Jamie Carragher has branded Piers Morgan an "absolute phoney" as their fierce row over Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal walkout erupted to new levels on social media. The Liverpool legend and the TV host have been locked in a particularly venomous war of words after Ronaldo stormed out of the Portuguese national team.
Carragher slams Morgan and Ferdinand
Morgan put himself in Ronaldo's camp, defending his actions, and was joined by Manchester United icon Rio Ferdinand. But the pair left Carragher thoroughly unimpressed. Speaking on The Overlap Daily, he declared: "People think it's good to be close to people in the game, but this is where it becomes a problem.
"People like Piers Morgan and Rio Ferdinand, who are big people in the media whether you like them or not, are embarrassing themselves with the nonsense that they're coming out with because they know Ronaldo. You can know someone and try to look after them, but you cannot defend the indefensible," reports the Mirror.
Morgan hits back with Suarez and spitting references
Morgan hit back on social media, writing: "So, @Carra23 dislikes me (and @rioferdy5) sticking up for our friend @Cristiano, or as he puts it 'defending the indefensible.' Here is the same Jamie Carragher supporting his friend Luis Suarez after he racially abused Patrice Evra."
He added: "But when it comes to 'defending the indefensible', I do admit I have sometimes done that @Carra23." Morgan then highlighted one of his tweets from 2018 which read: "Jamie Carragher was stupid to spit at that car, but no more stupid than the father was to be filming Carragher as he drove his daughter. So I hope @Carra23 keeps his job. He's a great pundit, has apologised profusely for what he did - and his victim behaved badly too."
Carragher responds and calls Morgan a phoney
Carragher was quick to hit back, responding: "We as a team did support our teammate and we were wrong. I apologised to Patrice on tv years ago, which then prompted Liverpool to send him a letter also apologising which was the right thing to do. Your reaction to my slight criticism saying you and Rio are in bed with Ronaldo so it clouds your judgement when speaking about him is embarrassing.
"You batter people every day, when it's the other way you storm out of a tv studio or get personal. All to get another interview you sycophant."
Addressing the spitting incident, the Liverpool legend continued: "Yes I remember, I contacted you to say I appreciated your support, you then tried to get me on your tv show to talk about it, so my appreciation waned a bit as I knew it wasn't as sincere as I first thought. It was all about an interview, as is your possessive fawning over Ronaldo and Trump. I also wouldn't be getting personal with your history or the other two you're defending, now that would be defending the indefensible."
In the meantime, he also shared an image of one of Morgan's newspaper columns where he slammed Ronaldo as a 'spoilt brat'. Alongside that, Carragher wrote: "What an absolute phoney you are."
Morgan managed to get the last laugh as he posted a selfie of the duo and wrote: "Mate, I even did a fan selfie for you recently to boost your profile...show a little gratitude!"
