Aston Villa's chairman Nassef Sawiris signed off a letter claiming that they planned to initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher
Jamie Carragher, former footballer and tv pundit portrait before the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 Round of 16 Second Leg match between Liverpool FC and Galatasaray SK
Jamie Carragher has apologised after being threatened with legal action by Aston Villa(Image: (Photo by Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images))
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Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has apologised to Aston Villa's owners and fans after the Premier League club planned to initiate legal action. The Sky Sports and CBS Sports pundit described his language as 'clumsy and wrong' after a tongue-in-cheek remark where he told supporters to 'f*** off'.
Carragher made light of the Villa supporters bombarding his social media after lavishing praise on Unai Emery and putting him forward to replace Michael Carrick at Manchester United.
However, his comment on the Stick to Football podcast prompted an angry statement from the Villa chairman Nassef Sawiris who accused Carragher of insulting their fans and vowing to "not allow anyone to stop our ascension in English and European football".
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Aston Villa take on Fulham tonight (8pm kick-off) but the build-up to the game has been overshadowed by the statement, released late on Friday night, signed off from the Villa Park hierarchy. However, Carragher has moved to simmer tensions and issued an apology on X.
He said: "I’d like to apologise to Aston Villa, the owners & their fans. 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 (Up The Villa)!"
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The Europa League holders can move to within touching distance of Liverpool with a win over Alvaro Arbeloa's side at Villa Park. Emery has guided the Midlands club back into Europe and ending their long wait to return to the top on the continent, winning silverware with a comprehensive win over Freiburg.
They have made a strong start in the Champions League too, winning their opening three matches. With the Red Devils boss under immense pressure, successors had been mooted with replacing Carrick, in doing so Carragher tipped Emery.
He said: “Aston Villa will never be Man United.”
He said: “I’m not trying to annoy Villa fans but there is a chain in football, whether you like it or not. So Real Madrid will take Man United’s best player, they’ll take [Cristiano] Ronaldo. There’s very few above United, the same with Liverpool.
“But there will be teams below Aston Villa and they [Villa] will take their manager or they will take their players, so shut the f*** up Villa fans. Aston Villa will never be Man United.”
It prompted a short statement posted on the Villa official X account, which has been viewed at the time of writing 9.9 million times, which read: "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"