Martinez Slams Manchester United Board Over Summer Transfer Woes

Lisandro Martinez, defender for Manchester United, has sharply criticized the club's board, citing a perceived lack of investment during the summer transfer window. This comes in the wake of the team's Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.

Manchester United is currently experiencing a winless streak of five matches across all competitions, with the 2-0 loss in Madrid marking their worst league start in 40 years. "Really poor," Martinez stated to Amazon Prime when asked about the team's performance against Atletico. He added, "I have to control myself a lot but sometimes is a reflection… [or] mirror of how our club is at the moment."

Martinez expressed that he had "100 percent" anticipated greater investment in the squad over the summer, especially after Manchester United secured third place in the Premier League last season and qualified for Europe's premier competition. "I expect more from our technical director [Jason Wilcox], I have to be honest, as players we have to do more, but it is also important when you make a strong squad to be ready for these kind of nights," he continued.

The Argentine defender noted that while the club had "created the base to create an amazing team" last season, they failed to build upon it. Pressure is mounting on coach Michael Carrick, whose team has not won in five games. However, Martinez suggested that changing the manager might not be the solution. "You can’t keep changing, changing, changing the manager. What about other areas? I can’t say more," Martinez commented. "Tonight it is easy to say the coach [is to blame], easy to say the players, but also we have to see other areas."

Minority owner Jim Ratcliffe was present at the stadium to witness the team's loss to last season's semi-finalists. Manchester United invested approximately 140 million pounds ($185m) this summer on midfielders Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans, and Andrey Santos. However, fans expressed dissatisfaction with the club's failure to strengthen other key positions, such as left-back and striker.

Speaking to reporters after the match, Carrick stated he had not heard Martinez's comments and therefore could not comment on them. "I think it’s a little bit on the emotions of the game as well, of coming here and being disappointed not to get something from the game," the coach remarked.

Former Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney deemed Martinez's criticism excessive. "I think he’s maybe gone a bit too far, and that should have stayed internal," Rooney told Amazon Prime. "You can clearly see that he cares and he wants the club to invest more money in more players, and to do that he’s probably one of the players who’ll be out the door if I’m being honest."