JOEY BARTON is determined to inspire Rangers to their 55th top flight title next term - but the midfielder reckons all the pressure is on Celtic to claim a sixth league flag in succession.

Boss Mark Warburton laid down a statement of intent with the capture of Barton on a two-year deal as he prepares for a crack at the Premiership.

And the 33-year-old is relishing the challenge as the Old Firm go head-to-head for the silverware once again.

Barton said: “I am not worried about five-in-a-row and things like that. The main thing is that there is a season and someone has got to win the league, and we have got to work incredibly hard to make sure that is us.

“That is the expectation of this football club. Rangers are on 54 league titles, what sweet way to do it would be to take your 55th league title. It is the greatest and most successful league title winning side in world football.

“But you have got another great club just across the road and they have got ambitions of their own. That is what makes football great.

“You can’t have one without the other and people north of the border have realised that in recent years. Even the most staunch Celtic supporter will admit that the rivalry is what brings out your best.

“Your adversary brings out the best in you so it is an incredible challenge. They have got some great players there, they have got a manager who has come from a big club in England. The reality is that the pressure is on them, they have to win the league.

“They have had it all their own way for a long period and now they have got to move it up a gear because they have been able to have it all their own way with a bit of ease.

“Aberdeen took them to the wire for a long period and credit to them for that. But, for Rangers, we have got to go in and take it game by game.

“You don’t win a championship by turning up and saying ‘we are going to win the championship’.

“It is fought and it is ground out over the course of a year. I look forward to the challenge, look forward to that gauntlet being thrown down.”

Barton spurned the offer Premier League football as he rejected a new deal at Burnley just weeks after guiding them to promotion.

And now the former Man City, Newcastle and QPR star is determined to leave a lasting legacy at Ibrox after clinching a move across the border.

Barton said: “I have come off the back of an incredibly successful season with a great group of people.

“You take everything you have learned there and you try and apply it to this organisation. I am coming into a side that has won the Championship, that has been to two cup finals, winning one and losing one, so I am not walking into somewhere that doesn’t know how to win football matches.

“I am coming here to be what I am, contribute how I can and hopefully that is good enough to improve this organisation. When you play for a club of this magnitude, you look at the great names that have been in shirts before and I have taken the number eight.

“I am aware that Gazza had that, and many good players before him. You are the custodian of that shirt for whatever time you are at the football club.

“You want to take it and move it to a higher level for the next man, whoever that is.

“I want to leave the shirt in a better place than I found it today. If I do that, my time at Rangers will be an incredibly successful time for me personally.”