Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt have continued their war of words with Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez, with Butt telling the Argentine to “grow up” over his response to criticism.
After playing his part in United’s 2-0 win over City at Old Trafford, Martinez challenged Scholes to speak to him face-to-face after he and Nicky Butt had mocked the defender’s size before his battle with Erling Haaland, suggesting the Norwegian would “pick him up and run with him”.
Scholes said he had previously exchanged messages with Martinez on social media and given the player his phone number but had “not heard anything”.
But responding directly to Martinez’s comments on the latest edition of his The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast, Scholes’ joint-host and former team-mate Butt said: “It’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s obvious Haaland isn’t actually going to pick him up and run with him, it’s a figure of speech,” he said.
“I think when someone gets so upset about something in the media or a podcast…to come out and say, ‘Come over to my house’, f****** grow up.
“Literally, if you’re going to get so emotional about someone saying something about you, you shouldn’t be at a big football club because you’ll get that for the rest of your career at Man United.
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“I got so much crap when I played at United and Newcastle, but the next week you get plaudits and clapped at. There’s no personal issue with us and Martinez, none.”
Scholes praised Martinez’s display but said he still has some doubts about the 28-year-old.
“It fuels people,” he said of criticism. “I think we have to take a bit of the credit for Martinez’s performance on Saturday!”
But he then warned: “He’s had one brilliant game, but when you start talking and shouting your mouth off, this game has a habit of coming and biting you back on the a***.
“I haven’t changed my opinion yet. I’m still not sure you can win a league with him. He’s got to do it over a period of time. What he did on Saturday, brilliant, but you’ve got to do it over a period of time.”
Butt said Martinez’s reaction to their comments raised questions about his mentality.
Butt pointed to the experience that he and the rest of United’s ‘Class of 92’ had when Alan Hansen famously said on Match of the Day “you can’t win anything with kids”. A teenager at the time, Butt said that taught him to deal with criticism.
“I was 18, not 26 or 27,” he said. “I didn’t want to go out of the house for weeks, but you man up and go and prove people wrong.”
