Joey Barton: 'I'd have 100 caps if I wasn't English'

Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has claimed that if he wasn't English he would have earned 100 international caps.

The 32-year-old has played just once for England, but he feels that if he came from any of the other home nations he would be playing regularly at international level.

"Realistically, if I was Northern Irish, Welsh, Scottish, I am getting 100 caps," he told BBC Sport.

"That's the reality, I would have 100 caps for sure. But because I'm English, I wouldn't get them. That's the difference.

"You think, 'How many players barring [Gareth] Bale, in the other home nation squads, would get in the England national team?'"

Barton made his only appearance for England in a 1-0 defeat against Spain in 2007.