Man Utd legend tells Lisandro Martinez to ‘grow the f*** up’ as row intensifies | Football | Sport
Nicky Butt has told Lisandro Martinez to “grow the f*** up” after the defender took issue with remarks Paul Scholes made ahead of the Manchester derby. Manchester United legend Scholes had suggested that Erling Haaland would score and “then throw him in the net” while talking about Martinez. Butt further claimed: “Haaland would pick Martinez up and run with him, you know, when you see a dad at school running down the road with a little toddler.”
However, the Norwegian failed to find the net, with United maintaining a clean sheet at Old Trafford and Pep Guardiola withdrawing his star striker in the 80th minute as the Red Devils won 2-0. Following the derby, Martinez addressed Scholes’ pre-match comments, stating: “Honestly, he can say whatever he wants. I told him already, if he wants to say something to me, he can come to wherever he wants, to my house, wherever, I don’t care.
“And I think for me, I respect the relations when they want to help the club because everyone can talk on the television, but when you see [them] 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.”
Scholes subsequently replied via Instagram, posting: “Someone’s had a good game, was really happy for you.” Addressing the invitation to Martinez’s home, the pundit quipped: “Tea, no sugar, please.”
Butt and Scholes have now responded at length to Martinez’s comments on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast. Butt started: “For me, we are a podcast, and we talk like three lads in a pub having a conversation. We are not on Sky doing commentary on a game.
“It is tongue in cheek, and it is quite obvious that Haaland is not going to pick him up and run with him. It is f*****g obvious that. It is a 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 basically say they can say what they want, come to my house and all that, f*****g grow up.
“It is literally if you are going to get so emotional about someone saying something and come out and react like that, you shouldn’t be a big football club because I am telling you now he is going to get that for the rest of his career at Manchester United.
“You get your ups and downs, and I got so much crap when I played at Man United and Newcastle, but then next week you get your plaudits, and you get clapped at. There is no personal issue with Martinez and us. None.”
