Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand have set Twitter alight with their brutal war of words, in which neither man pulled any punches.
Throughout their careers, the pair of English centre-backs cemented their places among the greatest defenders to have ever graced the Premier League. And even in retirement, they still have as much passion for the clubs they played for as they did in the prime of their lives. Consequently, when a disagreement occurs, it usually ends in tears.
On October 3, the Liverpool legend Tweeted about his stance on Erik ten Hag choosing not to play Cristiano Ronaldo in the Manchester Derby.
He said: “The idea that ETH got it wrong yesterday by not playing Ronaldo is laughable! Ronaldo played at Brentford when it was 4-0 at ht!! It’s not a dig at CR, but Rashford’s pace on the counterattack as we saw vs Arsenal/Liverpool was the best option.”
Ferdinand quickly responded to the post, asking his old rival whether he’s still annoyed that the Portuguese icon didn’t shake his hand at The Theatre of Dreams during a Sky broadcast.
This prompted a furious comeback from the Sky pundit.
Carragher fired back: “No, I’m delighted it went viral! Rio, I know how it works, he’s your mate & you/Evra & the rest are on the group WhatsApp & he asks you to come out & defend him, don’t be his fanboy you’re Rio Ferdinand for FFS!!”
Ferdinand then ended the debate with one last dig.
The 43-year-old wrote: “What WhatsApp group?! Leave off, lad…I want this same energy with Roy Keane when ya next in the studio FFS. Stop getting bullied.”
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Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand settle their differences
Despite the online back and forth, it appears the two men have buried the hatchet. As Sky’s coverage of Leicester vs Nottingham Forest came to an end, the ex-Anfield star addressed the issue with Gary Neville and Dave Jones.
At the end of the programme, the former United right-back said: “We’ve got two of your mates on next week.”
Carragher asked: “‘Have we got Roy Keane on?”, to which Jones replied: ‘With a bit of luck.”
As the laughs continued, Neville joked: “You’ll get bullied again!”
This resulted in the Liverpool man hitting back at his co-host, replying: “He wants to get in that Whatsapp group Rio!”
Neville chucked before responding: “Oh yeah, can you add me to the Whatsapp group please Rio?”
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