Thursday 22 September 2016 16:24, UK
Suspended Rangers midfielder Joey Barton "made his choice" to leave Burnley and is nothing to do with the club now, says Sean Dyche.
Barton chose to leave the Clarets in the summer after helping to guide the Lancashire club back to the Premier League last season, earning the club's player of the year award in the process.
The 34-year-old is currently serving a three-week suspension at Rangers following a falling out with Mark Warburton, but Dyche insisted there was never an issue when the player was at Turf Moor.
"Some situations fit together nicely, and they did here, but I can't say whether they are going to or not with Rangers," said Dyche. "Of course he wants it to work there.
"That's for other people to decide and his relationship with the management team there, that's all for them and not for me. I can only speak of his time here.
"I was thankful for what he did and I think he enjoyed what he did here and he enjoyed the group he was working with. He's gone on to pastures new."
Dyche was adamant there is no bad blood between him and Barton after the player's departure, but would not be drawn into suggestions the former Manchester City midfielder could return to Burnley.
"He made that choice [to leave] - there's no angle between me and him and the club and him," Dyche added. "He felt it was a new challenge and it has turned out to be a new challenge, whatever way you look at it.
"It's a massive club who are working hard to get back to where they belong which is certainly around the top of Scottish football, that's for sure."
Asked whether he would take Barton back, Dyche said:"He's nothing to do with me, he's part of Rangers football club."
Burnley host Watford at Turf Moor, live on Monday Night Football, looking to pick up just their second win of the Premier League season, having lost to champions Leicester City 3-0 last weekend.
