It probably will come as no surprise that former England, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United defender Stuart Pearce prepared for games as if it was preparation for battle.
But a young Joey Barton did witness the way his future Manchester City manager worked himself into the zone for on-pitch battles while at the Sky Blues and it had an impact on him as his autobiographer Michael Calvin told Newstalk's Team 33.
Barton's new book No Nonsense gives an insight into the man and player and it's a story Calvin relayed to us this week.
"There's a lovely sequence in the book where he describes himself almost hiding in the corner of the dressing room where as a scholar you have to do your dressing room duties.
"And Stuart Pearce had this terrifying pre-match ordeal. He didn't go out on the pitch to warm-up. He did it in the dressing room by himself, basically in his pants and he ends up working himself into a frenzy and that a huge impact on Joe because he just thought 'Wow! What do you need to do to actually prepare yourself for a game of football? This guy's preparing himself for warfare.'
"[Barton] comes from that transitional era where kids still had to do their chores and because we don't do that anymore, I think the game loses something."
You can listen to the full interview with Michael Calvin on the podcast player below or on iTunes:
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