Jamie Carragher insists he’s glad Unai Emery is not moving to Manchester United

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery looks set to stay and sign a new contract at the club, and Jamie Carragher insists he’s glad he won’t be taking the Manchester United job.

Villa were furious with Carragher’s comments and threatened legal action before he apologised, though he’s now written about it again in his latest column for the Telegraph.

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The pundit insists there’s no denying that Man Utd are bigger than Villa, even if the latter is arguably the better place to be at the moment.

Either way, he’s just relieved Emery looks set to stay with AVFC as he would only have made United better, which, as a former Liverpool player, is obviously not something he’d want to see.

Jamie Carragher on Unai Emery

“When he commits to a new deal it is great for Villa and the Premier League, underlining how settled he is.

“But it is a valid question whether being consistently praised as a coach who thrives at teams who are not expected to challenge for league titles and the Champions League has become a patronising, backhanded compliment.

“No world-class manager – and Emery is certainly that – can be happy being perceived as “better outside the elite”. That reputation is based on a difficult period at Arsenal, and a spell at Paris St-Germain where he enjoyed domestic success. He fell short in Europe in Paris, so is bound to be compared unfavourably with Luis Enrique.”

He added: “United clearly are not at the level of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG right now. But when any manager goes to Old Trafford, over the course of their contract they will be expected to build a team that will go head to head with those European giants. Anything less is failure.

“Villa are not judged to that standard.”

Villa’s threat of legal action certainly seems a bit silly, with Carragher explaining himself quite well here, even if he perhaps went a little overboard with the tone of his comments before.