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Neil Warnock has revealed that he was more than happy to take on the 'baggage' that Joey Barton brings to QPR. Barton joined QPR from Newcastle on a free transfer.
"Let's be honest - if he didn't have this baggage he wouldn't have been signing for QPR," Warnock told ESPNsoccernet. "No one wanted him, but I did, and not for the first time. I wanted him when they were bombing him out of Manchester City and I was manager of Sheffield United.
"I had forgotten I tried to sign Joey, but he remembered that I wanted him when nobody else did once before, and I think that helped him make up his mind to give us a go.
"We had been linked with Scott Parker and I know how much the chairman wanted him, as a big-name signing, but my choice - my No. 1 signing - was always Joey Barton. Joey is the classic leader I was looking for. You can see the way he works in training how much he wants to be a winner.
"He's got everything, and you know that he has got perhaps too much! The rest of the Premier League are going to spend the next nine months trying to wind him up. How do you stop that passion? How do you stop him wanting to be a winner? That is impossible. It is up to him to curb his temperament at the moment that it matters. If he can do that, there is no limit to how far he can go in the game.
"It's pointless me saying anything that he doesn't know already, so I am not giving him any orders - these things happen in the heat of the moment and I cannot be in there with him when that flashpoint occurs. However, his team-mates will be close to him, and his team-mates can contribute to trying to keep him out of trouble."
Written by Conroy Sanders
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