Wayne Rooney has criticised Lisandro Martinez for publicly calling on Manchester United to strengthen the squad, accusing the defender of pursuing a personal “agenda” and risking further unrest at the club.
Martinez made the comments after United’s 2-0 Champions League defeat by Atletico Madrid, in which Pablo Barrios and Ademola Lookman scored for the hosts. The result extended Michael Carrick’s side’s winless run to five matches, despite suggestions that their performance had improved.
The Argentina international said United needed greater investment after a successful previous season.
“We did a fantastic season last season and now we expect more from the top, more players to compete because many teams bring many players as well,” Martinez said. “Atletico have an amazing team and they deserve to win today.
“I expect more [investment]. 100%. I expect more from our technical director [Jason Wilcox]. I have to be honest, as players we have to do more but it is also important when you make a strong squad to be ready for this kind of night.”
Rooney, Manchester United’s former captain, said Martinez had gone too far by making those points immediately after the match.
“He clearly cares and wants the club to invest more money and more players, and if they do that, I think he’ll be one of the players out of the door if I’m being honest with his performances,” Rooney said.
“His performances haven’t been good enough but I think in some ways he is right, in terms of the club need to invest more at the top end of the pitch and in defence as well.”
Rooney added: “I think it looks like that was a bit of an agenda from him because that doesn’t mirror the performance. I thought the performance was better.”
He also said the interview was disrespectful to Martinez’s team-mates because it suggested they were not good enough. Rooney felt Bruno, as captain, was probably the only player entitled to make such a public intervention, although he said any concerns should still have been handled privately.
“It’s not going to help the situation the club is in at the minute,” Rooney said. “All that’s going to bring is more noise around it, the players are unhappy, they’re unsettled, they don’t trust in their own team-mates.”
The former United striker believed Martinez’s comments had been planned and may have been partly motivated by his own circumstances.
“It looks like a player trying to look after himself in my opinion,” Rooney said. “He’s probably disappointed he hasn’t been offered a new contract and there’s reasons he’s not been offered a new contract.”
Rooney compared the incident with his own experience of asking Sir Alex Ferguson about potential signings, saying he apologised two days later because he recognised that he had been disrespectful.
Ashley Young, who appeared alongside Rooney as a pundit, accepted Martinez might have had a point but said the players must focus on improving. Young said United had already invested in midfield and could not simply buy a new team, while recruitment needed to improve over time.
“There’s not going to be any change now until January,” Young said.
Rooney said the board might need to address Martinez’s comments, while Young warned they could create divisions before United’s Premier League match against rivals Leeds.
“You’ve got a massive game on the weekend, you need everyone on side, everyone sticking together,” Young said. “With an interview like that, that could have fractions throughout the squad rest of the week and that could derail what this performance was tonight.”
