📅 October 14, 2026

Wrong Place, Right Point? How the Media Answered Lisandro Martínez

By Mav Jones · Manchester United fan writer

Read past the headlines about Lisandro Martínez’s interview in Madrid and one thing stands out: almost nobody says he’s wrong. Wayne Rooney thinks he’s partly right, Goal’s columnist says he’s “absolutely right” about the squad, and Sky’s analysis calls his point hard to argue with. The fight is over where he said it, and whether he should have said it at all.

A day on, this is who said what, and what’s being reported from inside the club.

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The former players

Wayne Rooney was on the Amazon broadcast and went first. He gave the substance some ground: “I think in some ways he is right in terms of the club needs to invest more, at the top end of the pitch and in defence as well.” Then he turned on the player. “He is probably one of the players who is out the door through his performances,” he said, and called the interview “a bit disrespectful to his team-mates,” adding that Bruno Fernandes, as captain, is “the only one who has any right to come out and say anything like that,” and even then behind closed doors.

Jamie Carragher, on CBS, was harsher. “This will be the talk of the town from now, this will blow up, explode and I think he’s out of order,” he said, per Football365. His sharpest point was about motive: “It’s funny when players say that, they never talk about their own positions.” He also disputed Martínez’s “fantastic season” line, saying United finished third partly because Liverpool and Chelsea “were that bad as well.”

Rio Ferdinand asked questions rather than giving a verdict. On X: “Has he had these conversations previously with club directors before last night outburst?” On his YouTube channel he said he’d have liked Martínez to “address the dressing room first,” pointed to Roy Keane and Cristiano Ronaldo as players who spoke out and left, and warned: “These things don’t end well, man.” He also asked how the summer signings must feel hearing it.

The columnists

Goal’s James Westwood split it down the middle. “Martinez is absolutely right that United’s squad is not deep enough,” he wrote, but “his comments cannot go unpunished, because they ultimately just bring the dressing room down further.” He wants a fine and a seat out of the Leeds game, and no contract extension.

Sky’s Zinny Boswell went the other way: “Irrespective of Martinez’s motivation, it is hard to argue with his point.” He also said Martínez “cannot claim to have done enough” to earn a new deal, and that players who speak out like this “do not tend to last long.”

United in Focus’s Dale O’Donnell backed him most plainly: “Martinez’s comments struck me as premeditated, but they still hit the nail on the head.”

What’s being reported from inside

This is where it gets serious for him. Sky Sports News was told there’s “anger and bemusement” in the boardroom and the dressing room, and that at least one team-mate challenged him as the squad boarded the flight home. Sky says no decision on discipline has been made, and that there’s no internal pressure on Jason Wilcox, the technical director he was talking about.

The Athletic reports he’s expected to be fined, according to Sportsview’s summary of its story. TEAMtalk’s Graeme Bailey says United “are not happy that the quotes were made in such a public manner” but that Martínez “won’t be sold purely off the back of this.” Fabrizio Romano, on YouTube, went the other way on the squad: “He’s not the only one thinking this in the Manchester United dressing room, I can guarantee this.”

Two older stories are back in circulation. Sky and Goal both bring up 2022, when Martínez reportedly called an Ajax official a “nobody” before he left for United, and Sky says he wanted a move to Atlético in the summer but no suitable bid came. Neither has been confirmed by the player.

What the coverage gets wrong

ESPN’s page title put “Not a Champions League quality squad” in quote marks. He didn’t say it. The phrase isn’t in any transcript of either interview we’ve seen, ESPN’s own included. The closest thing he said was that he expected more investment, “100 per cent.”

Rooney’s “disrespecting his team-mates” line also leaves out what Martínez said next. In the same interview: “I have to be honest, as players we have to do more.” And on Carrick: “He does his best.” He blamed himself and the dressing room before he pointed upstairs. Carragher’s own-position point is fair, though: Saturday’s equaliser came with Martínez marking Dominic Solanke.

Where it leaves him

Our view hasn’t changed since Tuesday: he said what needed to be said. The pundits mostly agree with what he said and object to him saying it on camera. That’s an argument about manners, and it’s a fair one to have, but it isn’t a rebuttal.

His contract runs out next summer and the club holds a one-year option, per Sky, Goal and TEAMtalk. Whether he starts at Elland Road on Sunday is the first real answer. The quotes themselves are in our piece on the interview, and the game is in the match report.

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Sources: Rooney on Amazon Prime and Boswell’s analysis from Sky Sports, 13-14 Oct; Football365 carries the same Rooney points in slightly different wording. Carragher on CBS from Football365 (Lewis Oldham, 14 Oct) and Sky (the third-place line). Ferdinand’s X post and YouTube comments from Football365, 14 Oct. Goal (James Westwood) and United in Focus (Dale O’Donnell), 14 Oct. The dressing-room, flight, discipline, Wilcox, Atlético and contract-option reporting from Sky Sports, 14 Oct, 12:46 UK. The Athletic’s fine report via Sportsview (14 Oct); we haven’t read The Athletic’s original. Bailey and Romano from TEAMtalk (Subhankar Mondal, 14 Oct). The ESPN headline and its full Martínez transcript from ESPN (Mark Ogden, 13 Oct). The 2022 Ajax episode is reported by Sky and Goal. Not included: Paul Scholes’ “never win the Premier League” comments, which some outlets have folded into the reaction but which were about the Spurs equaliser, not the interview.