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Joey Barton, now captain of QPR, has had a career that is anything but quiet. Dogged by bad behaviour, booze, and violent outbursts during his early years, he has recently recreated himself as a keen student of philosophy and avid user of Twitter. He’s a Marmite player if ever there was one – even the Life’s a Pitch panel are split down the middle when it comes to the man Barton.

“He’s an interesting character,” says Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph. “He’s trying to reinvent himself, he’s developed a personality on Twitter, and his football is fine at the moment. I think we might be getting carried away about how well he’s playing – he’s playing okay.”

Ian Ridley of the Daily Express seems impressed by this Joey Barton 2.0. “He had a difficult family life, he’s been a product of that, and he behaved badly due to alcoholism. Now he doesn’t drink and hasn’t for a couple of years, and he’s trying to find a new way of life. He’s grabbing at all of these things that interest him.”

“The bottom line is that he should have had a better career for the ability than he has,” says Duncan White of The Sunday Telegraph.

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