Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes did not take kindly to recent comments from Manchester United defender Lisandro Martínez, claiming the Argentina international needs to “f------ grow up.”
The subject of Old School vs. New School has been a prevalent issue at United for a while now, with Martínez the latest to find himself embroiled in a war of words with part of Old Trafford’s history after facing criticism from Butt and Scholes, who predicted the Argentine would be thrown around like a “little toddler” by Manchester City’s Erling Haaland in the recent derby.
After Martínez’s expert handling of the City striker, he challenged Butt and Scholes to “come to his house” and voice their issues face-to-face.
Martínez’s performance attracted praise from Butt and Scholes on their subsequent episode of The Good, The Bad & The Football, before the former United pairing opted to bite back at Martínez’s initial response.
“For me, we talk like lads in a pub having a conversation,” Butt began. “It’s tongue in cheek.
“I think when people get so upset about someone in the media or on a podcast ... saying “come to my house,” it’s like ‘f------ grow up.’
“If you’re going to get so emotional about someone saying something about you and react like that, you shouldn’t be at a big football club.
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Butt added: “I’m 50 years of age, I’m not going knocking on someone’s house saying “can we have a chat?’
“It’s just ridiculous ... and if you’re going to get that precious, you better be s--- hot every week.”
Scholes Reveals Previous Private Clash With Martínez
Scholes, meanwhile, conceded the duo could have worded their comments about Martínez better, but echoed Butt by insisting criticism is part of the job when you play for United.
The former midfield maestro then went on to reveal a previous run-in with Martínez which he had initially opted to keep private.
“We exchanged messages on Instagram quite some time ago,” Scholes said. “He wasn’t happy with something I said in the past. I wouldn’t have said this normally but he’s come out and said stuff so why not?
“He said he’d lost all kinds of respect for me. As Nicky said two minutes ago, you’re at Man Utd, probably the biggest club in the world. At some point, as we did as players, you are gonna take some criticism. You’ve got to deal with that.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Grow Up’—Man Utd Legends Continue Explicit Feud With Lisandro Martinez.
