Online Reporter
NICKY BUTT has told Lisandro Martinez to “f***ing grow up” after the Manchester United defender hit back at pundit criticism ahead of the Manchester Derby.
Former United star Butt gave a stinging verdict on the Argentine and said he “shouldn’t be at a big club” if he couldn’t handle comments from ex-players.
Butt had initially joked that Erling Haaland would “pick him up and run with him” on the Good, the Bad and the Football podcast.
Fellow pundit Paul Scholes, meanwhile, had claimed the striker would “score then throw him in the net”.
Their comments backfired as United secured a memorable 2-0 win over Pep Guardiola‘s men in Michael Carrick‘s first game in charge.
Martinez gave a stern message to the pundits after the game when quizzed about their comments.
He said they should give their criticism “face to face” and even claimed they could “come to my house”.
However, Butt − who played 387 times for United − was unimpressed with Martinez’s response, calling him “emotional” as he defended the pair’s words as “tongue and cheek”.
Butt told the podcast: “We’re not on Sky doing commentary on a game. It’s tongue and cheek. It’s quite obvious Haaland’s not going to pick you up and run with him.
“It’s f***ing obvious that. It’s figure of speech. I just think when someone gets so upset about someone in the media or on a podcast, saying something about them.
“To come out and start basically saying they can say what they want after a game, come to my house and all that. It’s like f***ing grow up.
“If you’re going to get so emotional about someone saying something about you, and come out and react like that, you shouldn’t be at a big football club.
“I’m telling you now, he’s going to get that throughout the rest of his career at Manchester United.
“You’re going to get your ups, you’re going to get your downs. I got so much c**p when I played at Manchester United and Newcastle.
“But then the next week, you get your plaudits and you get clapped at. There’s no personal issue with Martinez.”
Scholes later doubled down on his criticism of Martinez and said: “I’m still not sure that you can win a league with him.”
Martinez has started five games for United this season after returning from a long-term ACL injury in November.
The 28-year-old, who joined the Red Devils in a £56m deal from Ajax in 2022, insisted he didn’t care what pundits had to say about his displays.
He told reporters: “I think for me, I respect the relations [former players] when they want to help the club because everyone can talk on the television, but when you see here face to face, no one says anything in your face.
“So for me, I don’t really care what they say. I just put the focus on my performance, the performance of the team and I give everything to this club until my last day. It doesn’t give me anything. My motivation is my family. That’s it.” − Sun
