Aston Villa have declared their intention to take legal action against Jamie Carragher, the Sky Sports pundit and Telegraph columnist, over “unacceptable insults about the club and its fans”.

In a statement released late on Friday night, Villa’s co-owner Nassef Sawiris was quoted in a statement announcing plans to sue Carragher for his comments on the Stick to Football podcast.

Carragher sparked anger at Villa and within the club’s fanbase after saying they should “shut the f--- up” in relation to the prospect of manager Unai Emery moving to Manchester United.

Villa’s 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 was comparing the size of football clubs in a discussion with fellow pundits Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Roy Keane.

Emery has been linked with taking over at United if Michael Carrick departs the club as manager. 

He 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 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.

“And there will be teams below Aston Villa, and they’ll take their players or manager, so shut the f--- up Aston Villa fans.”