Sachin Nakrani
guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 January 2013 23.08 GMT
They were once team-mates at Manchester City but now Joey Barton and Dietmar Hamann have become Twitter enemies following a lengthy, vicious and, at times, hilarious row between the pair on the social media site.
The spat kicked off after Barton sent out a tweet in which he claimed his Marseille team-mate Loïc Rémy had "signed for QPR". Barton being Barton, however, he could not leave it there and, querying why the France forward had appeared to have pulled out of a long-mooted move to Newcastle, he added: "probably Llambas [sic] again!" in reference to the north-east club's managing director, Derek Llambias.
Bringing back memories of his days at Liverpool, Hamann then stuck the boot in, telling Barton to "do yourself a favour and stay out of club politics QPR and NUFC have paid you well for playing not to commentonrecruitment".
Bringing back memories of his days at most of the clubs he has played for, Barton launched back aggressively, tweeting: "trying to give me stick you cheeky man. Get your own life in order first... #peopleinglasshouses".
Back came Hamann with: "I never said a bad word about my ex clubs and I never will as that's called respect and dignity Joseph. You got a lot to learn", before Barton went in two-footed with: "what about they way I seen you prepare for a game. That dignified? Worst pro I've ever seen Youve got more front than Harrods" and "only cos your trying your b*llocks off to get a job now your skint. Don't try a be all self righteous u blert. I know u!"
Hamann, who played with Barton at City during the 2006-2007 season, has admitted in the past to having a gambling problem that "one night cost me over £200,000" and, during Monday evening's Twitter row, admitted he "loved a pint", but he denied other, stronger accusations from Barton, instead telling his one-time City team-mate to "light a candle for [Tony] Fernandes [the QPR chairman] and Llambias every day for paying you that money".
To that, Barton replied with: "Not having idiots like you talking like u actually have a clue!", having challenged Hamann, in the same tweet, to "have it out publicly".
Showing a tad more class, Hamann responded with: "The problem is that you think because you play in France you think you are an international player #farfromit".
The argument ran on and on, with Barton calling Hamann a "maggot" and the former Germany international sarcastically referring to the Huyton-born 30-year-old as an "England international". In total, there were more than 50 tweets exchanged between the pair, with Barton's final message containing the sort of crass oddness he has become renowned for using on Twitter: "Disappointed in myself for getting involved in that. But never let a dog try to tell u its not a dog an that u are! A dogs a F***ing dog..."
To that, Hamann's replied with: "I'm chuffed to be a dog in your eyes ... i hope you can look in the mirror tomorrow".
The world awaits the next instalment of this 140-character slag-off.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/14/joey-barton-dietmar-hamann-twitter?CMP=twt_gu
