{"id":21070,"date":"2026-01-20T11:23:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/rio-ferdinand-replaces-manchester-united-amid-heated-comments-following-brutal-comments-soccer-sports\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T11:23:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:23:28","slug":"rio-ferdinand-replaces-manchester-united-amid-heated-comments-following-brutal-comments-soccer-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/rio-ferdinand-replaces-manchester-united-amid-heated-comments-following-brutal-comments-soccer-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Ferdinand replaces Manchester United amid heated comments following brutal comments | Soccer | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"photo changeSpace\">\n<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/rio-gavin-ferdinand-fomer-manchester-united-player-during-the-spanish-super-cup-semi-final-6685656.jpg?r=1768901634223\" alt=\"Real Madrid vs. Atl\u00e9tico Madrid: Spanish Super Cup\" title=\"Real Madrid vs. Atl\u00e9tico Madrid: Spanish Super Cup\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"newsCaption\">Rio Ferdinand has given his verdict on the dispute between Lisandro Martinez and two former team-mates. <span class=\"caption\">(Image: Getty)<\/span><span class=\"magnifier\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/rio-gavin-ferdinand-fomer-manchester-united-player-during-the-spanish-super-cup-semi-final-6685656.jpg?r=1768901634223\"\/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has come to Lisandro Martinez&#8217;s defense amid public disagreement over Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt. The Argentine defender hit back at comments made by Butt and Scholes ahead of United&#8217;s 2-0 Manchester derby win over their city rivals on Saturday. Now Ferdinand has accused his former colleagues of crossing the line with personal comments when criticizing the United centre-back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Martinez was instrumental in the win as Michael Carrick celebrated his first win as caretaker manager at Old Trafford. The former Ajax defender effectively neutralized City&#8217;s attack and limited Erling Haaland&#8217;s influence up front. This impressive performance came against a backdrop of skepticism from former United players. The Red Devils had not tasted a win since Boxing Day&#8217;s win over Newcastle United and had been through a difficult period under manager Darren Fletcher following the sacking of Ruben Amorim, so there was uncertainty ahead of Josep Guardiola&#8217;s visit to the squad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Martinez later responded to the claims, and Butt also retaliated after Saturday&#8217;s win. However, Ferdinand blames his former team-mates. &#8220;It&#8217;s not a beef. I think it&#8217;s being made to look like a beef. I think there were some things this week that probably crossed personal lines a little bit,&#8221; Ferdinand said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve spoken to Martinez a few times online and in person and he&#8217;s a guy who just wants to do well, win and get back to Man United&#8217;s standards. He&#8217;s keen to see how that goes. He even invited me to go to the training ground and have a coffee. He&#8217;s a sponge. The way he plays is how I feel. He&#8217;s an honest personality and the right type of person to have in the dressing room.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>    Express Sports on FB!** Get all the best sports news and more on our Facebook page** <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>&#8220;If something, within his rights, got on his nerves&#8230;he came out and said it. I think there needs to be some context to this perception. He&#8217;s not saying, &#8216;Come see me anywhere and you&#8217;ll shed tears&#8217; &#8212; he&#8217;s saying, &#8216;If you have a problem, let&#8217;s talk about it to your face.&#8217;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re talking about a World Cup winner here. He knows how to win. I spoke to him after the game and he was quick and clear. We have standards now and we need momentum. What I&#8217;m saying is, if you&#8217;re talking about someone and you feel like you can say the same thing in front of that person, then it&#8217;s fair game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"photo changeSpace\">\n<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/manchester-england-lisandro-martinez-of-manchester-united-celebrates-during-the-premier-6685663.jpg?r=1768901634248\" alt=\"Manchester United v Manchester City - Premier League\" title=\"Manchester United v Manchester City - Premier League\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"newsCaption\">Lisandro Martinez hasn&#8217;t been shy in answering his critics <span class=\"caption\">(Image: Getty)<\/span><span class=\"magnifier\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/1200x712\/secondary\/manchester-england-lisandro-martinez-of-manchester-united-celebrates-during-the-premier-6685663.jpg?r=1768901634248\"\/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>The Argentine defender made a welcome return after sustaining a serious knee injury early in the season, providing vital reinforcements to United&#8217;s backline in a defensive crisis. Martinez wasn&#8217;t shy about addressing Scholes&#8217; criticism after his win at Theater of Dreams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>&#8220;Honestly, he can say whatever he wants to say. He has already told me that if you want to say something, you can come anywhere. To my house, anywhere. I don&#8217;t care. I respect that they want to help the club, because everyone can talk on TV. But when you see[them]face to face here, no one will say anything to your face.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Scholes&#8217; response was more light-hearted: &#8220;Someone had a good game, you were really happy&#8230;Tea, no sugar, please.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>Butt responded more positively, insisting there was no personal animosity behind his comments. The 50-year-old said: \u201cHe was great that day, fair play to him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-description\">\n<p>&#8220;For me, we talk like lads having a conversation. It&#8217;s a joke. It&#8217;s obvious. When people are so angry about someone in the media or on a podcast&#8230; when you say it all, it&#8217;s like a fucking grown-up. If you&#8217;re going to get that emotional about someone saying something about you, you shouldn&#8217;t be at a football club because he&#8217;s going to go through that for the rest of his career at Man United. There&#8217;s no personal issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/2160027\/man-utd-martinez-scholes-butt-ferdinand\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rio Ferdinand has given his verdict on the dispute between Lisandro Martinez and two former team-mates. (Image: Getty) Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has come to Lisandro Martinez&#8217;s defense amid public disagreement over Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt. The Argentine defender hit back at comments made by Butt and Scholes ahead of United&#8217;s 2-0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-matches"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rio Ferdinand replaces Manchester United amid heated comments following brutal comments | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/rio-ferdinand-replaces-manchester-united-amid-heated-comments-following-brutal-comments-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rio Ferdinand replaces Manchester United amid heated comments following brutal comments | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rio Ferdinand has given his verdict on the dispute between Lisandro Martinez and two former team-mates. (Image: Getty) Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has come to Lisandro Martinez&#8217;s defense amid public disagreement over Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt. 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