Livingston boss reflects on Pro Licence course with 'misunderstood' ex-Rangers midfielder Joey Barton as Lions return for pre-season

Livingston boss Davie Martindale says he’s raring to go for the new season after earning his UEFA Pro Licence alongside former Rangers player Joey Barton and European Cup winner Ronny Johnsen in Belfast.

The 49-year-old was over in Northern Ireland to complete his coaching badges ahead of the new season and rubbed shoulders with some familiar faces, as he aims to hone his skills to help the Lions seal an immediate return to the Premiership.

And he hopes he has struck up some new contacts that can help him bring fresh faces to Almondvale after making some new friendships.

Among his colleagues on the course were former Manchester United defender Johnsen, who played in the famous Miracle of Camp Nou in Barcelona when Sir Alex Ferguson’s side stunned Bayern Munich in 1999, and outspoken ex-Rangers man Barton – someone Martindale reckons is ‘misunderstood’ but should ‘stay off social media.’

The Lions gaffer said: “When the season finished I was in Belfast for a week doing my pro licence. Now that is out the road, I am focusing on next season now and I’m looking forward to it, there’s no reflecting on what happened last season. There is nothing I can do about what happened last season, it is all about what we do this season. That’s taken me about seven years to get there and I have every licence you can do now.

“Joey Barton, Gary Dicker, Alex Bruce and Ronny Johnsen were all there, there were loads of familiar faces among the 20 of us on the course.

“I like Joey, I get on really well with him. He is a wee bit misunderstood and, obviously, he needs to stay off Twitter [now X] but it was good. He is a really good guy, to be fair.

“Ronny was great as well. Speaking to a Class of 99 guy who won the European Cup with Fergie was interesting.

“It was a really good group of boys.

“It is good to bounce ideas off of these guys and learn from one another.

“It is good for contacts as well, educating yourself and making yourself better. It has opened up my network of contacts, which I hope will be beneficial to the football club in the long run.

“My previous coaching courses have helped us before. We had Odin Bailey on loan from Birmingham before and that came through my relationship with Craig Gardiner [a coach with the Blues], so we’ll see what happens.”

The Lions are making an early start to pre-season training with the club returning to training yesterday ahead of their first friendly against Alloa on June 22.

Martindale added: “The boys are back in, we’ll get a good session into the legs over the weekend, then we’ll be back into our normal working week. It won’t be long until we start playing again.”

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