Aston Villa have dropped their threat of legal action against Jamie Carragher after the pundit apologised for telling the club’s fans to ‘shut the f*** up’.
The Premier League club hit out at the former Liverpool defender for making what they labelled as ‘unacceptable insults’ on the Overlap podcast last week.
The row had centred on comments made by Carragher in which he pushed the idea of Aston Villa boss Unai Emery becoming the next Manchester United manager.
It escalated further when Carragher doubled down, telling Villa fans to ‘shut the f*** up’ as he claimed that Emery would be interested in managing a ‘giant’ again and declared ‘There is a chain in football.’
On Friday, Aston Villa shared a statement on club channels carrying the name of co-owner Nassef Sawiris, reading: ‘Aston Villa will initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher for his unacceptable insults about the Club and its fans.
‘Aston Villa will not allow anyone to stop our ascension in English and European football. Nassef Sawiris, Chairman.’
Aston Villa have dropped their threat of legal action against pundit Jamie Carragher
Carragher had been pushing Unai Emery towards the Manchester United job on The Overlap podcast and claimed that Villa ‘will never be’ United. (Source: TheOverlap/YouTube)
Aston Villa had threatened legal action on Friday, with Carragher apologising the following day
Carragher issued an apology on Saturday afternoon in an attempt to defuse the situation.
‘I’d like to apologise to Aston Villa, the owners & their fans,’ Carragher wrote on social media.
‘My language this week was clumsy & wrong. I can assure Villa fans it was tongue in cheek but I can understand it’s not come across that way, so apologies. Good luck today UTV!’
Fans were left stunned at the response by Villa to Carragher’s comments, seemingly innocuous linking Emery, who is admired at Old Trafford, to the Manchester United job, which may soon be available with immense pressure on Michael Carrick.
‘I think Unai Emery is unbelievable with what he does year after year. That amount of change, players needing time to settle and he does it year after year,’ Carragher had said.
‘But the reason I’m going to go back at Villa fans is I can’t believe that a manager who is so successful in the Europa League, take a player, if you’d won the Europa League three or four times (Emery has won it five times) surely you’ll then want to go for the Champions League.
‘Aston Villa will never be Manchester United. I just think he didn’t do well at PSG or Arsenal, and maybe that’s because of egos in the dressing room and that sort of thing.
‘But surely he would want that opportunity to manage a giant again. There is a chain in football, whether you like it or not.’
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