Joey Barton admits Bristol Rovers were working in the background to replace Bobby Thomas before the hasty termination of his season-long loan, but he believes the situation could have been handled differently.
Rovers learned on Friday the on-loan defender was returning to his parent club and being sent to Barnsley for the rest of the season. That decision was driven by the centre-back, rather than Burnley or the Gas, although manager Barton has prioritised defensive signings in January that would have likely cost Thomas his place in the starting XI.
Thomas impressed at times in his 19 League One appearances for the Gas, scoring three goals, but after a strong start following his deadline day move, more errors started to creep in and he was culpable in both goals shipped against Plymouth Argyle in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday – his final appearance for the club. After that game, Barton sent a firm message to his defence that they must improve, having conceded 43 goals in 26 league games before this weekend.
Thomas' short-notice departure left the Gas short on numbers for Saturday's League One defeat to Accrington Stanley, and speaking after that game, Barton confirmed the 21-year-old pushed to leave the club.
The manager added: "Not only that, I’ll level with you, we’ve had enough of him as well. He is a young player and he came in and did well, but virtually a goal a game and he was causing a lot of issues.
"He was fantastic for us and he gave us everything he’s got. We just feel that in the market there is an opportunity to maybe take a permanent or a loan that can help us.
"Football is a strange-old game and Bobby and his agent will have been aware of us trying to move centre-backs on in the background to replace him, so we can’t sit here and cry that he has done the dirty on us and gone to Barnsley because we were actively looking to recruit and replace him and use a valuable loan spot because we felt we had seen what Bob could do for us and we felt we could find, certainly in the second half of the season, a bit more of a different structure defensively.
"Him and Beefy (James Connolly) wasn’t the partnership we were looking for and outside centre-back where Bobby ended up playing is probably not his best position.
"He goes with our good wishes and hopefully, he plays as well for Barnsley as he did for us."
Thomas was an unused substitute in Barnsley's 2-0 defeat to Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday.
Barton was asked if he felt let down by the timing of the news, just 24 hours after defender Alfie Kilgour sealed a permanent move to Mansfield Town. Rovers were able to field just six substitutes at the Wham Stadium due to those departures as well as injuries, with full-backs Luca Hoole and James Gibbons required in the back three.
But the Rovers boss accepts episodes like this are all part of the game.
"Alf had gone and he went the next day," he said. "One thing this game teaches you is you have to be ready to improvise, adapt and overcome.
"Loads of things happen in football and you don’t take it personally. It is the game sometimes but the key for us is making sure we are stronger on February 1.
"Bob goes with our thanks for the loan. Could they have done it differently? Yeah, absolutely, but it fits with the characters."
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