Joey Barton: "I spoke after pre-season how good I felt.
"I never doubted that I had football ability, but it was just being fit enough to show it and now I am.
"I was always confident through everything that I was a better player than I was when I was playing for England.
"In the coming months it's up to me to prove that. Thankfully I've had the opportunity to prove it in a good team.
"There's a lot of lads in our dressing room with ambitions and people to prove wrong.
"And we have as a squad, because of the way everyone wrote us off before a ball had even been kicked."
The England international has one cap, earned against Spain in February 2007, and has made 180 league appearances for City and Newcastle in total, scoring 19 goals.