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He can’t disguise it, can he? All that Scouse squeaking and ranting. But just why does Jamie Carragher dislike West Ham United so much?

His ill-informed wailing on Sky was more than embarrassing, and it didn’t help that he seemed not to know the laws of the game.

So wrapped up in his adulation of grim Grealish, and the fact VAR had robbed Aston Villa of a late equaliser with a correct, if miniscule offside decision, it looked like years of hatred just could not be suppressed.




So why does Carragher always seem to want to slag West Ham off? Fair to say he’s had a few scrapes with us, but really, all that nonsense about the penalty Villa should have had, he reckoned.

Maybe his annoyance goes back a bit and it gives me the chance to bore you all with another little story from the distant past when I used to work for a living. And it’s about THAT cup final, you remember, the 2006 one when we were never behind in two hours of football against the European champions and still didn’t win the damned trophy.

That was the game when Dean Ashton ran Carragher ragged, and the Liverpool man scored an own goal. That was the game when Carragher helped to instigate that piece of sneaky unpleasantness that robbed us of the cup. Fair to say West Ham fans have never really got off his back since the Lionel Scaloni incident.

We all recall how Carragher and his mates responded by our man sportingly putting the ball out of play so a Liverpool player could be treated by charging down the clearance down by the corner flag and paving the way to Steven Gerrard’s last gasp equaliser in Cardiff.

I was working at that match and afterwards in the mixed zone took the opportunity to ask Carragher why Liverpool had done that. None of the biased Mersey media had bothered to ask the question.

His response then was to laugh and say: “You’re a West Ham fan, of course you would ask that.” My response was to reply: “It’s nothing to do with who I support, it’s all about why you didn’t adhere to the players' code for that sort of thing.” He walked off laughing over his shoulder.

It's only a small story, but it has bugged me ever since. It took ten years or so of people, mainly our fans, questioning the morality of such a move for Carragher to finally admit that Liverpool players told Scaloni they would not let him clear the ball when it was thrown back to him because it was a cup final. Selective sportsmanship, I call it.

That little exchange has never really left me. I lived and worked in and around Liverpool for some 30 years and liked the people and the place. I have never gone for all this anti-Scouse stuff that flies around. I was there for Hillsborough and I have never forgotten Thatcher’s managed decline policy for the area.




And I have always had a high regard for Carragher’s playing career at Anfield. He was never quick enough for a full back but was switched to centre back by Rafa Benitez and made the most of his ability. But he let himself down that day in Cardiff and yes, there have been a few other incidents since.

Since then there was that last minute penalty he gave away in the league game at Upton Park in 2008 when he tripped Freddie Ljungberg and Mark Noble won the game 1-0 from the spot. If I recall correctly, the fine folk in the BML that night gave him some advice on how quickly he should return to Liverpool. I doubt he was best pleased.

Since then, there has been an inaccurate newspaper article when he voiced some opinions about our stadium move.

And then came Monday’s embarrassing rant about the supposed penalty Villa should have had for Angelo Ogbonna’s holding of Ollie Watkins in that offside decision . It seems Carragher wanted a penalty, with Gary Neville agreeing, as well as Villa boss Dean Smith.

Now when I was refereeing many moons ago, I was told always to give the first offence. I am sure that still is the case and VAR adhered to that. The offside was clearly the first offence and once they had agreed that the Villa man was in fact offside by inches, then the ball is dead and nothing that happens afterwards is relevant.

In such cases, even if there has been violent conduct and punches are thrown, the referee will deal with it and still return to the first offence. It would nice if ex-players knew the laws when they go on TV.

As for Grealish and his defenders, there is no point in saying he gets kicked every game so you have to expect him to dive around, as Villa fans are saying. Sky just ignored it all, which was shameful.

You can tell I am not a fan of selective sportsmanship.

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