Rio Ferdinand has said there is “not a chance” Sir Alex Ferguson would have tolerated Lisandro Martinez’s post-match comments after Manchester United’s 2-0 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid, and the defender would likely have been moved on. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand recalled how Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jaap Stam were all “gone” after making similarly scathing public remarks during Ferguson’s tenure at Old Trafford.
Martinez’s explosive rant
Martinez’s outburst came after United’s fifth match without a win, a desperately disappointing start to the new season. The Argentina international told Amazon Prime’s Gabriel Clarke: “I have to control myself a lot but sometimes it’s the reflection, the mirror of how are club is at the moment.”
He added: “We had a fantastic season last season and now we expect more from the top, from up, to bring more players to compete, because many teams bring many players as well. Today Atletico have an amazing team and deserve to win today. I expect more. I expect more from our technical director, but I have to be honest we as players have to do more, but it’s important that we make a strong squad to be ready for this kind of night.”
Martinez was keen to defend Michael Carrick and stressed that United’s problems were unlikely to be fixed by a change of manager. “I don’t think so. He does his best,” he said. “But every season is different, you can’t say what you did last season. Teams know how you play, every detail, if you don’t change next season, it’s a big problem. Changing, changing, changing managers, but what about other areas? I can’t say more. Tonight it’s easy to say the coach, it’s easy to say the players but also we have to say other areas.”
Ferdinand’s verdict
Asked how United’s dressing room would react to Martinez’s interview, Ferdinand said: “I think there’s a couple of things you have to consider before you make a detailed assessment. I think you’ve got to understand what the relationship he has in the changing room is, whether this has been discussed between the players, so the new signings like [Youri] Tielemans, [Carlos] Baleba, [Andrey] Santos, and the guys are fully aware of the context of what he’s saying. Has he spoken to the management? Those questions I think you’d need to have the answers to and I think if I was a player, I’d have liked him to have come to me first or address the dressing room first before he spoke publicly like that.”
Ferdinand added: “These things don’t end well, man. They don’t end well. Roy Keane spoke publicly, there could have been no more influence, bigger player than him, who was the captain at the time, and he left days later. Cristiano Ronaldo called out individuals within the club: the manager, the ownership and he left straight after. Ralf Rangnick looked like he was going to be there for a couple of years as interim manager and he called out things that needed to be done… and I’m not disagreeing with some of what these guys have said by the way. I’m just saying that this is what happens when someone talks out about the hierarchy of the football club.”
Ferdinand believes United’s summer signings have every right to be angry with Martinez if he had not spoken with the rest of the dressing room before going public. “First and foremost, hopefully he’s had a conversation and the players are well aware of how he felt,” he said. “I don’t think it’s called for for the players to be hearing this firstly in the media rather than face to face with one of your team-mates, which makes it an awkward situation in the dressing room.”
He went on: “I’m just thinking about it as a player. How would I feel if I was one of the new guys who have come in? One, I don’t know if they’re at the level but two, also, we haven’t got enough players to compete at this level. So I’d definitely be going [as a new player]: what does he think of me? That’s the question I’d be thinking.”
Ferdinand added: “Do you know what? Lisandro Martinez is a straight-up guy, this tells you that and I think he’ll meet this head-on. Seeing the reaction, I think he’ll then go into the team and go, “Listen, guys, this is how it is, this is what I said. If it came across differently to how I really meant it because of the language barrier then so be it but this is what I really meant”, and I think he’ll probably do that.”
Ferguson’s hairdryer treatment
Asked if Ferguson would have allowed such behaviour, Ferdinand replied: “Not a chance. If that happened in our time and I’ve told you before, when players spoke out against other players or the hierarchy at the club, they were gone. Roy Keane, a different way. But David Beckham maybe just wasn’t doing the things the manager wanted… gone. Jaap Stam wrote a book and hammered a couple of players… gone. He was at the peak of his powers, the best centre-back in the league, and Cristiano Ronaldo and Ralf Rangnick as well.”
Ferdinand recalled receiving Ferguson’s infamous hairdryer treatment after contesting a substitution during a Champions League clash with Bayern Munich. “I bring it back to myself and I think about what it would be like in my situation. Was I ever in a situation where I called out the club?” he said. “The manager [Ferguson] made a substitution against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, I thought it was the wrong substitution and I was going crazy on the pitch, in the tunnel, in the changing room. The manager completely shut me down. I went in the next day and apologised because, in the end, I thought I was wrong, I shouldn’t have gestured and made it clear how I felt on the pitch in the glare of everybody else. I should have gone in the changing room and done it in the changing room which I spoke to him about the next day when I tried to apologise to him. He didn’t accept it, he still hammered me, still fined me, but it’s a bit different. I didn’t come out in the media and personally get at anybody. But he made me know where my place was and not to do that again.”
Ferdinand, who shared a dressing room with Carrick for eight years at Old Trafford, hopes his former team-mate is given the opportunity to turn the situation around. “Let him get us out of this,” the six-time Premier League winner said. “Yeah, I think he’s under a bit of pressure but that’s normal being a Manchester United manager. Let Michael Carrick show us that he can swim against the tide because last season he did fantastically well. Let him have a go and let him work at it, let him see if he can turn this around.”
