Joey Barton (talking to the Evening Chronicle): “First and foremost, I want to do well for Newcastle United. But watching some of the performances in the World Cup over the summer, I think that on form, I’m as good as anybody in this country.
“I don’t say that lightly and I have to go out and prove that, but surely every midfielder in this country should be thinking like that?
“They should be looking at it and saying, ‘That’s where I want to be and that’s where I can go’. That’s my goal, and if I break into the England squad, it proves that I am doing fantastic for this football club. At the end of the day, I was an England international as a box-to-box midfield player.
“I don’t say this lightly, but I’m a much more rounded footballer now than I was when I first signed for this club. Injuries have restricted my chances to show that.
“If I can sustain fitness for a long period of time, I’m very confident of finding the form that got me in the England squad.”