If looks could kill.
You’d be hard pressed to find a prouder Liverpudlian than Steven Gerrard. Hailing from Whiston in the borough of Knowsley, he loves the city, its people, and of course the football. Thusly, he doesn’t react well to jokes about his part of the world.
This was patently evident on Wednesday night.
Of all the stereotypes about Liverpool, perhaps the most harmful is that the city and its inhabitants are defined by poverty. It’s a type of lazy stigma and class-shaming that is both disrespectful to proud working-class people, and belies a mercantile tradition and enterprising present.
You certainly wouldn’t expect someone from a similarly great northern working-class city like Sheffield to mock Merseyside for a lack of wealth or means, but Neil Warnock did just that during BT Sport’s coverage of Plymouth Argyle vs Liverpool.
After the FA Cup tie, Warnock made a weird joke about people in Liverpool not having windows, which was both insensitive and lame. It was particularly disrespectful because he was seated only a metre away from Gerrard, who did not appreciate it.
Straight-jacketed by live television and public view, Gerrard was unable to react, other than to give Warnock the most withering of looks. In many ways it said it all…
Gerrard’s face. pic.twitter.com/r31BNlHAnp
— THE ANFIELD WRAP (@TheAnfieldWrap) January 18, 2017
