Nicky Butt's Scathing Message to Lisandro Martinez: 'Grow Up!'

The war of words between Lisandro Martínez and Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt escalated on Tuesday night with the Manchester United defender told to “f------ grow up” and warned he should not be at the club if he cannot handle criticism. Martínez raged at Scholes and Butt in the wake of United’s 2-0 victory over Manchester City on Saturday, telling the pair to come “to my house” and criticise him “face-to-face” after reacting angrily to being mocked. It followed the former United players claiming on their podcast that Erling Haaland would “pick Martínez up and run with him” like a dad carrying his toddler and that the City striker would “score then throw him in the net”. Now Butt and Scholes have used the latest edition of The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast to hit back at Martínez and question why the World Cup winner has allowed “tongue-in-cheek” remarks to get to him. “We’re a podcast and are like three lads in a pub having a conversation,” Butt said to Scholes and presenter Paddy McGuinness. “We’re not on Sky doing commentary on a game. It’s tongue in cheek. It’s quite obvious that Haaland is not going to pick him up and run with him. It’s f------ obvious that. It’s a figure of speech. “I just think when someone gets so upset about someone in the media or on a podcast saying something about him, to come out and start basically saying, ‘They can say what they want’ and ‘Come to my house’ and all that. F------ grow up. “If you’re going to get so emotional about someone saying something about you and come out and react like that you shouldn’t be at a big football club. “There’s no personal issue with us with Martínez. I just feel it’s really sad that someone gets so upset about something like that. Knock on my house? I’m 50 years of age. I’m not going knocking on someone’s house saying, ‘Can we have a chat?’ It’s just ridiculous. If you’re going to get that precious you better be s--- hot every week.” Scholes revealed that Martínez had contacted him previously on Instagram after being unhappy with something he said. “We exchanged messages on Instagram quite some time ago,” the former United midfielder revealed. “He weren’t happy with something I said in the past. I can’t remember what it was. And he just said he’d lost all respect for me. I wouldn’t have said this normally but he’s come out and said stuff, so why not? He said he’d lost all kinds of respect for me. “I actually sent him my phone number on that chat we had and I’ve not heard anything. You’re at Man United, probably the biggest club in the world, so at some point – as we did as players – you are going to take some criticism and have got to deal with that. I don’t remember Becks [David Beckham] ever fighting back. “It [the comments] were very much tongue in cheek. The point we were trying to make is physically they [Haaland and Martínez] are a mismatch. “Now look, possibly we could have worded it better, I don’t know – it doesn’t sound brilliant when you watch it back. But … we’re just having a laugh. If it was about you, you’d probably be upset. But you’ve got to give him credit, he was brilliant on the day.” Scholes and Butt both made a point of stressing how impressive Martínez was against City and Haaland. But Scholes – who said his Instagram had “blown up” with lots of “very threatening” messages in Spanish – claimed he was still uncertain how good the Argentina defender is. “He’s had one brilliant game and when you start talking or shouting your mouth off as you do, this game has a habit of coming back and biting you on the a---,” he said. “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 – yes, brilliant – but you’ve got to do that over a period of time to show you can win the league.” Rio Ferdinand, meanwhile, has accused his former Old Trafford team-mates of crossing a line with their remarks about Martínez. “It’s not beef, I think it’s being made out to be beef,” the former United defender said on Rio Ferdinand Presents. “This week I think there has been some stuff that has probably been just over borderline, personal. He is within his rights, if something gets on his nerves... he has come out and said it.”