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CELTIC chief executive Peter Lawwell has rubbished Joey Barton's claims he tried to hijack his move to Rangers in the summer.

Lawwell turned Barton's astonishing claim on its head this morning saying that it was an agent acting for Barton who tried to sell the player to the Scottish champions.

Barton says in his forthcoming book that he "took a call from an agent who had been contacted by Peter Lawwell".

(Image: SNS)

He added: "The message he conveyed was straight and to the point. 'Is there anything we can do together? Can we have a conversation?'".

But Lawwell hit back this morning. In a statement the Celtic chief said: "I think Joey's been had by a bit of a matchmaker here.

"I remember it well, we had just announced Brendan as our new manager and I was with our company secretary in London at the time.

"An agent called me saying that Joey was going to sign for Rangers but he would really prefer to come to Celtic and were we interested in signing him, but it wasn't something we wanted to pursue.

"These things happen to players sometimes in football, but needless to say we wish Joey well at his new club."

Barton was suspended by Rangers for three weeks yesterday as the row over a training ground bust-up in the wake of the Celtic defeat rumbles on.

But if his new revelatory claims are to be believed he could have been lining up FOR Celtic rather than against them in the 5-1 drubbing a fortnight ago.

In the book he says of the agent's phone call: "The message he conveyed was straight and to the point. 'Is there anything we can do together? Can we have a conversation?'"

He continues: "I sent word back, thanking him for his interest but confirming my intentions."

Barton was initially banned from Ibrox and Rangers training centre at Auchenhowie for a week after last Tuesday's fall out. But he fanned the flames by going on TalkSPORT radio and saying he had nothing to apologise for.

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After meeting with boss Mark Warburton and his staff at Ibrox yesterday Barton was suspended for a further three weeks.

The 34-year-old former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder hit back at critics this morning and took a pop at the standard of Scottish football in an interview with the Guardian.

But former team mates and ex-Gers stars reckons Barton's time is up at Ibrox after just two months.

The most scathing criticism came from his former City team-mate Danny Mills who described his abuse of managers as "vile".

And former Gers captain Barry Ferguson says he "doesn't see a way back" for Barton at Rangers.