Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has issued a statement following reports he has been told to stay away from the club until Monday after a training ground bust-up.

It has been claimed that the former QPR man was involved in an altercation with team-mate Andy Halliday on the training ground on Tuesday and as a result was handed a temporary ban, which means he will miss Saturday's Scottish Premiership clash against Ross County at Ibrox.




Now Barton has chosen to make a statement about the incident and admits he did overstep the mark.

He insists that only an exchange of words were involved in the incident in question and the bust-up stemmed from his desire for Rangers, who lost 5-1 to Celtic last weekend, to do well.
 


Barton explained he fully respects manager Mark Warburton's decision to ask him to stay away from the club until Monday, though he does not feel the course of action was necessary. Now he claims he wants to put the matter to bed and focus on helping Rangers to win games.

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His statement read: "Obviously after Old Firm game on Saturday everybody was hurting and in training on Tuesday there was full and frank discussion about the result and reasons for our loss.

"I, like everyone else, care deeply about the task at hand, which is to restore Rangers Football Club to the top of Scottish football.

"The discussion we had involved some sharp disagreement about the game and some harsh words were said. There were only words involved in the disagreement, nothing else. Nevertheless, some of the words used did overstep the mark.

"As someone who communicates directly, I accept that some of the things I said were inappropriate and for that I apologise unreservedly. I cannot, however, apologise for caring deeply about winning and for wanting to perform better myself and for Rangers to do much better.

"The manager felt that my words were inappropriate and asked that I take some time out to reflect on what was said. He judged that it was best if I didn't report for training again until Monday.

"Whilst I don't feel that this was necessary I fully respect the manager's decision. I regret what happened and on Monday I will report for training and I will do what it takes to help the team draw a line under it so that we can get back to the task at hand.

"I want Rangers to win. This is all I care about and my overriding intention is to give my all, every day, in order to help Rangers do that.

"I hope this message clarifies the situation and puts to bed all the other speculation and nonsense. Rangers needs to get back to winning football matches. This is the most important thing for me now."

Barton then posted a tweet which read: "Apologising doesn't always mean that you're wrong and the other person is right. It means you value your relationship more than your ego."