Martínez's criticism lays bare the ruinous state of Manchester United's ownership
Quick summary
An opinion piece by Jonathan Liew arguing that Lisandro Martínez's public criticism of Manchester United's hierarchy exposes the deeper dysfunction caused by the Glazers' and Jim Ratcliffe's ownership.
Full article
Attributed to original sourceDefender may not be blameless in team’s struggles but his criticism goes to the heart of what has gone wrong at the club
Heartbreaking: the worst defender you know just made a great point. And no, nobody would describe Lisandro Martínez as the ideal person to scrutinise Manchester United’s indifferent start to the season , given that his high-profile defensive errors against Fulham and Tottenham are partly responsible for it. “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this,” Martínez burbles on Amazon Prime after United’s 2-0 defeat by Atlético Madrid on Tuesday night, dressed in a hot dog costume and throwing his arms out in mock innocence.
For those with no interest in engaging with what Martínez actually had to say, this alone will be sufficient grounds to ignore him. Already you can sense the squeamishness of former players for whom the violation of an omertà is the real cardinal sin here, a phantom limb that still tingles years after they last stepped into a dressing room. “Disrespectful,” reckoned Wayne Rooney. “I don’t feel like he’s got the right,” agreed Ashley Young. “These things don’t end well, man,” Rio Ferdinand observed on his podcast.
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What happened
Writing in The Guardian, Jonathan Liew uses Lisandro Martínez's recent public remarks about Manchester United's leadership — including comments about Jason Wilcox — as a springboard to examine the club's structural decline under Glazer family ownership and the Jim Ratcliffe era. Liew argues that the chaos on and off the pitch is a direct product of an ownership model that prioritises commercial extraction over sporting coherence. The piece frames Martínez, one of United's marquee signings, as a symptom rather than a cause of the club's troubles, and questions whether any managerial appointment can succeed within the current framework.
Chance analysis
Manchester United's problems have often been framed as a series of managerial or recruitment missteps, but Martínez's willingness to speak publicly points to something structural. When a senior player feels compelled to call out the club's football leadership, it signals that the disconnect between ownership, the boardroom, and the dressing room has become impossible to paper over. The Ratcliffe minority takeover was sold as a reset, yet the same gravitational forces that defined the Glazer years — short-termism, cost-cutting, and a revolving door of footballing decision-makers — appear to remain in place. For supporters, the question is no longer who sits in the dugout but whether the club's governance model is compatible with competing at the top of European football.
Manchester United face ongoing uncertainty around dressing-room morale and sporting direction, which could continue to undermine on-pitch performance regardless of managerial changes.