JOEY BARTON is back in training with Burnley following his contract termination at Rangers.
Barton played an influential role in earning the Clarets promotion to the Premier League last season before crossing the border for an ill-fated spell at Ibrox.
Manager Sean Dyche offered the midfielder the chance to maintain his fitness at Burnley’s Barnfield training centre and confirmed the 34-year-old has accepted the offer.
“Joey has been in with us training, with us, to get himself fit, not with the first team,” he told the Burnley Express.
“Beyond that, anything else is for the future, he’s just getting himself fit.”
Barton would not be eligible to sign for a new club until the January window, meaning there is no rush for either party to commit to a reunion.
Whether he feels up to the pace of the Premier League, having turned down the chance to stay with Burnley in the summer, is an open question and he is sure to have suitors in the Championship.
After enjoying one of the more serene campaigns of his colourful career at Turf Moor, Barton endured a brief but turbulent time in Glasgow.
He arrived with the stated ambition of being the best player in Scotland, but managed just eight appearances, mostly underwhelming, and was suspended after a training ground row that followed a 5-1 defeat by Old Firm rivals Celtic.
Barton was later handed a one-match suspension for breaching Scottish Football Association rules on gambling, having placed 44 bets on games between July 1, when his Ibrox deal started, and September 15.
That suspension will carry over whenever he signs for a new club.
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