By Tyne-Talk
August 9 2009
Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton has denied rumours of a training ground bust up on the eve of their first game of the season. The news prior to yesterday's late kick off was that Barton had had a disagreement with fellow team-mates Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez which resulted in him leaving the training session.
His spokesperson Paul Tyrrell has released a statement today rejecting those rumours.
He said;
"There was no disagreement between Joey Barton and any other player prior to the West Brom game.
He totally accepted Chris Hughton's decision to put him on the bench for tactical reasons yesterday and gave a typically committed performance when he came on as a substitute.
Joey is firmly focused on getting Newcastle back to where it belongs - the Premier League."
Hughton refused to discuss the incident, instead commenting only on the decision to start Barton on the bench.
He said;
"Joey was part of the squad that travelled with us. There are decisions that have to be made, my decision was to go with two big lads up front for tactical reasons."He took it (the news) the same as everybody, everybody wants to play. He was disappointed but that's the decision I made."


