Chimp inside me took over, explains Joey

JOEY BARTON has tried to explain why he behaved like such an ape on the final day of last season.

In fact the shamed star admitted: The chimp inside me took over.

Well, QPR did not monkey around after the FA fined their skipper £75,000 and banned him for 12 games for his antics at Manchester City.

Barton was sent off for elbowing Carlos Tevez and then attacked City duo Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany.

Rangers fined Barton seven weeks’ wages — £420,000 — stripped him of the captaincy and then sent him to Marseille on a season-long loan.

He recalled the moment the red mist descended at the Etihad as his Hoops survived the drop despite losing 3-2 to eventual champions City.

Barton said: “I completely let myself down but it’s not a rational situation. I knew we could be relegated, they could win the league and I’m captain.

“There’s a bit of a media spotlight on me so if we go down, I’m going to take a lot of s***.

“I was already getting it on Twitter so pressure started building and I didn’t handle it well.

“My inner chimp doesn’t work well with injustice, it reacts too quickly.

“Tevez has done what he’s done, I have reacted and the aftermath is...”

Barton, who missed QPR’s first three games this season, was hoping to sidestep his ban by jumping ship across the Channel.

But FIFA ruled this week he must serve the rest of his suspension in France.

He said: “I look at it now and it’s almost like it’s not me. I’m like ‘What the f*** were you thinking?’

“At the time in some weird way I thought it was the correct way but, looking at it now, I know it wasn’t.

“I’ve got to learn a lesson from that. The thing it reiterated to me was just how far I am from the person I want to be.”

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