Jamie Carragher claims Cristiano Ronaldo asks Rio Ferdinand to defend him over WhatsApp in Twitter spat

"Carra you still upset he didn’t shake your hand at Old Trafford?"

Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand have always been rivals. One is Liverpool, the other Manchester United; one is Sky Sports, the other is BT Sports, and they had to compete for a place in the England team for years as well. Some things never change it seems, as the two centre backs renewed their rivalry on Twitter in a disagreement over Cristiano Ronaldo and his place in the United team. Roy Keane was furious with Erik ten Hag's decision not to play the Portugal captain, claiming that it was disrespefcul to the player. https://twitter.com/Carra23/status/1576886984723005440 However, the United manager claims that the reason he didn't bring on Ronaldo - especially when his side were losing 4-0 at half time - was out of respect for the 36-year-old's illustrious career. Carragher agreed with the manager's decision, and explained why on Twitter.

"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 counter attack as we saw v Arsenal/Liverpool was 100% the best option." https://twitter.com/Carra23/status/1576984129479942145

However, Ferdinand clearly thought otherwise, and posted a clip from his own podcast explaining why Ronaldo needed to come on. In his tweet he included a taunt to Carragher, that was certain to rile up the former Liverpool defender.

"Carra you still upset he didn’t shake ur hand at Old Trafford?  The hardest thing to do in football is score goals…"

Now this is when it gets good, because there was no way the Sky Sports pundit was ever going to take that laying down, and inevitably he responded in hilarious fashion.

"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 fan boy you’re Rio Ferdinand for FFS!!"

For full disclosure, there probably isn't a group chat, but ex-Old Trafford stars who played alongside the current number seven have been accused of being too soft on the player in the past. Carragher is clearly alluding to this notion, but the ex-England captain had one last poke in this very entertaining thread.

"What WhatsApp group?! Leave off lad…I want this same energy with Roy keane when ya next in the studio ffs. Stop getting bullied."

On Monday Night Football Gary Neville joked that he was never asked to join any group chat, while Ferdinand made it clear that he was watching the show, tweeting throughout. So on one side you have Carragher, Neville and ten Hag who all believe that Ronaldo shouldn't have been brought on. Then on the other side you have Keane, Ferdinand, and, well... Piers Morgan, but let's not give him too much weight in this argument.