FILE THIS ONE under ‘climb-downs’.

Joey Barton has tonight publicly apologied to former Liverpool and Germany star Dietmar Hamann.

The pair — former team-mates in the Manchester City midfield — clashed on Twitter earlier this week when Barton wrote about Loic Remy’s proposed transfer from his own side, Marseille.

After occasional RTÉ pundit, Hamann, took issue with the update, the exchanges quickly got personal with Barton calling Hamann’s life a ‘car crash’ and making reference to Hamann’s self-confessed gambling issues.

“On Monday evening tweets exchanged between Dietmar Hamann and I went beyond the boundaries of banter, opinion and common sense,” Barton wrote on his website tonight however.

“I accept that my comments were offensive, untrue and related to matters of a personal nature, of which I had no knowledge. I have apologised to Dietmar personally and now wish to apologise through the same social media channels that I used to make them, as well as my own website.

“I appreciate my comments have caused Dietmar and his family some distress and I fully regret that. I also appreciate that my comments should not have been made, as they could have damaged Dieitmar’s reputation, which should  remain intact as a fantastic player and ambassador for German Football, as well as the game in general.

“Dietmar and I have now agreed to draw a line under the unfortunate exchange and neither of us will be making any further comments on the subject,” Barton concludes.

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