Football Daily | Aston Villa, ‘unacceptable insults’ and thin-skinned clutching of pearls

When Jamie Carragher appeared as a pundit on Sky Sports Super Sunday, Football Daily was surprised he didn’t have a solicitor sitting alongside him, occasionally jotting notes on a pad or leaning over to give whispered instructions and answer “no comment” to any leading questions about Trey Nyoni starting ahead of Ryan Gravenberch. On Friday night, the former Liverpool defender was subjected to a threat of legal action from Aston Villa, who took such grave exception to some “unacceptable insults” he had rained down on them from his podcast pulpit, that they were ready to call in the heavy legal artillery and stop him from preventing their “ascension in English and European football”. Taking a leaf out of the tried-and-much-ridiculed Nottingham Forest playbook, Villa chair Nassef Sawiris appears to have eschewed contacting Carragher through the usual formal channels and instead cajoled some unfortunate junior comms staffer to make the portentous announcement on their Social Media Disgraces.

Villa’s threat came on the back of some fairly obvious observations he made on Stick To Football, when he pointed out that English football has a food-chain and despite their commendable successes in recent seasons, Villa aren’t quite as high up it as the richest man in Egypt might like to think. During a debate about the likelihood of Unai Emery leaving Villa to take over the soon-to-be-vacant head coach’s job at Manchester United, Carragher had said the Spaniard would “want that opportunity to manage a giant again”, before pointing out “there is a chain in football, whether you like it or not”. As controversial footballing takes go, it was right up there with pointing out that bears defecate in the woods and Pope Leo XIV wears a funny hat. “So shut the [eff] up Aston Villa fans,” honked Carragher, hitting his stride. “Aston Villa will never be Manchester United.”

Of course, with this being football, there is always a danger that explicitly signposted and totally anodyne badinage will inevitably be misinterpreted by thin-skinned folk who are desperate to be offended. But it is usually self-professed terminally-online superfans, not multi-billionaire club chairs whose hands instinctively reach for their pearls. While it remains unclear what exactly it was he said that was actionable, Carragher subsequently apologised for his comments. “I’d like to apologise to Aston Villa, the owners & their fans,” he trumpeted from his soapbox in the digital town square. “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!”

It has now been reported that Villa have dropped their threat of unspecified legal action against Carragher but it remains to be seen if Fulham can look forward to hearing from their lawyers after helping to prevent their ascension up the league after [Snip! Snip! Snippety-snip! – Football Daily Lawyers] at Villa Park on Saturday night.

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“I’m not always showing my emotions, but it’s really touching. So maybe it looks like I’m an ‘ice king’, so to say. Normally in Holland we say ‘ice queen’, but therefore an ice king because I’m not a woman. But for me, it is really important that this happens and it comes close to my heart. Guys who inspire people on the pitch with something people off the pitch and in the stands love to see. That is what football is about” – Hibs head coach Marink Reedijk gets emotional after watching fans’ rendition of Sunshine on Leith, in the wake of their 2-1 Skol Cup semi-final win over Hearts at Hampden.

OK. I know readers are going to say I’m only writing about this because I’m a Liverpool fan and VAR looked the other way when a clear and obvious shirt pull prevented Alexander Isak from a free header a few yards from goal. But, every week, a different team has a similar beef while commentators debate over whether the shirt was held for long enough, as if there were a time limit stated in the rulebook. And the infuriating thing is that unlike pushing and tripping fouls, no refereeing judgment should be required: it’s either a fist-full of shirt or it’s not. And unlike handballs, shirt pulls are always intentional and always illegal. So, if I had a spare £1.057bn or so and could buy a team, I’d outfit my players in paper-thin jerseys that would tear away without holding them back. Better league-wide solutions would not be hard to imagine or implement, but no, the Premier League must clearly feel that refereeing controversies are one of the sport’s main attractions and probably can point to social media disgraces as evidence. The beautiful game?” – Steve Plever.

Friday’s Football Daily letters gave us offerings from L Json and Stewart McGuiness, which caused me to wonder who would be the recipient of the coveted prizeless prize. Scrolling slowly down, I was shocked. Nothing. Not even a benign ‘rollover’ announcement. Just … nothing. Beyond ruining the weekend for the 1,057 regulars, imagine the pain this inflicted on your contributors all weekend long” – Peter Rehwaldt (and 1,056 others) [our apologies; by way of contrition, we now have prizes all this week – Football Daily Ed].

Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day goes to … Steve Plever, who wins a copy of Programmes! by Richard Crooks. It’s out now and available to buy on the Pitch Publishing website. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here.

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