Jamie Carragher has criticised Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez for his "awful" comments following the team's 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid. The 28-year-old Argentine took aim at the club's board for their lack of investment during the summer transfer window, singling out director of football Jason Wilcox and stating that he "expects more" from him.
While Martinez's interview has been praised by fans who share his criticism of Wilcox and United's leadership, Carragher believes the defender overstepped the mark. Speaking on CBS Sports, the former Liverpool player said the remarks would dominate the news agenda in the coming days.
Carragher's criticism of Martinez's comments
"Doesn't do anybody any good at all, and they [the quotes] will be the story now for the next few days, all about this," Carragher said. "Every set of supporters don't like the suits, the guys upstairs, so United fans will lap this up and think it's great."
"I think it's awful that he's come out and said that right now, I do. When he's saying they had a fantastic season last season, they didn't. A manager got sacked last season. Sacked," he added, as reported by the Mirror.
United's third-place finish and transfer spending
Carragher also challenged Martinez's assessment of last season, noting that United finished third "because they had no cup games, they weren't in Europe, got knocked out the cup competitions very early." He added that "Liverpool and Chelsea were that bad as well."
He went on to explain why the club did not buy players in the summer, saying: "The reason why they didn't buy players in the summer is because the last four or five years since Martinez has been there, I think they've been in the Champions League once - this season."
"So if every season you don't get Champions League money and every season Manchester United are spending £200million in the transfer market, sooner or later it has to stop because the money's not there," Carragher said. "This summer, the money Manchester United are paying out, it's for players they bought years ago, the next instalment of it."
Martinez's poor start to the season
Carragher also criticised Martinez's performances this season, saying: "I think he's a good player, by the way, he's a World Cup winner, I get that - he's had an awful start to the season. Awful, really poor."
He concluded: "People will lap it up, Manchester United fans will, that doesn't nobody any good at all... This will just be the talk of the town now. This will blow up, explode and I think he's out of order."
