BARTON MIGHT MOVE ON

QPR are considering letting the midfielder Joey Barton leave the club on a short-term loan deal. The former Newcastle United midfielder has been found guilty of bad behaviour in the final match of the last season.

He has been banned for 12 games by the football Association. If QPR decided to keep the £ 80,000 per week footballer at the club, then they would face the risk of not having the star midfielder for almost half of the Premier league campaign. As a result, they are looking at the possibility of loaning him to a lower division club. This would help them get round the ban imposed by the football Association because there are 46 games in the lower divisions as opposed to the 38 games in the Premier league.

The football Association has also confirmed that the Premier league club will be able to use this to their advantage because the ban can be transferred to another club. The QPR owner Tony Fernandes revealed after learning the lengthy ban that he would consider selling the star asset because he has brought a bad image to the club. However, the former England midfielder has escaped with a ban and a hefty fine from the club. He has also been stripped of the captaincy as well.

“If it was me I would say it was a great idea. It’s not against the rules, some might argue it’s against the spirit of the game, but until that loophole is closed then why would you not exploit it? You can’t play any kind of football during that time. It just goes to show that [QPR] realise Joey Barton is a good player, no matter what you think of him and what he’s done. He has a value,” said the former Manchester defender Danny Mills.