Martínez exposes Man United's harsh reality: Blame lies with top brass, not Carrick

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MADRID -- Manchester United's players do have some fighting spirit after all. But it epitomizes the dysfunctional nature of one of the world's biggest and most underperforming teams that Lisandro Martínez chose to go into battle against the club's owners and decision-makers after Atlético Madrid inflicted yet another defeat in a miserable season.

In a bombshell postmatch interview with broadcaster Amazon Prime, Martínez delivered the inconvenient truth that the men who control United have allowed to team to fall behind its rivals due to serious underinvestment.

The supporters have complained about it for years, first under the Glazer family and now under minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, but now that a senior player in the dressing room has gone public with his frustrations, it feels like the lid of a pressure cooker has been blown off.

Martínez was one of the many players at fault on the pitch as United suffered a 2-0 UEFA Champions League loss at the Metropolitano -- their third defeat in five games -- but he delivered his most convincing performance of the season in front of the microphones in the moments after the game.

The Glazers, United's hugely unpopular majority owners since 2005; Ratcliffe, who watched on from the stands in Madrid; CEO Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox will be sitting uncomfortably the next time they dial in for a video conference. Martínez implicated all of them by ripping into the club's failure to back manager Michael Carrick in the summer transfer window.

"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," Martínez said.

"Atlético have an amazing team and they deserved to win today, but I expect more [investment]. 100 percent. I expect more from our technical director [Wilcox].

"Tonight it is easy to say [blame] the coach, easy to say the players, but also we have to see other areas," he said, pointing up for emphasis.

"You can't keep changing, changing, changing the manager. What about other areas? I can't say more."

United manager Carrick, the embodiment of a diplomat, attempted to defuse the situation when asked about Martínez's comments, suggesting they were an "emotional" reaction to the defeat. Whether his words were premeditated or a rush of a blood to the head, the 28-year-old has now exposed the reality of life at Old Trafford.

United spent just £150 million on new signings this summer -- midfielders Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos -- and failed to bolster Carrick's squad with a new left back and cover for center forward Benjamin Sesko.

Other areas were overlooked, too. United don't have a Premier League-standard right back and lack depth in all departments, but with left back Luke Shaw and Sesko absent through injury against Atlético, the club's parsimony in the transfer window was punished by its defeat against Diego Simeone's side.

Manchester City (£450m), Chelsea and Spurs (both over £300m) and Liverpool (£227m) all heavily outspent United this summer, as did promoted Ipswich (£190m) and Hull City (£151m), despite Carrick's already-small squad needing reinforcements for their return to the Champions League.

"You can't stay with what you did last season," Martínez added. "The teams knows how you play, they know every detail. If you don't change next season, it's a big problem."

And so it is proving on the pitch, with Carrick now in the middle of a worse run -- one win in seven games -- than those that finished off his immediate predecessors, Ruben Amorim and Erik ten Hag, who were both fired after winning twice in their last seven games.

Amorim was dismissed after a draw at Leeds United in January. That is where United and Carrick head to next on Sunday, but Martínez's comments are likely to galvanize the players and supporters against the owners and directors -- for now, at least.

But who is actually to blame? Martínez pinpointed Wilcox as technical director (his official title is director of football), but the former Manchester City academy director can only spend what he is authorized to spend by Berrada, who is given his financial parameters by Ratcliffe and the Glazers.

Wilcox perhaps should have pushed harder for more funds due to the obvious lack of quality and depth, so he failed in that area. The same applies to Berrada, who has rather ambitiously targeted a title win in 2028 to mark United's 150th anniversary.

But if billionaires such as the Glazers and Ratcliffe refuse to unlock more funds from one of the world's most commercial successful sports teams, the blame surely rests with them.

There is inexperience and incompetence at every level of United's senior management, and Martínez is right, albeit steering wildly out of his lane, to shift the focus to his ultimate bosses.

On the one hand, it shows that the United players care and are hurting as much as the supporters. Neither group wants to see their rivals flourishing under more ambitious and convincing bosses.

But Martínez will know he is stirring up a hornets' nest of anger among the club's fans. It will intensify the heat on the Glazers and Ratcliffe, and they have only themselves to blame.

If you control a monster of a football club like Manchester United, you have to feed it properly.

Neither the Glazers nor Ratcliffe have done that. The fans have had enough, and so has at least one of their star players.