There is clearly very little love lost between Manchester United icon Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher.
They were hardly going to be the best of friends anyway given their respective club ties, but things seem to have soured beyond just your standard rivalry. The latest chapter in this surprising feud sees Carragher deliver the blow, as he retweeted a meme originally posted by betting giants Paddy Power poking fun at Ronaldo's transfer dilemma.
The 37-year-old five-time Ballon d'Or winner has been ridiculed in recent weeks for the fact that he made very clear to those at the top of the United hierarchy that he wants to leave for a club that better suits his ambitions, yet no one has come in for him. Ronaldo did not attend United's pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia, citing family reasons as the explanation behind his absence.
Paddy Power's meme shows the faces of both Ronaldo and his agent Jorge Mendes cropped onto the bodies of two dishevelled-looking figures inside a filthy room with the caption: "Bell Napoli again, lad." This is in reference to the fact that the Serie A outfit are reportedly the latest club to reject the idea of signing Ronaldo.
A whole host of European giants have been touted with a move for United's number seven, from Atletico Madrid to Bayern Munich - yet all of them have swiftly rebuffed the reports. In some cases like Atletico's, fans actually took to protesting and making signs that showed their opposition to the potential signing of Ronaldo.
Carragher's retweeting of the post comes just a week after the pair actually came face-to-face before United took on Liverpool at Old Trafford. Ronaldo shook the hands of Gary Neville and Roy Keane - two of his former teammates but opted to blank the ex-Anfield hero in a rather cold fashion.
While Carragher took it well and has since made jokes about the incident, it laid bare exactly what the former Real Madrid man thinks of the current Sky Sports pundit.
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Ever since Ronaldo put pen to paper with United for a triumphant return last summer, Carragher has been one of the few consistent vocal detractors of the deal and has publicly claimed it was a bad deal from United's perspective on multiple occasions.
"I've been critical of the Ronaldo signing since he came in and I said that Ten Hag should really be moving on from that," Carragher told Sky Sports on the eve of the season's start.
"I know it is easier said than done to move a player out but really, we want him to stay because we talk about him, and he provides headlines. He's Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Really looking at it from an analytical point of view at Man Utd, I think they would be better without him and almost starting afresh with a younger team."
