Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton admits his life is more of a madcap soapie than EastEnders!
Scouser Barton will never be everyone's cup of tea but he is the toast of Newcastle now.
And as he prepared to take on former club Manchester City on Boxing day he admitted: "If my life story was in EastEnders you wouldn't believe it.
"For some people I'll never be good enough but I'm not going to waste my energy worrying about that.
"I'm me and as long as I've got the respect of team-mates, the staff and my family that's the most important thing. I get the feeling some people think of me differently from two or three years ago. They appreciate the steps I've made in my life.
"I had the dispute with Dabo and I came to Newcastle on the back of that because I wanted to leave City. In the second game I snapped my metatarsal and things spiralled from there and it ended up culminating in getting arrested for fighting in a town centre drunk - and we know all the rest.
"But I always knew I'd be back to form like this. I've been blessed with an extraordinary inner strength. You need that to get yourself in the s**t and to come back to the level I'm at. Maybe a lesser character would wilt but, whatever it is in me, some mechanism thrives on adversity.
"I know the person I am. I've fallen off the track a couple of times to find that person but I'm thankful I got there. I'm not out of the woods yet. Life's a journey and I'm enjoying my journey now.
"I've been in enough bad times to enjoy the good times and hopefully they'll carry on here."
