SoccerBlogs

Joey Barton starts yet another new chapter tomorrow but will it be Fight Club?

Tomorrow night, Loftus Road, 8 o'clock – you just have to watch QPR v ­Newcastle United and the Rangers debut of a certain Joseph Anthony Barton. You couldn't make it up – Barton leaves Newcastle in dispute only to face his former employers at the very start of his new career under Neil Warnock.

Before I proceed to justify yesterday's defeat against the Tangerines, along with my thesis on rising onion prices and how it could cause tears to the eyes, it is time to take a deep breadth and a silence of two minutes for it was my cat that died yesterday.

*After two minutes*

First of all, Football, let me assure you, is like Fight club.

I must say, I do not know where to begin. I could begin, as the Red King in Wonderland said, at the beginning and go on till I come to the end: then stop. Or I could begin at the middle, and work both ways, which is what I'm going to do now. That way, just like Nicks had a go at the commentators, I also get a shot at my most irritating section in the Sky Sports Coverage Shebby Singh.

When I wrote a recent post entitled 8 Rules of World Cup ‘Fight Club,' I encouraged soccer fans to rise up, begin talking the World Cup up to non-believers and to stand firm against the sports fans who laugh and joke at the sport we love.

My "call to arms" was met with a mixed response.

Living in the States, I've experienced six World Cups here. And each of them has been a battle.

In each instance, there have been soccer naysayers who dismiss the relevance of the tournament. They make cheap jokes about the sport. They rely on the past and still think that hooliganism is rife.

This sounds incredibly petty and bimbo-tic (yada, yada), but what is up with David Villa's hair??!! There needs to be a balance between being one of Spain's favourite forwards and a member of Fight Club, vale? You can't have both, tipo!

Speaking of Villa, everyone at Barca is making their way to London right now for the Champions League final this Saturday.

By Darshan Joshi, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

He is the beast of the fashion capital of the world. Not a beast betrothed to a beauty (I've checked), and not a beast in a candle-lit bedroom (we, hopefully, will never have to know), but simply a beast in the simplest form of the word – an animal, of sorts.

Martin O'Neill has quashed the rumours linking him to the managerial hot seat at West Ham. However, it appears O'Neill had been spoken to, and was interested in the role, but he is unhappy at the way it has been handled. It appears someone can't keeep their mouth shut at West Ham since Gold, Sullivan and Brady came to the club and the media informant is doing more harm than good at Upton Park.