BURNLEY striker Lukas Jutkiewicz said he is 'gutted' to see Joey Barton depart Turf Moor.

Barton put pen-to-paper on a two-year contract at Ibrox earlier this week, ending his one-season stay with Burnley that saw him voted fans' player of the year as the Clarets won the Championship title.

"While I’m pleased for Joey, I’m gutted to lose him," Jutkiewicz told the Daily Record. "He was a huge part of what we wanted to do and a good guy in the dressing room.

"I’m disappointed but I can see why he wanted this challenge at this stage of his career. I wish him all the best, he’s a great guy.

"Joey could easily go and play in the Premier League but he’s proved himself and done it there already. I can see why this would be a more exciting challenge.

"He came to Burnley because he felt the people were on the same page and that they wanted to be successful. That’s probably what’s drawn him to Rangers.

"He’s not going there to wind down his career because he’s a real winner and he’s still got loads left in him.

"He was in the Championship Team of the Year, he was Burnley’s Player of the Year in a league-winning season so that shows the quality he’s got.

"He’s still a Premier League standard player and when you put him into the Scottish league he’s going to stand out. His ability will shine through and he’ll drive on the rest of the team."

Jutkiewicz missed almost all of Burnley's promotion season after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury at the end of August, but he revealed Barton helped him through his recovery.

"From day one he was nothing but a positive influence on people in terms of how to go about their daily training and how to get the best out of themselves," he said.

"He’s matured massively as the years have gone by and to a man everyone in that Burnley changing room could only speak highly of him. Especially me for all he did.

"I had a cruciate knee injury at the start of the season and he took time out of his schedule to see how I was doing, even though it wasn’t going to benefit him on the ?field because I was out for the whole season.

"But still he really devoted a lot of time to me to help me through what I was going through. He was an ear for me to talk to and his advice helped me through. He’s an intelligent bloke and everyone in the dressing room respected what he had to say."