John Motson Dies-77.

Every word Joey Barton said on the Passing of John Motson..

Joey, we’ll start with John Motson because there aren’t that many figures in the game, certainly those who are not ex-players who haven’t had the impact he’s had.

"He’s iconic, isn’t he? Watching cup finals as a kid, Match Of The Day and all the great stories, John’s voice is overlaying it and adding to it as well.

It’s not only the players and the skill set out there, you do need that commentator’s voice. It can add a completely different dimension when somebody is as good at what they do.

I’ve met John loads of times and the amount of detail he had, the questions he would ask you preparing for a game that is in two, three, four, five weeks because you’d played with somebody that he is going to commentate on.

He wanted snippets of information and he would take notes and then when you see him do a big game and you listen to him, you realise that hasn’t happened by chance and he’s a true master of his craft.

The games of football you watch now, no matter how good the commentators are, the football world will be a lot worse off for not having John’s great voice and poise running through it."

It wasn’t that long ago that you saw him last because even towards the end he still took a lot of interest in watching as much football as he possibly could.
Whenever you’d do games, you would end up bouncing into him and you would chat.

"I was fortunate enough to meet him multiple times over my career and last time I saw him was at Stadium MK when we played MK Dons away. He came in after the game and we were having a good chat and catching up and it was just really nice to see him. He looked absolutely fine there and at 77 he looked like he had a lot more years left.

I’m really pleased I got to see him before he passed on and you only have to look at the outpouring of sentiment from the football world from everybody whose life John has touched with his brilliance.

Thoughts are with his family and his friends; he was a true master of his craft and he will be sadly missed."

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