• Premier League

Arsenal chairman disputes Barton claim

ESPN staff
September 22, 2011
Joey Barton was involved in a spat with Gervinho on the opening weekend of the season © Getty Images
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Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has laughed off Joey Barton's claim that the club pushed to secure his signature.

Barton joined QPR in August after Newcastle made him available on a free transfer following a series of tweets criticising the club's leadership.

He claimed on Wednesday that he held talks with Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, only for any move to fall through when Barton was involved in a spat with Gervinho against Arsenal on the opening weekend of the season.

Barton told BBC Sport: ''If I hadn't played against Arsenal on the first day, I may have signed for them. There were a couple of conversations [with Wenger] but that's different to actually signing.

''The Gervinho incident happened and there's nothing I can do about it now. If it happened again, I'd like to think I'd deal with it differently. Things happen for a reason and there's a lesson to be learned from it. Right now, we sit above Arsenal in the table - hopefully that's the case in May.''

However, Hill-Wood has cast doubt on how genuine Wenger's interest was. "It's not something the board heard about and if it was a serious proposition I certainly would have expected us to," he told the Daily Star.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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