It's a guilty pleasure every sports fan has, right? We know it's out of order, we know the athletes are embarrassing themselves, but we still very much love to see it.

Luke Littler made himself look like a bit of a clown on Thursday night. Whether it was a misunderstanding or just sheer arrogance, the world champion had no right to behave like that towards Gian van Veen. Simply put, it was incredibly disrespectful.

But goodness me, give us that a million times over compared to the cordial love-in we see from players at the oche week in week out.

Football commentators are particularly bad for it. While they're no doubt contractually obliged to make the claim, whenever there's a bust-up between players or the managers (both, if we're lucky), they'll always trot out the same old line: "We apologise for these scenes nobody wants to see."

Erm, sorry? The only apologies handed out should be ones for not zooming straight into the scuffle and showing it from every feasible camera angle in the stadium.

It's probably how the Romans felt rocking up to the Colosseum to watch a pair of smooth-brained lunatics fight each other to the death. Everyone knows it's stupid, but that innate sense of human conflict in a sporting arena is too good to turn down.

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Now, we're not suggesting Littler and Van Veen ditch the darts in favour of pursuing careers as gladiators. Surely two things can be true at the same time, though? Littler was wrong to behave the way he did, but it was bloody gripping all the same.

In a way, Littler is his own worst enemy. He's unquestionably the best player in the world right now, easily the best of his generation, and could finish his career as the best of all-time. But now that initial novelty has worn off, there is a feeling that it's become a little boring.

Sure, the relentless 180s and nine-dart finishes will always get bums off seats, it's just everything else that feels a bit stale over time. However, sprinkle in this type of needle, and that's exactly what darts as a sport needs.

It's time for Littler to embrace the dark side and become the villain that nobody thought darts needed, but now everybody wants to see.