‘Excited’ - Joey Barton delivers Bristol Rovers verdict on Chelsea and England U20 star

Joey Barton says he is ‘excited’ at the prospect of working with long-term transfer target Harvey Vale after securing his services at Bristol Rovers for the 2023/24 season.

He became the Gas’ ninth signing of the summer transfer window, and was thrown straight into action as he featured in their 2-1 win over Charlton Athletic on Tuesday night. The 19-year-old had been a long-term target for Joey Barton, who tried to sign him in January, but couldn’t as he had already represented two clubs in one season.

Vale’s new boss Joey Barton expressed his delight in securing him for the season. He said to BBC Radio Bristol: “He’s a talented player and I think we’ve been pursuing him since the turn of the calendar year.

“Thankfully they’ve (Chelsea) trusted us with this stage of his development this year.

“We’re still learning about him, and he’s only trained with us a couple of days, but he’s already given a good account of himself in training.

“I’m excited about working with him over this next period as he’s clearly a talented individual.”

Meanwhile Alex Scott sent a cheeky message to Harvey Vale after the Chelsea star finalised a season-long loan move to Bristol Rovers.

The Chelsea starlets move was confirmed a few hours before kick-off, and he uploaded a post to his 104,000 followers on Instagram, which had two pictures of him at the Quarters training ground, posing in his colours for the season. His photos were captioned ‘Proud to call @official_brfc my home for the rest of the season. Let’s go! UTG.”

‘Wrong side of Bristol, time to shine tho bro,” commented 19-year-old Scott with what felt like a tongue-in-cheek tone, who recently made a £25m move from the red side of Bristol to AFC Bournemouth.

Scott and Vale know one another from their time on the international stage, with the latter being captain of the England Under-20’s The pair have played 18 games alongside each other from U19’s level to U20, and both have also shared the field with Jarell Quansah and Matt Cox.