Friday, March 29, 2024

Hughes laughs off Barton exit talk

Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Hughes has dismissed reports linking club captain Joey Barton with a move away from Loftus Road.

Barton was absent due to suspension as Hughes suffered a 1-0 defeat in his first match in charge of the club against Newcastle United at the Sports Direct Arena.

After the match, Hughes emphasised his desire to keep the 29-year-old at the club and insisted he would strengthen the QPR squad during the January transfer window.

“I saw the reports and I thought it was one of those mischief-making, Sunday morning prior to an early kick-off lead stories but from my point of view there is no suggestion that we are thinking in those terms,” the Welshman said.

“He is captain of the club and we have reiterated that. Joey is a quality player and we are looking to bring in quality players not get that type of player out of the building.”

“It is fair to say we are in the market for good players if they become available and if they are attainable. We would like to think that the players we bring in will be the right quality. I am sure they will be.”

Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye suffered an ankle injury during the first half after being caught by a late tackle from Shaun Derry, but Hughes refused to comment on whether the 34-year-old deserved more than the yellow card he received.

“I have not had an opportunity to see it,” he said. “At the time I thought it was wholehearted challenge.”

“There is quite a debate at the moment over the interpretation of challenges such as that but whether or not the referee got it wrong I am not in a position to comment.”

The former Manchester City boss was pleased with his side’s performance, however, and felt they deserved a share of the points.

“Very clearly I saw things on the field that we had worked on that the players were trying to implement, so I was pleased with their application, giving me everything that they had,” he told Sky Sports.

“Obviously we’ve been done with a little bit of individual skill in our own box and that’s taken the game away from us, but in terms of our players, I felt we created a number of reasonable chances and on another day those would go in for us.”

“It would have been ideal if we could have gone something out of the game, because the performance overall we deserved something.”

Meanwhile, Hughes said suggestions that Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez could move to QPR in the January transfer window were false.

There had been rumours that the Argentine could shift to Loftus Road to link up again with the new QPR boss, who signed him for City and has the same representative as the player.

However, Hughes said that although he would like to manage the forward again in the future, he will not be making a move for him this month.

“Not in this window, absolutely not,” he said.

“Ideally, I would love the chance to work with Carlos again, but it is not going to happen anytime soon.”

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