QPR skipper Joey Barton says on-field leadership is crucial at Manchester City over the Carlos Tevez affair.

Writing in the People, Barton opined: "One of the bigger grey areas about the Tevez affair is where a player's ­responsibility to rein in a team-mate stops and the ­manager's begins.

"Is it up to ­captain Vincent Kompany to grab Tevez by the scruff of the neck and tell him what he's doing right and what he's doing wrong? I don't think so.

"But if a ­player has a bad attitude on the pitch then it IS the ­responsibility of the captain or a senior team-mate to get to the bottom of it."