Angry Barton has heart set on Marseille move

Joey Barton has used his Twitter account to criticise his Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Hughes, saying he wants to leave the Premier League club for Olympique Marseille. Barton, 29, is serving a 12-match ban after being sent off for violent conduct in the final game of last season against Manchester City when he kneed Sergio Aguero and went to headbutt Vincent Kompany. The midfielder, who has 1.68 million followers, expressed his feelings in 15 tweets saying: “My heart is already in the Velodrome”, Marseille’s home ground. [caption id=“attachment_432695” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Barton, 29, is serving a 12-match ban after being sent off for violent conduct in the final game of last season. Reuters[/caption] The one-time England international was stripped of the Rangers captaincy after the incident at the Etihad Stadium on May 13 with Hughes subsequently sending him to train at League Two (fourth division) Fleetwood Town during pre-season and taking his squad number away from him. Barton said he offered to leave Rangers after the sending off and while he respected Hughes for making the decisions involving the midfielder, he did not agree with them. He said: “I enjoyed parts of last season and believe I am more than capable of playing this year. But the manager doesn’t. Such is life. “When you get treated the way I have been: ie, the captaincy, shirt number, banishment from first team squad, etc, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be rushing back,” added Barton. “Other clubs are in for me but I only want to play in Marseille. This is the place for me. Hopefully QPR and Marseille can finalise the deal in the next few days. My heart is already in the Velodrome. “To the QPR fans, for some reason the manager dislikes me. Not gonna cry about it. Maybe it’s just time to move on.” Barton joined QPR from Newcastle a year ago with former manager Neil Warnock making him club captain. Hughes kept him as skipper when he took over after Warnock was sacked in January but stripped him of the captaincy after the City sending off. Barton said: “I could have appealed as is my right. I choose not to out of respect. But when I returned to the club I am forced to train away from the first team. “I never once spoke out of turn or angrily towards anybody. I am a man. I can only take so much. I want to leave. I’ve said enough for today. I’ll get in trouble no doubt.” QPR have been busy in the transfer market in recent weeks, signing eight new players. Rangers have made a slow start to the season, losing 5-0 at home to Swansea City and drawing 1-1 at Norwich City on Saturday. Reuters