The feud between Paul Scholes and Lisandro Martinez at Manchester United dates back to last season. Briefly there was talk of a meeting between the two of them to clear the air and the reasons why it never happened vary pretty wildly depending on who you talk to. Scholes claims he gave Martinez his number but never received the call.
It’s hard to blame the Argentina defender, really. The day you take criticism of your performances so personally that you seek validation through conversation is the day you may wish to reassess your priorities and focus as an athlete.
As we have detailed on Daily Mail Sport before, criticism from ex-players tends to land pretty heavily in the home dressing room at Old Trafford.
‘It p****s them off,’ a United source told me recently.
In terms of the Class of 92 and others such as Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney, it is understood that they are comfortable with what they say.
‘I wouldn’t expect the players to be happy about being criticised,’ one of them told me recently.
‘But what do they want us to do? Say they play well when they don’t?’
Moving forward, the path ahead for the likes of Martinez would appear to be clear. Just turn your phone off and play better.
The Argentina defender was magnificent at the weekend as United tore Manchester City to pieces with a throwback performance at Old Trafford. But taking to social media afterwards to goad Scholes and his podcast partner Nicky Butt – who simply will not give a damn – over comments they made in the build-up was utterly self-defeating and only serves to fan the flames of an issue that new head coach Michael Carrick needs to die down as soon as possible.
Scholes and Butt were fine players and both have subsequently coached, at Oldham and at United age group levels respectively. Now, though, their main profile comes through the podcast they do with the comedian Paddy McGuinness. The podcast market is crowded. Only the loudest and most memorable snippets of conversation make themselves heard through the chatter of ex-pros, journalists and super-fans.
So Scholes, Butt and the producers of The Good, The Bad and The Football are winning right now. They are being heard and talked about. They have found themselves a podcasting sweet spot and last night sat at No9 in the Apple podcast charts. There will be money in that.
Some of what they say is deadly serious and other bits – as Butt points out on this week’s episode – are tongue in cheek. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the two and this is one of the reasons why players such as Martinez should silence their notifications and just stop listening.
It’s hard. Officials at United told me recently how all the reactive opinion from the greats of United’s past simply end up on the phones of the first team squad whether they look for them or not. They are sent the clips. By friends, family and agents.
On his own podcast last week, Gary Neville said United players have always had to put up with this. He was wrong on that. Two decades ago the ‘enemy’ was the print media while occasional darts were those thrown by name columnists and pundits in the Match of the Day studio.
Now, if you play for a club like United in fallow times, the criticism must feel overwhelming and never-ending. It can be hard to escape from. But engaging in this stuff is the road to ruin for a Premier League footballer.
Some of the barbs from Butt and Scholes do feel a little childish and maybe even disrespectful given Martinez is a World Cup winner. Butt suggested on Monday the United player should ‘f***ing grow up’ but that all felt a little pots and kettles.
The whole saga has felt a little unedifying but Martinez presented his response during 95 excellent minutes on the field on Saturday. That was his answer – that was the best of him – and as such it needed no further decoration or elaboration.
