El-Hadji Diouf has made a truly astonishing allegation against Steven Gerrard

If you are a lawyer for Steven Gerrard, or El-Hadji Diouf, then expect a phonecall.

The former Liverpool captain's new book is causing a lot of controversy with digs aimed at Rafa Benitez, details of a horrific penis injury and much more contained in the bits that have been serialised so far this week. Among the extracts over the last few days the midfielder aimed both barrels of his Merseyside drawl at former Liverpool striker El-Hadji Diouf. But now the Senegal striker, who signed for Liverpool in 2002, has hit back in truly astonishing fashion, labelling both Gerrard and Liverpool as racist.

"We all saw how he made life difficult for Mario Balotelli at Liverpool. I warned him. Liverpool isn’t a team that accepts black people unless they are English," Diouf told Senegalese radio station Radio Future Média. "It’s common knowledge. Gerrard has never liked black people. When I was at Liverpool, I showed him I was black, that I wasn’t English, but that I'm no pushover. All the time I was there, he never dared looked me in the eye.”

The claim is a especially bizarre considering the amount of black players that Gerrard has worked with over the years both at Liverpool and in the England set-up and we have no doubt that the allegation will not go unchallenged by the LA Galaxy player.   The Senegal man was signed by Gerard Houllier in 2002, but his time at Anfield was filled with controversy with one of most infamous incidents occurring at Celtic Park when he spat at a home supporter during a Uefa Cup clash. In the extract published by the Daily Mail at the weekend, Gerrard was scathing in his contempt for the former Blackburn striker compared to another Liverpool misfit, Mario Balotelli,

"It seemed to me that Diouf had no real interest in football and that he cared nothing about Liverpool. For example, the way he spat a huge globule of gunky phlegm at a Celtic fan in a UEFA Cup match at Parkhead in March 2003 summed up his contemptuous and spiteful demeanour.

"A few people have since asked me if I saw any comparison between Diouf and Mario Balotelli - and I’ve always said no. I’ve got respect for Balotelli; I’ve got none for Diouf."