt already had to deal with Manchester as a player for Feyenoord in 1997, but with United. In the group stage of the Champions League, Denis Irwin was seriously injured by a tackle by the midfielder. “I was shocked myself when I later saw it on TV. It was just a blind action. A blur before my eyes.”

Upon arriving in Manchester six years later, Bosvelt was reminded of the attack on Irwin. It happened when he got into a taxi and told the driver he had signed for Manchester City. “That guy suddenly starts tearing like an idiot. He took every bend so insanely sharply that I was constantly thrown from one side of the taxi to the other.”

“I gave him a tip, but he just gave it back. So he was a Manchester United fan,” said Bosvelt, who played at a time when Manchester City was not yet dominant in the Premier League.

“We didn't have a bad team, you know,” Bosvelt refers to players such as Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Nicolas Anelka. “All good players. But no champions, that's right. That wasn't surprising. They had just been promoted.”

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