Tor-Kristian Karlsen Oct 21, 2026, 03:53 AM ET

Lisandro Martínez 's extraordinary postmatch outburst to Amazon Prime following Manchester United 's 2-0 defeat at Atlético Madrid last week highlighted an arrangement that has served the Premier League 's sporting executives rather well: They're influential in picking a club's manager and building the squad, but are nowhere to be seen when the team struggles.

Martínez's comments were an unusually explicit exercise in finger-pointing, and he has since apologized. While players have long criticized their own performances, collective failures or even, occasionally, individual teammates, the manager or head coach has often represented the thinly disguised target.

But Martínez, who has been at the club since 2022, went further: He questioned why United showed a lack of "ambition" in the transfer market and all but named director of football Jason Wilcox as the main culprit.…