QPR skipper Joey Barton feels Twitter has helped him improve his profile.

Twitter - his 568,000 followers are increasing by the day - has played a pivotal role in the transformation of Barton's image from a dysfunctional wild-child to a man more thoughtful and erudite. His regular retweets of Nietzsche and George Orwell has freed Barton to distance himself from his chequered past.

"Twitter has helped people see the real me," he told the London Evening Standard. "The football pitch is our stage but it's not a true reflection of who I am as a man.

"It also allows me to talk absolute crap at times and people seem to find that interesting. I don't know why they tune in but they do.

"Tabloid propaganda is all fans had to base their opinions on in the past and I've been typecast as the 'badie'.

"A lot of it was down to my own stupidity but Twitter allows me the right to reply and opens up a more human side to who I really am."