Fleetwood Town boss Joey Barton explains Steve Eyre's departure

Joey Barton has opted for a change of direction in his backroom staff, but is happy with everyone he still has at the club.

In a club statement, the 47-year-old was thanked for his efforts but no reason for his departure was given.

But head coach Joey Barton explained the situation at his pre-match press conference today and told The Gazette: “He left us a while back, Eyresy. It’s just a change of direction.

“We had a lot of coaches when I came into the job. We inherited the coaching staff from the guys who were here: Dave Lucas, Barry Nicholson, Stephen Crainey, to name but a few.

“You obviously want to bring your own men in when you get up and running.

“We sat down and had a sensible conversation about it. We just wanted to streamline it and go in a different direction.

“We’ve got that nice balance in there now. It was probably just one too many bodies. You want to streamline to make yourself more efficient.

“We won’t really know if it’s had an effect until a period of time has passed but I feel we’re pretty much set now.”

Barton was full of praise for former Rochdale manager Eyre and echoed the club statement in wishing him well.

“We can’t thank Eyresy enough for the work he did here,” he added. “Hopefully, it won’t be long before he’s back in the game and back in the dugout helping somebody else. He was first-class for us.”