Wayne Rooney tells Man Utd and Jason Wilcox what to do about Lisandro Martinez after explosive interview

Wayne Rooney has given his verdict on Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez’s explosive interview after the defeat to Atletico Madrid, in which he took a swipe at the Red Devils’ director of football, Jason Wilcox.

Man Utd’s poor start to the season continued on Tuesday evening, as Michael Carrick’s side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Atletico in Madrid in the Champions League.

The Red Devils ended the game with 10 men after Leny Yoro was sent off in the 74th minute.

After the match, Man Utd and Argentina international central defender Martinez spoke to the media and publicly criticised Wilcox for what he sees as a disappointing 2026 summer transfer window, in which the Premier League club signed Youri Tielemans, Carlos Baleba and Andrey Santos.

Martinez told Amazon Prime: “We did a fantastic season last season, and now we expect more from the top, more players to compete because many teams bring many players as well.

“Atletico have an amazing team and they deserved to win today.

“I expect more [investment]. 100%. 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 this kind of night.

“Tonight it is easy to [blame] the coach, easy to say the players, but also we have to see other areas.”

The Man Utd defender added: “You can’t keep changing, changing, changing the manager. What about other areas? I can’t say more.

“Last season we did everything, we created the base to create an amazing team.”

Man Utd legend Rooney has given his take on Martinez’s comments and has urged the club’s co-owners, INEOS, to punish the 28-year-old.

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Wayne Rooney wants Man Utd to punish Lisandro Martinez

Rooney told Amazon Prime: “The board have to look at that, and they probably have to take some action on that, because that’s just disrespecting the whole football club.

“Yes, there’s issues, everyone wants more players and better players, but this is the players you’ve got.

“As a player, you’ve got to get on with it. You’ve got to go and show why you’re a World Cup winner, as I said before.

“So, I think the board have to either come out and speak on it, or maybe he’s done that to flush them out and get them to speak to the fans, but I just think it’s the wrong time, and it’s not going to help anyone.”

Addressing Martinez’s decision to speak out after the defeat to Atletico, Rooney said: “It’s a difficult one because I always used to feel like I was outspoken as a player, and you want to have your opinion, but I think he’s maybe gone too far; that should be down to the manager, and that should stay internal because the fans want to hear the players speak and they want to see them care.

“He clearly cares and wants the club to invest more money and more players, and if they do that, I think he’ll be one of the players out the door if I’m being honest with his performances.

“His performances haven’t been good enough but I think in some ways he is right, in terms of the club need to invest more at the top end of the pitch and in defence as well. I think it looks like that was a bit of an agenda from him because that doesn’t mirror the performance. I thought the performance was better.”

Rooney continued: “I think Martinez was very premeditated.

“Why is he doing the interview after this game? Has he put himself forward, I very rarely hear him speak.

“It looked a bit premeditated and something he spoke about with his team to get out there.

“It’s sad because when you need everyone to stick together as players, you can’t be told what’s going on above you.

“So you need them players, the manager, the coaching staff to stick together when you’re having a difficult time; otherwise, something like that will rip a dressing room apart.

“I think it’s a bit disrespectful to his team-mates as well because he’s disrespecting his team-mates, he’s saying they’re not good enough.

“So he’s saying his team-mates aren’t good enough, so it’s disrespectful.

“I think Bruno is probably the only one who has any right coming out and saying something like that if I’m being honest as captain. And even then, it should be behind closed doors if there are issues, which does happen.

“Players have conversations with the manager, the manager then has a conversation with the board, but that interview there, it’s not going to help the situation the club is in at the minute.

“Now all that’s going to bring is more noise around it, the players are unhappy, they’re unsettled, they don’t trust in their own team-mates, that’s not going to help at all.”

Rooney was then pressed on whether he thinks that Martinez was attempting to align himself with sections of the Man Utd fanbase.

The Man Utd legend responded: “I don’t think he’s really connected with the fans since he’s been here, to be honest, because he’s been injured a lot.

“I actually like him, I think he’s a good player, but he’s been injured, so for the money the Man United pay for him, he hasn’t given the service back really.

“From that point of view, that’s not me being disrespectful, I just think he’s had a lot of injuries and hasn’t played that much.

“So I think he’s trying to speak on behalf of the players if you like, but I think he’s done it in the wrong way, as I said before, I think that should be from the captain if that’s the case. For me, it’s disrespectful to his teammates. I had a similar situation when I went in and asked Alex Ferguson about what players we were bringing in, and I apologised two days later.

“So I can speak from experience of what he’s just done, I think it is very disrespectful, there’s a lot of young players in that dressing room as well that need some guidance from experienced players.”

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