Joey Barton speaks with comedy French accent in incident reminiscent of Steve McClaren

On-loan QPR midfielder conducts bizarre press conference in French accent

Joey Barton (GETTY IMAGES)

Not many Brits go abroad in football, but at least those who venture beyond these shores do us proud by giving the lingo a go... sort of.

Joey Barton, the self-styled Nietzsche spouting, Twitter obsessed Smiths fan finally made his league debut for Marseille yesterday before conducting a bizarre press conference.

The on-loan QPR midfielder spoke in English but to help out the natives, put on a comedy French accent.

The incident was reminiscent of Steve McClaren who spoke in English but with a Dutch accent during his time as FC Twente's manager.

The Liverpudlian former Newcastle midfielder has since taken to Twitter to defend himself.

'Steve MaClaren (sic) eat your heart out...'

Before adding moments later: 'In my defence, it is very difficult to do a press conference in Scouse for a room full of French journalists. The alternative is to speak...

'..like a 'Allo Allo!' character which is choose. Its simply a case of you had to be there. #youstupidwomen!'

Barton, who recently claimed "I'm maybe a little too intelligent to be a footballer", has even gone as far as to dub the language 'Bartonese'.

Watch the video below...