Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan is baffled as to why Jamie Carragher apologised to Aston Villa fans and owners in recent days.
Aston Villa chairman Nassef Sawiris signed off a statement on Friday evening insisting that the club was preparing for legal action against the Liverpool legend.
The statement 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.’
Carragher angered some Aston Villa supporters by claiming that Unai Emery would be interested in taking the Manchester United job if he was offered the position.
Speaking on Stick to Football, Carragher said: “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.
“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 of four times surely you’ll then want to go for the Champions League.
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“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.
“So Real Madrid will take Manchester United’s best player, they did it with (Cristiano) Ronaldo. And they will be teams below Aston Villa, and they’ll take their players or manager, so shut the f*** up Aston Villa fans. Aston Villa will never be Manchester United.”
After telling Aston Villa fans to “shut the f*** up”, Carragher said on social media: “It was a joke after the stick Villa fans have given me over saying Emery may fancy joining Man Utd.
“I hope these clown clips show me praising Emery/Villa like I have done for years & saying how pleased I was you won [the 2026 Europa League] in Istanbul.”
Before Carragher took to X on Saturday to apologise to Aston Villa and their supporters, he said: “I’d like to apologise to Aston Villa, the owners & their fans,” he wrote. “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!”
However, Jordan thought Carragher’s comments were just “banter” and was confused as to why he apologised to the Aston Villa fans and owners.
Jordan said on talkSPORT: “There’s one thing suing someone for defamation when they have deliberately besmirched your football club and been misrepresentative in their observations.
“But I don’t know what Jamie said that was innaccurate. You might not like it, but that’s called freedom of speech, it’s called having an opinion, that’s what he’s paid to do.
“When I listened to it, I thought Jamie was just having banter with Aston Villa fans who have probably given him a load of abuse for something else he said about Villa.
“So I would assume Jamie has been told to apologise. I would assume he’s been lent on by an organisation that don’t want to ruin their relationship with the football club.
“I was saying the other day that Emery needs to leave Villa and go to to a bigger football club if he wants to achieve the things he wants to achieve because the governance is there…
“So I assume I’ll be getting it soon. Because on that basis, what, you can’t have an opinion?”
‘So if it’s not really actionable, what are you saying sorry for?’
Arsenal legend Martin Keown raised the possibility that the expletives went too far, he added: “He’s backed off and he’s apologised. Maybe it’s easier just to do that.
“I just think it’s a little reminder to people the way they are in the media, how we speak, what we say. Just hold respect.”
To which Jordan replied: “Context and nuance is everything.
“Jamie was, from what I can see, sitting in an environment with his little mates having a chat in their podcast world showing out. And in the conversation, things get said tongue in cheek.
“It wasn’t an aggressive way of saying, he was basically saying to Aston Villa fans: ‘Get lost with your outrage’. So he’s not allowed to say that now…”
The former Crystal Palace chairman continued: “I have bought action on newspapers as a football club owner on the basis of damages…I cannot see, despite you might not like what he had to say, what is actionable about that.
“So if it’s not really actionable, what are you saying sorry for?
“Are you saying sorry because someone told you to say sorry or have you suddenly woke up in the morning and thought that was a terrible thing that I said?
“Would Jamie have apologised if he hadn’t been told there was impending legal action?
“I don’t know what it is. I would have had to say to Aston Villa: ‘Go on then, fill your boots, sue me, make a fool of yourself!’
“What exactly are you suing more for? Because you don’t like my tone of expression? When did that become actionable. Is there anything fundamentally untrue about what he said?
“In the food chain, Aston Villa are not a legacy football club. They are a brilliant football club, with a brilliant fan base, and they will take managers and players off lesser-than clubs.
“And in this instance, Villa are a lesser-than club that Liverpool and Man United and the big clubs in European heritage. That is not on a front, that probably is a reasonable observation.
“You can’t sue someone because you don’t like the language.”
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