After nearly seven weeks suspended by Rangers from playing and training with the club, Joey Barton returned the the Scottish Premiership team's training ground this week.
He would train with the senior players, though. Instead, according to various reports, it was with the club's U20s.
Barton was suspended over an altercation with teammate Andy Halliday and manager Mark Warburton in early September.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Danny Mills - a former teammate of the 34-year-old's at Man City - explained his rationale for why Barton consistently gets himself in trouble.
Mills believes Barton has what he calls 'Roy Keane syndrome'- the expectation that everyone should live up to the same standards that the sufferer sets of themselves.
Joey is a very good footballer but he is not as good as he thinks he is – and he expects everyone else to be as good as he thinks he is.
He’s nowhere near the standard of Roy Keane but it’s like Roy Keane syndrome.
He expects everyone else to be at that standard and meet the elevated opinion of himself.
The row between Barton and Halliday happened following Rangers' 5-1 loss to Celtic. Presumably, that game was the catalyst for Barton's eruption on the training ground.
Mills further elaborated on his theories regarding the Barton psyche by surmising that the midfielder has a 'personality deficiency'.
Joey is difficult to understand. I got changed next to him for four years and was there every time things went wrong for him. He has a personality deficiency where a switch goes and he just goes off track and has no remorse of empathy for his actions.
In his own head, he probably feels like he hasn’t done anything wrong and doesn’t have anything to apologise for. So he refuses to do so. He just doesn’t have that in his character.
It seems quite clear that Rangers are trying to freeze him out.
