Joey Barton believes Aaron Collins’ head may have been turned by the “noise” around him surrounding international football and potential transfer interest and has stripped his star striker of the Bristol Rovers captaincy following his aberration against Wycombe Wanderers.
Barton was furious with his top-scorer after he ducked out of a header against the Chairboys on Tuesday night and has since handed him an “effort error” penalty, revealing that players are actively moved out of the club if they reach three.
Collins is still some way from that extreme consequence but, in the meantime, has had the captaincy taken away from him and despite “moping” around the building on Thursday as he was shown a brutal post-mortem video of his indiscretions in the eyes of his manager, has apologised and accepted he was in the wrong.
