Barton gives Clarke another chance at Rovers

FULL-BACK Trevor Clarke has been reintegrated into Bristol Rovers’ squad and has the chance to earn Joey Barton’s trust, the manager has said, writes Sam Frost.

Clarke was a surprise inclusion for Tuesday’s EFL Trophy group stage tie at Plymouth Argyle, four weeks on from Barton excluding him from the squad and indicating he had no future with the Pirates.

The left-back, pictured, only signed a new contract in June, but he was told to find a new club, with Rovers allowing him to leave for free, after the opening day defeat to Forest Green Rovers.

In the aftermath of that game, Barton said he had made a “mistake” in offering the Irishman a new twoyear deal, but with Clarke unable to find a new club, bridges have been built and he has returned to training. Barton suggested the case will be the same for Zain Westbrooke.

The manager said it would be “childish” not to try to make the most of the left-back while he remains a Rovers player, especially given his lack of options on that side.

“(Clarke is) still here and he’s back training with the group,” Barton said. “I was quite vocal in terms of where we were at and what we were doing, but I’m not someone who carries grudges through life. He had the chance to explore the marketplace and he hasn’t come back with anything and, obviously, we were prepared to supplement that.

“He’s here, he’s a lad who’s part of our team. It’s a horrible thing to watch people in the stands who are being paid to play football and not playing football. For me, the only reason Trev would not be in our group would be we had a falling out, and that’s just childish for me.

“At the end of the day, you haven’t managed to get yourself a new club and you had the opportunity to do that. You’re now here until at least January and we might as well get the maximum out of you.

“He wants to play, he’s a player who wants to play and we need him to play when he’s here because we want good players in our team.

“We’re all grown-ups here, life moves on, but nobody is in the bad books or anything, it’s not like that, but at the end of the day we had a disagreement, I was vocal about why I had that with them, but again he’s working from a place of the truth now. That’s why I always believe you should be open and honest because you can work with it.”

In explaining his decision to take Clarke out of contention in early August, Barton said he lacked “trust” in the player to execute his plans on the pitch.

Barton will be hopeful of taking three points when second-frombottom Morecambe come to the Memorial Stadium today.