Joey Barton hopes Scott Sinclair will stay at Bristol Rovers long beyond the expiry of his contract in January, with the manager saying he would like to strike a deal before the transfer window opens.
Bath-born Sinclair rejoined his boyhood club in October on a short-term deal and scored in his first start, netting the winner in a 1-0 victory over Rochdale in the FA Cup earlier this month. With each passing game, the former Manchester City and Celtic winger – who played for Rovers twice in 2004/05 before earning a move to Chelsea – has gained sharpness and he has added quality and experience to Rovers' frontline.
Barton has made clear his position on Sinclair when the 33-year-old returned to the club; the manager wants him to stay in BS7 for the long haul.
"We want to keep Scott, we want him to stay part of it. He’s been fantastic," Barton said.
"No doubt, in the next couple of weeks that will progress but as it is, he’s just getting up to speed and he’s in a good situation in terms of he’s in the shop window because he’s playing but also he’s having a settling in period to see if he does really want to be part of it.
"I’d keep him beyond certainly the end of this season and beyond that, I’d happy to have him as part of our group for the next period and hopefully he feels the same when we get the chance to sit down and have a chat with him and we get it sorted before the barmy January window opens."
With Sinclair up to speed, Aaron Collins and Josh Coburn in fine form, John Marquis and Ryan Loft back from injury and Harvey Saunders also vying for places, Barton is not short of options in attack, and you will not hear him complaining.
"There are going to be loads of games," Barton said. "The boys have got cup competitions coming up and there are going to be opportunities for people to state their case.
Like anything, you want a settled side as a manager and the earlier you find that, the better. For us, it’s about letting the lads go out and compete and trying to keep our standards high, regardless of what XI we put on the pitch and then knowing the five substitutes allow you to finish the game quite strongly.
It’s no coincidence that our best results have come when we’ve had the strongest bench. The stronger the options that you can turn to has been a good indicator of results profile, so we want to difficult decisions to name a squad and name a bench because that usually means the team is in a good spot.
To have Coburn, Loft, Marquis and Collins as four options… I remember last year there were times we didn’t have a recognised striker and it’s been a position we’ve historically struggled at, so I’m not going to moan for having four or five of them with Harvey Saunders in that mix as live options and hopefully we’ve got that for a long part of the season.
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