Joey Barton/Luke Thomas..

Best thing for him would probably be Barton getting sacked. But otherwise, I hope the club are in contact with him. If he needs recalling and giving paid time off to get any help if he needs it, then the club should grant it, and help him find that help.

 

Maybe some organization like MIND could get involved in this attack on Thomas.
I'm sure the EFL would have to act if this happened.

 

I think as his Parent club, and that we allowed him out on loan there to help with his ‘situation’ our club at least should be contacting the player to see if he’s ok, and definitely contacting Bristol Rovers. Surely this can’t be left to fester

 

I would seriously hope the club have stepped in and acted in one way or another, he's our player therefore it's up to Barnsley FC to look after him

 

Wow. Thats absolutely disgusting and disgraceful.

Mental health does not discriminate.

Does Barton think because Luke Thomas is a pro footballer that he should just "man up" and move on.

I'll tell you something it takes a brave man or woman to step forward and admit they have problems mentally.


Can Barton stoop any lower?

 

Quite likely!

 

To be fair , Thomas could have said no to Bristol Rovers as he could have with Ipswich but he couldn"t wait to hold up the Ipswich shirt & shout from the roof tops of how delighted he was to be there , I sincerely hope he gets over his health issues & Barton must be a truly awful person to play for but I think Thomas has been badly advised , he should have said no , lets hope things pick up for him quickly .

 

I'm sure if we had a Liverpool player on loan and our manager slagged him publically like that then someone would be getting a phone call.

 

Keep doing what youre doing, Luke. Barton's career is in freefall, yours is on the rise.

 

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-rovers-boss-joey-barton-6261467

I know which of the two needs to grow up and learn to keep his hands to himself!

 

Bring him back . Barton is not the manager to help him

 

Can't see any other option but to recall him after reading that. It's obviously not working for both parties and only risks putting our player in a worse state.

 

I’d have him out of that club today. We have a duty of care as an employer.

 

What's interesting in that article is how Barton keeps referring to Luke's fitness when he arrived on loan and having to put him on a mini-preseason to get him fit. He joined Bristol on the 10th July, pre-season started for Barnsley players on the 1st of July I believe. So he did have a chunk of pre-season with us and also with them, but it does point to players coming back from the summer well behind where they should have been.

EDIT:
Although I do find it hard to believe he "couldn't get hold of Barnsley on the phone", like that's the only way to communicate, try sending an email. So given that's probably a load of BS it does make you wonder on the rest of it - mind you, making public statements about LT walking out of training is a bit risky if its not true because the other players and staff will be able to confirm or deny that straight off the bat.

Anyone the rat faced thug's trial starts today I believe, any way to get updates on how its progressing?

 

Although I would add, the reason nobody picked up the phone is probably because there was nobody left to answer apart from the Kitman.

 

This is a horrible situation for Thomas to be in and I'll be really disappointed in Barnsley if we don't extract him from there sharpish. Quite possibly the worst man in the world for Thomas to be working under.

If we, as a club, genuinely care about mental health he should be back with us by next week.

 

This is just horrible. Barton is vile and hopefully he ends up where he truly belongs finally. But there is a lot of detail there that someone could easily prove wrong. He may have embellished it a bit, but Luke has struggled at multiple clubs under multiple coaches and its not looking good.

I think we've got to recall the lad, but I'm not sure that's going to greatly help him either.

I'd like to hope we've been in regular contact with him to see how he is and show we care, but given the huge turnover of people and the lack of bodies we've had, my expectation isn't high in that regard. I seem to recall Sibbick being critical and felt isolated when he was loaned out at hearts and Oostende.

 

Joey Balboa says that Luke has responded well to his criticism:

https://the72.co.uk/257681/bristol-...as-for-the-way-he-has-responded-to-criticism/

 

Probably cos he's fearful of being assaulted

 

Cool, I'll be a nasty tw at to my administrators and just wait for them to respond well to my management "technique".