Joey Barton is set to hold talks with a mystery free agent over the next 24 hours having initially closed the door on the prospect of adding to his Bristol Rovers squad between now and January.
Rovers brought in 10 new players over the summer window but Barton admitted in the wake of the deadline closing on September 1 that he was a few positions short, most notably an additional attacker and a centre-back.
Clubs are still able to sign out-of-contract players who become increasingly more attractive in the market given the needs of teams up and down the pyramid in the wake of early-season injuries. But having now reached mid-September, Barton thought Rovers’ opportunity had passed.
That was before an unsuspecting phone call on Wednesday night which has opened up the possibility of bringing a new player to the club, should the finances fit and his ambitions align with the manager’s.
“I’d closed that down in my own mind. But then at about 7 o’clock last night I got a phone call, ‘do you know such and such?’ and they gave me a bit of information that I didn’t know and it definitely made my ears pick up,” Barton said.
“And I went, ‘okay, that could work for us’. I’m not going to tell you who it is because it might not happen but I’ve got a phone call to make just to sound someone out and say, ‘I’ve heard this, does this sit with your worldview?’
“It’s someone who’s on the free market. What happens is lads out of contract in September, you become more appealing after (the deadline)."
Barton has been privy to the experience of those players in free agency as former Newcastle United teammate Andy Carroll has been seeking his counsel over the last few weeks over his next destination.
The Rovers manager admitted that after a Premier League option - believed to be Wolves, who eventually signed Diego Costa - fell through, and Championship offers appeared to have dried up, he tried to sell the Gas and League One to Carroll. But the 33-year-old unfortunately re-signed for Reading this week on an initial four-month contract.
“I was speaking to Andy and he was saying he might have a Premier League move. It was like the seventh of September, he’s my mate, so I said to him, ‘what are you doing? What are you going to do, sit in the house?’ Barton revealed.
“He said, ‘look, I’ve had a bit of interest from abroad, and I’m not sure if I’m going to do that. I’ve had Premier League interest’. I was like, ‘alright, no problem, hopefully it comes off for you.'
“Then I saw Diego Costa signing (for Wolves), so it must have been that. He never told me that but I’m presuming it’s that. But he told me, ‘if I miss that then there’s a few Championship clubs interested in me’.
“And you never know whether they’re just saying that because their agent’s said that or there actually is. So I’m like, okay, that’s interesting and then as it transpires he’s gone to Reading. But I had gone, ‘if none are them are there and you fancy playing we’ll have you’.
“So you’re waiting for them to fall down. So lads who were hoping for a foreign move or to the Champ, are resigned to the fact they’re not having them. I’d given up on it but there was one name yesterday and I’ve gone, ‘okay, that might work’.”
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