Paul Scholes believes that Manchester United co-owners INEOS need to move on from Lisandro Martinez, with Nicky Butt tearing into the Argentina international defender.
Martinez has been making headlines for the wrong reasons for Man Utd in recent times.
After Man Utd’s defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last month, Martinez criticised the club’s director of football, Jason Wilcox.
Martinez said that Wilcox should have signed more players for Man Utd in the summer transfer window.
The Argentina international central defender, who cost Man Utd a total transfer fee of £57million when they signed him from Ajax in 2022, subsequently apologized for his comments.
Martinez was also sent off during Man Utd’s 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Premier League at the weekend and drew criticism from Arsenal legend Martin Keown.
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The defender was sent off for two yellow cards, the second of which came when he flung an arm into the face of Wesley Fofana in the penalty box, with Cole Palmer making no mistake from the resulting spot kick.
Former Man Utd midfielders Scholes and Butt have now hammered Martinez.
While Scholes believes that Man Utd need to “replace” Martinez, Butt has gone in hard on the defender.
Paul Scholes gives brutal Lisandro Martinez verdict
Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast: “Even when Ten Hag first signed him, I remember Jamie Carragher’s comments.
“Look, he has been all right at times, but he is never, he is never, he is never going to be a Man Utd centre-half that’s going to be successful.
“There’s absolutely no chance, and that’s probably the full back four now.
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“I think every fan in the world can see it now.
“It might have taken a little bit of time for people to see it about Martinez and Maguire maybe, but everyone apart from people who are at the club who should be trying to replace him haven’t see it, and I find that, I find that remarkable really.”
Nicky Butt tears into Lisandro Martinez
Butt said about Martinez on Football Uncensored: “Performance-wise, he’s been lacking so much.
“And again, I was never the best player. I know my level, I know I had a lot of bad games, but one thing I did every time I went out was run myself into the ground. He threw it in the other day.
“He threw it in with that elbow because that was the most obvious thing anybody could do.
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“And the reason he did it is because he’s not strong enough to defend properly.”
“He has got the audacity to go out onto an interview and s**g off the powers that be about buying players when he is not even playing well himself.
“And if they were going to spend money on players, he’d [ought to] be careful because he’s the first one they’d replace.”
Butt added: “If it was back in my day, he would have completely had his head ripped off.
“Everyone would have said, ‘Who do you think you are talking about me like that with the performances you’re putting in?’
“And even if you’re European Player of the Year, you still don’t talk like that about your teammates.
“He has now gone from – I have no idea why – someone that the fans loved to someone the fans loathe and want out of their football club.”
