Barton demands whopping £3m pay-off from QPR to terminate £70,000-a-week contract



Joey Barton is demanding a staggering £3m to leave QPR after he finally arrived for pre-season training on Wednesday.

Barton has told Rangers he will walk away from his £70,000-a-week contract if they agree to his demands.

The midfielder, 30, still has two years left to run on his contract and it will cost the Championship club £7m to keep him.

Pay up and I'll leave: Joey Barton wants a £3million pay-off to end his QPR contract

New challenge: Barton spent last season on loan at French side Marseille

Barton claims Marseille have offered him £30,000 a week to return to the south of France following a season long loan at the Ligue 1 club.

Rangers chief Harry Redknapp expected Barton to report for training at Rangers on Monday but the midfielder didn’t show up.

He had spent the weekend in Glastonbury before returning to the North West to be with his family.

Earlier on Wednesday, Redknapp told talkSPORT: ‘Joey Barton was sent the same information as every other player. That was to report for training on Monday. We haven’t seen him.

‘I don’t follow Twitter so I don’t know what’s going on. He wants to go to Marseille and he did very well there last year, but he’s got two years left of his deal here

‘I think he’s looking for the club to give him a payday here and then he’ll go. I don’t know how it’s all going to end.’

Trip: Barton tweeted this picture of him at Glastonbury at the weekend