Ever since Charlie Austin announced that he and his family will be moving back to the UK after a stint playing in Australia, the rumor mill has been in full working order. 

Many in Swindon wanted the experienced striker to return to the club that helped launch his career as a professional, and several online reports suggested it was a done deal. 

But it seems that Austin himself wanted to keep his options open, as his friend and former Queen's Park Rangers teammate Joey Barton has revealed that the club he currently manages - Bristol Rovers - was an option. 

In a post on the Bristol Rovers Live Twitter page, it was claimed that Barton had revealed that Austin had trained with the team last week, but the club chose not to offer the hot free agent a contract.

The full post said: "Joey Barton has confirmed that Charlie Austin trained with #BristolRovers last week but the club elected not to sign the former QPR striker."

An interview on Sky Sports suggested that Charlie has signed a deal with Swindon, and he has hinted so himself on his own social media pages, but an official announcement is yet to be made. 

Still, Barton himself believes that Austin has signed for Swindon, in a further interview with Bristol Live, he said: "We had Charlie Austin in the other day, he came and trained with us. He’s probably made the right call signing for Swindon but we needed to have a look at him to see what he’s about.

“I played with Chaz, great goalscorer, he’ll do a fantastic job at Swindon. For us, we’ve got a lot of players in that frontline and what I didn’t want to happen was Charlie come back from Australia, sign for Swindon, bag a load of goals and we didn’t get a chance to have a look at him. We’ve had a look at him, not for us, but that’s the area where we’re stacked.

Austin was at the Australian club Brisbane Roar prior to his return to the UK, where he played sporadically and scored two goals in seven games. He recently announced he was leaving to come back to England for family reasons.