Should Joey Barton remain as QPR captain?

Joey Barton let down his side again on Saturday

Joey Barton yet again hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when he was sent off in QPR's defeat to Hull City on Saturday.

Earning the ninth red card of his career for petulantly hitting out at Tom Huddlestone, Barton left his teammates with an hour to fight at the KC Stadium against the odds.

The result was a costly late defeat that allowed Hull put distance between themselves and the bottom three. Has Barton now exhausted his get-out-of-jail-free cards?

Barton certainly does not fit the description of what the team captain of a team should be.

A fearless leader, willing to battle and set the trends for his teammate to follow; the captain must command the respect of his teammates and lead by example.

Over his career, Barton has put considerable distance between himself and any of these traits.

It appears that Barton is finally losing the support of his teammates as his one-man crusade to right the wrongs of the world continues to falter.

Charlie Austin no doubt reflected the mood of the Rangers dressing room when he addressed Barton's latest indiscretion following the late loss at Hull.

"It's kind of cost us the game. He's the villain, and rightly so, for getting sent off," said QPR's top goalscorer. "He's just held his hands up and said sorry... there's only so many times you can say sorry."

Therein lays the problem for Barton. At 32-years-old we have all heard his sorrowful lament before. He may be sorry, but he appears to be incapable of learning from past misdemeanours.

A big part of the problem with Barton is that a lot of his red cards tend to be for pure petulance - as was the case once more on Saturday.

He doesn't get sent off for laying down a marker in the tackle, showing his team will not be bullied out of a game. Being captain doesn't prevent a player from making mistakes - we have seen that in the past.

Two of the Premier League's greatest leaders - Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane - amassed close to 20 red cards during their distinguished careers. While it is no badge of honour and there were certainly moments of madness in there, the overwhelming sense is that these two icons didn't collect the sort of non-event red cards that characterise Barton.

On Saturday his cause was apparent defence of teenage teammate Darnell Furlong. Yet it was Barton's actions that resonated with those more befitting of a teenager making his way in the game.

Saturday s' red card came on the back of a run of seven successive Premier League games where the QPR captain was cautioned.

The responsibility of being captain of a team clearly doesn't impact on Barton.

As they continue to battle for their place in the top flight QPR must now negotiate three London derbies against Arsenal, Tottenham and Crystal Palace without their skipper.

Chris Ramsey has hinted that he might even consider some anger management classes for Barton. Unlike when he picked up a 12-game ban at Manchester City in 2012 for lashing out at Sergio Aguero after being sent off, anger did not appear to be the driving force on this occasion.

His latest setback falls squarely into the idiotic category.

No shrinking violet on social media, Barton offered his latest apology via Twitter on Saturday evening but it is a post from Monday that best emphasises why the time might be right for QPR to consign his captaincy to history.

Quoting George Bernard Shaw, Barton reasoned that "a life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."

Not a musing that is likely to endear Barton to his teammates or the QPR management team.

Ramsey has a ready-made replacement for Barton in the form of the admirable Charlie Austin.

The big striker is a figure to be admired on the pitch and is QPR's leader in almost every conceivable way this season. His post match thoughts on Barton clearly show that Austin has the level-headed nature to deal with the captain's armband much more so than his lone ranger teammate.