Lisandro Martinez Apologises and Is Fined After Criticising Manchester United Hierarchy

• Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez apologised on Thursday for criticising the club’s hierarchy after the Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid, and it is understood he has been fined.
• Martinez said he met the club’s leadership and the manager and called it a “very positive conversation”, while the club still have to decide whether to extend his contract by 12 months.
• Roy Keane described United as “like a circus” and Gary Neville said that in the shoes of Harry Maguire or Bruno Fernandes he would be “absolutely fuming” with Martinez.

From “I’m Not Going to Close My Mouth” to a Formal Apology in Two Days

Lisandro Martinez has said sorry. Two days after he used a post-match television interview to criticise the people running Manchester United, the Argentina defender released a statement on Thursday saying the frustration of defeat led him to speak at “a time and place that perhaps were not the right ones”.

BBC Sport reports that Martinez has been formally punished by the club for the outburst. It is understood the punishment is a fine. The club now treats the issue as closed, but the question of his long-term future at Old Trafford is still open.

What Martinez Said in Madrid

The trigger was Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Speaking to US broadcaster CBS, Martinez said he had expected more investment in the squad in the summer. “I expect more from our technical director,” he said. BBC Sport notes he got the job title slightly wrong, but nobody doubted he meant Jason Wilcox, United’s director of football.

The interviewer was United great Peter Schmeichel, who tried four times to steer Martinez away from the subject of the summer transfer window. Each time, the defender refused to be deflected. “We don’t have the best squad at the moment compared to other top teams,” Martinez said. “I’m not going to close my mouth. We need more ambition. If we don’t say the truth, nothing will change.”

On Wednesday he posted on social media that he “spoke out of anger and frustration” at not getting the result the team wanted. BBC Sport noted that he stopped short of an apology at that stage, but he said he believed in his teammates, manager Michael Carrick and everyone working to help the club move forward.

The Statement That Closed the Row

The apology followed talks at the club on Thursday. “Today I met with the club’s leadership and the manager,” Martinez wrote. “It was a very positive conversation, where we were able to exchange views and speak openly about what happened after Tuesday’s game.”

He then accepted that his words had not helped. “The frustration of the defeat led me to express how I felt at a time and place that perhaps were not the right ones, and for that I want to apologise,” he said. He added: “Our club is at its best when we are all united, and I recognise that my words in that moment did not help with that.”

The statement ended with a line aimed at the dressing room. “With this situation now behind us, we are fully focused on winning together,” Martinez wrote.

Keane and Neville Take Aim

The pundits did not wait for the apology. Former United captain Roy Keane, speaking on The Overlap podcast, said the episode reflected the state of the club. “I think as a reflection of the club, it’s obviously chaos there, like a bit of a circus,” he said.

Keane had a message for the player too. “The issue I have with certain players saying things is you always have to start with the man in the mirror before you start coming out with all these comments,” he said. He also questioned Martinez’s standing in the squad: “I don’t see him as a senior player at Manchester United. I see him as a centre-half who’s making lots of mistakes.” Keane does not expect a major fallout, as there are already question marks over the dressing room, he said, adding that he does not think there are enough characters in it.

Former United defender Gary Neville took a different line. He compared the incident with comments made by Wayne Rooney in 2010, when Rooney pulled out of contract talks and said he had not received “any of the assurances I was seeking about the future squad”. Two days later Rooney signed a five-year deal and later said staying was the best decision of his career.

Neville said he had a problem with the comments from a player’s perspective. “That is a direct attack on the players you are playing with,” he said. Had he been Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes or any other senior player, he said, he “would be absolutely fuming” with Martinez, and he read the remarks as saying the current players should not be there.

The Contract Question

Martinez is 28 and his contract expires at the end of the season. United hold an option to extend it by another year, and BBC Sport reports they have yet to decide whether to use it. There is understood to be significant doubt over the centre-back’s long-term future at the club.

BBC Sport’s Simon Stone raised the question of whether Martinez was trying to make sure the option is not triggered, which would let him leave for nothing in the summer or for a lower fee in January. Stone also pointed out that Martinez is good friends with Atletico defender Cristian Romero, who spoke to him after Tuesday’s game. Romero was just as forceful against the Tottenham hierarchy last season.

Wilcox, the Summer Signings and the January Plan

Stone reports that United sources say Wilcox, 55, is not in any danger of losing his job. The club’s recruitment department is working on potential January targets, and the club accepts that its strategy of not signing competition for left-back Luke Shaw and striking support for Benjamin Sesko was flawed. Sesko is sidelined indefinitely with a recurrence of a shin problem.

The summer outlay was £155m. The signings were Carlos Baleba, who missed the first six weeks of the season with injury, Andrey Santos, who has been an unused substitute in the last three Premier League games, and Youri Tielemans, whose form has been patchy. Sources questioned why Tielemans was signed for £35m and whether the £50m committed to Santos would have been better spent on a first-choice player. When Amazon Prime asked Tielemans about Martinez’s comments on Tuesday night, he replied with “no comment”.

Carrick Faces the Questions Before Leeds

Carrick deflected questions about the outburst immediately after the game. He holds a news conference on Friday ahead of the trip to Leeds United on Sunday, 18 October, and will face more questions there. BBC Sport reports that sources close to the head coach are adamant there is no better person to handle the turmoil.

The timing is awkward. United have not won in five games after beating Sabah in the Champions League on 10 September. They have won two of their nine games this season and sit 13th in the Premier League with six points from six matches. Whether Carrick picks Martinez at Elland Road remains to be seen.

For Martinez, the apology closes the public argument with the club. It does not settle the contract decision, and it does not answer the points he raised about the squad. Those are now with the people he criticised.