Nicky Butt calls Lisandro Martinez a 'bluffer' and demands Man Utd sell him after Chelsea red card

Nicky Butt has called for Manchester United to sell Lisandro Martinez, branding the Argentine defender a ‘bluffer’ following his red card in United’s 2-0 Premier League defeat at Chelsea on Saturday.

Martinez, 28, conceded a penalty and was dismissed for an elbow in what proved another damaging afternoon for both player and club. It was the latest in a run of high-profile errors, including being outmuscled by Tottenham striker Dominic Solanke, who scored a stoppage-time equaliser against United earlier this month.

“That lad’s a bluffer, full stop,” Butt said on the Football Uncensored podcast. “Just a bluffer. The Butcher, his nickname is.”

The former United midfielder, who has a prior dispute with Martinez after the defender publicly challenged Paul Scholes following comments made on a podcast, was unsparing in his assessment. “He’s come out and called out a player who’s won 11 Premier Leagues for Man United,” Butt said of Martinez’s response to Scholes. “‘You come and see me and knock on my front door’ — you can’t speak anything about these players because they get all touchy with it.”

Butt also took aim at Martinez’s post-match interview from earlier in October, in which the defender criticised the club’s board and director of football Jason Wilcox for failing to strengthen the squad in the transfer window. Martinez was subsequently fined for those comments but has continued to start under manager Michael Carrick.

“He’s got the audacity to go out onto an interview and slag off the powers that be about buying players when he’s not even playing well himself,” Butt said. “If they were going to go and buy players, he’d be careful because he’s the first one they’d replace. Performance-wise, he’s been lacking so much.”

On the red card itself, Butt was equally damning. “He threw it in the other day. He threw it in with that elbow because that was the most obvious thing anyone could do. The reason why he did it is because he’s not strong enough to defend properly. He thought, ‘I’ll cut corners, I’ll cheat, I’ll put my elbow in someone’s face and I’ll get sent off and I’ll leave all the other 10 lads’ — who, by the way, he said two weeks ago weren’t good enough to play with him.”

Martinez joined United from Ajax in 2022 for a reported fee of around £57 million and was widely regarded as one of the club’s standout performers in his debut season. His form this campaign, however, has drawn increasing scrutiny, and Butt’s comments reflect a growing frustration among sections of the United fanbase.