Joey Barton in Twitter tirade on Neil Warnock

Neil Warnock pictured with Joey Barton (GETTY IMAGES)

Queens Park Rangers captain Joey Barton has launched a Twitter tirade on Neil Warnock by saying the team's former manager "needs to look in the mirror" if he wants to blame anyone for his sacking.

On Thursday, Warnock made comments on the power of social networking sites such as Twitter and said he lost his job after his reputation was "slowly poisoned" by critics inside and outside the club.

"My (former) chairman (at QPR) tweets a lot and some of my players tweet and players only look after themselves so it's quite easy to start rumours with this new modern media and I don't think it helps anybody," Warnock had told the BBC.

"It's a dangerous precedent if you let players talk to the chairman but, you know, you can't stop tweeting."

Barton, famous for causing controversy throughout his career, used his favourite medium to hit back.

"Lost his job and the guy is blaming everyone but himself! Embarrassing, time to look in the mirror mate," Barton tweeted (@Joey7Barton).

"If I talked about Neil, he'd do well to get another job. Twitter cost him his job???? I can think of a million other things!"

Barton, who was made club captain by Warnock, also hinted new manager Mark Hughes had superior tactical and organisational skills to Warnock.

"Looking forward to the game against Wigan tomo (tomorrow). 1st time in a while we actually have a plan and seem organised," he added.

Warnock was fired after a dramatic slump in form that left them without a win in eight successive Premier League matches and on the edge of the relegation zone.

Warnock, who was appointed in March 2010 and won 33 of his 84 matches in charge, guided the West London club back to the Premier League for the first time in 15 years last season.

Reuters