Barton desperate to leave QPR

QPR midfielder Joey Barton admits that it is best for him to leave the club after arriving in Marseille for negotiations over a season-long loan.

The 29-year-old has been banished to the reserves after receiving a 12-match ban for being sent off in the final Premier League match of last season against Manchester City.

And with manager Mark Hughes having made it clear the former England international has no future at Loftus Road, Barton admitted his disappointment at the way he has been treated.

“It’s not great position for me to be in as a professional when you feel unwanted, unloved and you haven’t got a shared number never mind a locker at the training ground,” he told Sky Sports News.

“It’s not an ideal scenario and I don’t want to play it out that way. Hopefully there’s some compromise.

“Things don’t always work out. This is football. This is the unpretty side that not a lot of people get to see.

“Sometimes people level a number of things at footballers, but there’s not many other jobs where the industry is so volatile and you can go from being captain of the club, given thousands of promises when a club want to sign you, to all of a sudden when your face doesn’t fit or when someone decides they don’t want you.

“Sometimes from your own stupidity. All of a sudden you’ve got to relocate your family and you’re deemed not part of what it is.”

Barton tweeted a picture of himself on his way to France on Wednesday morning as he bids to seal a move away from west London.

The deal had appeared to be off on Tuesday when Barton revealed on Twitter he was ‘heartbroken’ and feared he would once again be forced to train with the reserves.

But before departing for talks, the former Manchester City and Newcastle United player seemed optimistic about his chances of moving to Marseille.

“I’m going there with an open mind. I’ll speak to Marseille and see what it’s about,” he said.

“I really want to join there, it’s a club that will suit me, it appeals to me for the sheer size of it.

“It’s not going exactly to plan at QPR, it’s a difference of opinion. Hopefully we can find a compromise – the alternative, I think, is that I go.”

Barton has trained with League Two side Fleetwood Town this summer after being told he has no future at Loftus Road, and the controversial former England international admits it is in his interests to move on.

“I’m not really part of it,” he said of the dispute between himself and QPR.

“I’ve got the best union in the world protecting me and I’m well within my rights to sit for the next three years and pick my money up, but that isn’t me.

“I just have to approach it short term with the view that the best scenario, certainly for me personally, and I think for QPR and probably Mark Hughes, is that I’m out of his hair for a little bit.

“It’s not good, I don’t think any manager wants a player at the training ground that he doesn’t want there.”