Joey Barton hits out at Mark Hughes on Twitter

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 on the social media site, expressed his feelings in 15 tweets saying: “My heart is already in the Velodrome”.

The one-time England international was stripped of the QPR captaincy after the incident at the Etihad Stadium on 13 May with Hughes subsequently sending him to train at League Two Fleetwood Town during pre-season.

Barton said he offered to leave QPR after the sending-off and while he respected Hughes for making the decisions involving the midfielder, he did not agree with them.

“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,” he said. “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.”