There has been a war of words between both Paul Scholes and Lisandro Martinez after the Man United legend criticised the defender.
Paul Scholes spoke again about his comments on Lisandro Martinez
Paul Scholes spoke again about his comments on Lisandro Martinez(Image: )
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Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has refused to apologise for his comments on defender Lisandro Martinez which has led to a war of words between the two, as well as Nicky Butt.
Following the comments, where Scholes questioned Martinez's ability to deal with Manchester City's Erling Haaland, the defender hit back. After helping United to keep a clean sheet against City, he invited Scholes to his house to speak to him 'face to face'.
That prompted a response from Scholes on social media, who added "tea, no sugar pls." Scholes' former teammate Butt also told Martinez to 'grow the **** up."
Scholes has now given his latest response to the situation. While he has admitted he probably didn't make the comments in the right way, he has refused to apologise.
When asked by Jamie Carragher on the Overlap fan debate if he made some money from his comments on his own 'The Good, the Bad and the Football' podcast, Scholes replied with: "No comment. I didn't realise how many Argentinean friends I had until this week. ******* hell, I've had some **** off them, Jesus. But hey, look, that was my opinion.
"Do you know what? What we said probably wasn't great when you look back."
Carragher then asked if he was backtracking on his comments to which he replied: "No, I'm not apologising for it, no. The thing we were trying to say was - we thought - and it still is: physically, it's a mismatch.
"Now look, the way we described it probably wasn't great and we probably shouldn't have done that but still: it was [a mismatch]. He's had one good game [smiles].
Paul Scholes spoke again about his comments on Lisandro Martinez
Paul Scholes spoke again about his comments on Lisandro Martinez(Image: )
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"How many, two? I hope to God he proves me wrong, but look at the week before against Brighton, Danny Welbeck. Look at the week before that: Burnley. He gave the goal away against Burnley.
"I can see why he was offended by it, and that's why I say we probably worded it not in a great way. And look, I hope he proves me wrong.
"He's had a great game against City, he was brilliant but we've got to see that now for a season. And again, on Sunday, it's a big one for him."
Internet personality and United fan Adam McKola asked: "Do you realise the impact of your words as you're saying them? Or is it just 'me and my mate having a chat'?"
Scholes replied: "I haven't really, as much. Probably since them comments, there has been a lot of backlash towards it.
"Toxicity is the word that you use and a lot of people probably have labelled that at me and Nicky for the last few days. It's not something we like doing.
"We want to see the team winning, we want to see the team successful every single week. You go back to when we played and when Jamie played, you did get a bit of criticism.
"I think it's probably more so now than it ever has been that people are speaking their mind. And you've got to deal with it.
"You've got to realise you're at probably - well, definitely - one of the biggest clubs in the world and you are going to take a little bit of criticism at times, especially when it's not going as well as it has, or as well as it could do."