Aston Villa drop Jamie Carragher legal action after pundit's apology

Villa have dropped their planned legal action against Jamie Carragher after the pundit apologised for his “clumsy and wrong” language.

The club announced on Friday they had begun proceedings against the former Liverpool defender for what they described as “unacceptable insults” he had used while discussing Villa and their manager Unai Emery.

Carragher had drawn the ire of supporters when speaking about Emery as a possible successor to Michael Carrick at Manchester United, claiming he would be interested in the job as he could not win the Champions League at Villa.

The ex-England star later told Villa fans to “shut the f*** up” when discussing the backlash during an appearance on The Overlap podcast.

That prompted Villa to make the extraordinary move of initiating legal action, driven by chairman Nassef Sawiris who, it is understood, had become tired of hearing the club talked down in the media.

Carragher issued an apology on social media early on Saturday afternoon. After that, Villa now consider the matter closed.

Carragher wrote: “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.”

Villa reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League under Emery during the 2024-25 season, going out 5-4 on aggregate to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.

This term they sit joint top of the group phase table with PSG after three matches. Emery’s men travel to Spain on Monday, ahead of facing Barcelona on Tuesday night.