Football Burp understands that Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton is still a tw*t.

The avid Tweeter and occasional Smiths fan was speaking to Sky Sports staple Goals on Sunday when he chose to reignite his barely-existent feud with Karl Henry, accusing the Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder of – get this – going out to intentionally hurt people.

No, really. Yes, Barton. Joey Barton. I know.

Scary-faced Wolves boss Mick McCarthy, who saw his side go down 3-0 to a Barton-inspired QPR at Molineux on Saturday, has leapt to the defence of a player whom he stripped of the club captaincy in favour of new boy Roger Johnson, who in turn has a name that never really occurred to us as being all that amusing before but, when you think about it, could belong to a character out of Captain Pugwash.

McCarthy, presumably in the tone of voice that usually precedes a punch-up, said: “Karl is one of the best pros I’ve ever worked with in terms of his attitude and conscientiousness to his profession.

“He has earned himself the right to play in the Premier League by his guts and determination and made himself a better player.

“In defence of my player, who has been with me for five years, I’d hang my hat on him all day long. He is a great guy.”

And, apparently, a first-class hat stand.

In response to Barton labelling Henry a “Sunday league player”, McCarthy said: “Not unless Wolves are in the Dog and Duck League. He is a Premier League player.”

A cursory Google shows there to be no such thing as the Dog and Duck League – which, in our book, casts aspersions over everything that the Mars Attacks alien lookalike has ever said.