Joey Barton made a claim on Friday that Everton have yet to hold up their end of a ‘compensation’ agreement, one that Everton have refuted.
The Toffees poached Fleetwood Town, where Barton is first-team manager, for scouting manager Steve Davis in July, and Barton claims that Everton agreed to send them a player in return.
The former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder was hoping to land Callum Connolly this week, but the versatile midfielder instead signing for Lincoln City, just one day after the Blues knocked them out of the Carabao Cup.
In usual Barton fashion, the one-time England international wasn’t set on keeping quiet about the situation, going on to voice his frustrations that a deal hasn’t be upheld on Everton’s end.
Speaking prior to Fleetwood’s game against Lincoln at Sincil Bank this weekend, as reported by Liverpool Echo, Barton had this to say about the situation:
My understanding was that they took our chief scout Steve Davis and we would get a loan deal off them as compensation for that
We are yet to get a loan player off them, so we need to firm that up.
We thought the boy [Connolly] wanted to come here and would be a good addition for us. It was the right project for all of us and yet he was steered in a different direction.
Everton meanwhile have refuted Barton’s claim, and the Liverpool Echo report that the club were surprised and confused by Barton’s comments.
A few Everton fans took to Twitter to poke fun and criticise the boyhood Evertonian following his comments.
Twitter: @LivEchoEFC Anything that annoys Joey is https://t.co/NI8UcVBtZV (@Maiden__Blue)
Twitter: @LivEchoEFC No club / parent would want their player / son to play for Joey Barton. The end. (@Gre9oryPeck)
Twitter: @philkecho @Joey7Barton lying yet again (@bigglezuk)
Read Everton Verdict
This is interesting because for all of Joey Barton’s faults, making up a situation that doesn’t exist isn’t really in his wheelhouse. I would assume that some wires have been crossed somewhere, and the situation will likely be smoothed over when Fleetwood attempt to contact Everton.
That being said, we have talent that they could take for sure. Cuco Martina needs a club, right?
