Burnley midfielder Joey Barton has claimed that it was a "no-brainer" for any side who wanted to achieve promotion to sign him during the summer.
The 33-year-old was released by Queens Park Rangers following their relegation from the Premier League last season, and initially struggled to find a new club, with a move to West Ham United breaking down.
He was eventually snapped up by the Clarets, and Barton believes that he represented a very good deal for any Championship side who had ambitions of reaching the top flight.
"I am 33, sitting there in the summer, everyone thinks you're done. I probably thought my phone would ring a lot more than it did. Then it did ring, I thought this was going somewhere, then that was gone," Barton is quoted as saying by PA.
"It reiterates how fickle this industry is and how lazy people are. There's a lot of lazy people out there. If you did your due diligence and were smart and a forward-thinking organisation - certainly in the Championship - I was a no-brainer really if you wanted to get promotion.
"You see people spending money on players in that position, I am thinking, 'Wow'. But Burnley are obviously smarter than the average bear when it comes to that, you can see that in the recruitment over recent years. They operate within the means of the football club and they do prove you can get consistently good players if you are just smart and do your research."
Burnley currently sit fourth in the Championship, five points adrift of the automatic promotion places.
Barney Corkhill
