UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – David Batty has kept out of touch with former teammates since retiring, embracing a low-profile life away from the public spotlight.
The former Newcastle United player has been retired for more than 20 years. Since then, football has not been a part of his life. He only wanted to spend time with his family and had no plans to become a trainer or judge.
As we get ready to see the Babblers play Leeds tonight, Batty’s narrative has surfaced, and Warren Barton has offered a humorous account of his conduct at the Newcastle training complex.
The problem is that Batty never left his Yorkshire home while playing for Newcastle and Blackburn. Rather, he commuted to work each day.
As a result, he was somewhat in a hurry to leave the training facility after every session, which Barton remembered as an odd but admirable quality.
Barton said:
“He would already be in his car with his hand out the window, making a gesture to us. When Saturday came, he was ready to go, but he loved being back home.
He just wanted to come in, do his training and get back to his kids. We respected him for that.”
When Batty retired, Barton and his peers knew he would always be prepared to “sail into the sunset.” He also kept his word.
Batty was a member of Blackburn’s 1994–95 Premier League championship team. But in 1996, he left Rovers to join Newcastle, same as Alan Shearer. Batty really made the change four months before to the legendary Magpies player.
During his two and a half years on Tyneside, he would go on to make 114 appearances for Newcastle, tallying four assists and five goals.
In 1998, he returned to his childhood club, Leeds, as most would have predicted. Six years later, he would retire.
Why did Batty cut ties with former teammates after retirement?
David Batty designedly cut ties with former teammates after retiring from football in 2004 to prioritize a private family life in Yorkshire, shuffling the assiduity’s limelight, media scores, and social events entirely.
He pledged from the onset to have
” nothing to do with the football assiduity,”
a pledge his agent verified he has kept without exception, fastening rather on particular conditioning down from public scrutiny and the constant exhibiting of lives seen in ultramodernex-players.
Ex-colleagues like Mark Atkins and Warren Barton respect this choice, noting Batty’s lifelong preference for home over extended platoon commitments indeed exchanging daily from Yorkshire during his Newcastle days and his rare public appearances, similar as only for Gary Speed’s 2011 keepsake, support his reclusive station.