Joey Barton explains former Portsmouth, Spurs, QPR and Birmingham coach's shock Bristol Rovers exit

Gas manager Joey Barton has confirmed it was his decision to end the former Pompey assistant manager’s time at the Memorial Stadium.

The former Newcastle midfielder said he needed to ‘streamline’ his coaching set-up following the arrivals of Glenn Whelan and Danny Ventre in the summer.

Barton claimed the move would make Rovers more ‘efficient and effective’ in the way they do things.

News of Bond’s exit emerged on Sunday following the Pirates’ 4-1 win at Cheltenham on Saturday.

The 65-year-old, who enjoyed three spells at Fratton Park, had been with the club since August 2021 and helped them win promotion from League Two last season.

Initially, no reason had been provided for his departure.

However, Barton revealed it was he who made the ‘tough’ call to end Bond’s stay.

The Rover boss told Bristol Live ‘He (Bond) was superb,

‘He came in at a tough time when Clint (Hill) left and added incredible insight and value to our whole coaching group and he was ridiculously well thought of by everybody.

‘But I just felt we had too many cooks and with where we’re at and how we need to do it, we needed to streamline it a little bit.

‘It’s unfortunate for Bondy that it’s him that exits the building, but we’ve got to be efficient and effective and I don’t think we were moving as efficiently as we could.

‘It’s my job to rectify that because if I don’t, ultimately, it will be my head on a platter.

‘Gutted for Kev and he was brilliant for us, and we’ll all be incredibly thankful for the work he did here.

‘We brought Danny and Whelo in and we just needed to streamline that.

‘We were probably guilty of having too many opinions and too many chefs sometimes can confuse things.

‘It was a difficult decision and it’s the difficult part of the job. You understand sometimes you’ve got to move people on, players and staff, to make the organism more healthy and to move more efficiently.’

Bond worked under three managers during his time at Pompey – Alan Ball, then Harry Redknapp and, more recently, Kenny Jackett in a scouting capacity.

He continued his close working association with Redknapp away from Fratton Park, though, joining the Blues’ 2008 FA Cup-winning manager during stints at Southampton, Spurs, QPR and Birmingham.

The former Southampton player also enjoyed coaching roles at Newcastle, Aston Villa and Manchester City.

Bond, however, had spells of his own in the managerial hot-seat, taking charge of Bournemouth, Southend and Hong Kong Pegasus following his retirement from playing in 1996.

It’s unclear what his next move will be.