Piers Morgan has demanded Wayne Rooney "pipes down" about Cristiano Ronaldo and accused the England legend of "endless jealous b****ing" about the Manchester United striker.
The former Good Morning Britain host was responding to Rooney advising Erik ten Hag to drop Ronaldo from the starting XI for Monday night's Premier League clash with Liverpool. The 36-year-old suspects his former Old Trafford teammate is lacking match fitness and the "energy" required to start the crucial North-West derby.
Rooney's latest comments came after he instructed the Red Devils to offload Ronaldo, 37, earlier this summer, following the Portugal captain's bombshell announcement that he would like to leave. The remarks have been met with a furious response from Morgan, who retaliated by declaring Ronaldo outshined Rooney in his playing days in terms of "talent, success and fitness".
The 57-year-old - who is a vocal supporter of Ronaldo - also brought up Rooney's challenging start to life in the DC United hot seat. The Three Lions' record goalscorer was appointed manager of the Major League Soccer side in July and things reached a new low this weekend as DC United were thrashed 6-0 at home by Philadelphia.
"Rooney has a managerial win record of 28 per cent and his DC United team lost 6-0 yesterday," Morgan wrote on Twitter. "So I suggest he pipes down with the management advice and endless jealous b***hing about @cristiano whose talent, success & fitness levels all dwarf Rooney's."
Ronaldo was not the only United forward who Rooney would like to see drop out of the starting line-up on Monday, as he also called for Marcus Rashford to make way. He told The Sunday Times : "I wouldn't play Cristiano Ronaldo and I wouldn't play Marcus Rashford [against Liverpool].
Are you siding with Wayne Rooney or Piers Morgan regarding Cristiano Ronaldo? Have your say in the comments...
"If I was in Ten Hag's position, my main concern would be getting energy on the pitch and United's failure to recruit a No. 9 means they relied on Ronaldo against Brentford, even though he hadn't trained a lot with the team. He looked like he needs time to get match fit.
"He has also let it be known that he wants to leave the club. I don't know his reasons but, as I wrote in my last column, I'd let him - he's a great player and will always score goals but the task for Ten Hag is to produce a team that can compete for the title in three or four years' time. That means rebuilding with younger players."
Ronaldo was named on the bench for United's opening-weekend loss at home to Brighton and started last weekend's 4-0 thrashing by Brentford.
