Steven Gerrard: King of the Hypocrites

World Cup fever has gripped all of us here at twofootedtackle, but it's been tempered by the fact that I will, metatarsals permitting, have to support one of football's biggest cheats and hypocrites. Steven Gerrard is and has always been a diver and has had the cheek to speak out against diving and deception, claiming that some of the Premier League's well-known foreigners are "ruining the game".

Oh really, Steve? So where exactly does your constant referee-baiting, diving and "over-enthusiastic" tackling fit into all this? The same goes for Fernando Torres, whose previous assertion that he would never dive because it would upset Gerrard is laughable on several levels.

The video above shows the tip of the Gerrard iceberg. My personal favourite moment of Gerrard play-acting comes from Villa Park on opening day a few years ago. Liverpool looked for all the world like they were leaving with only a point, until the brave, brave England warrior spotted a foot being dangled out by Stiliyan Petrov and did the high jump over it from a couple of yards away. Free kick given, he did what he should do best, and found Scott Carson's top corner with a stunning free kick.

And we've all got stories about this player cheating us. He is, in truth, as bad as any foreigner in the English game (now that Cristiano Ronaldo's finally buggered off, that is). And we all know it, because we see him launching himself to the ground week in, week out. The man is an utter disgrace and if I might be so controversial, I'd like to suggest that he is in no position to be throwing stones, lest he smash the windows of his glass chav-mansion.

The most annoying thing about Gerrard's regular bouts of cheating is the utter hypocrisy it creates, not only in himself but in the media. As today's Mediawatch notes, their moral outrage about diving seems to be lost down the back of the sofa whenever "Stevie G" attempts to deceive the referee. I say attempts - in fact the regularity with which he succeeds is sufficient to create yet more frustration at his antics.

Where, pray tell, is the kind of fury directed towards Eduardo, or Gerrard's synchronised swimming partner David Ngog, or even Portsmouth's walking irritant Hermann Hreidarsson? The Pompey man clearly dived to win a penalty on Saturday, and Mediawatch is bizarrely willing to take his word that he just fell over - the nationals are rightly giving him some stick for his dive, but there's no such questioning of Gerrard. Why?

So before we lambast foreigners for "ruining the game" and ask them to kindly refrain from diving on pain of crucifixion-by-media, let's start by getting our own house in order, shall we? And while we're at it, can we stop calling him Stevie f***ing G?