Lisandro Martinez and Bruno Fernandes are the textbook examples of actions speak louder than words ever could after Manchester United’s 2025-26 campaign.
Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez already hold important influence in the Manchester United first-team and Old Trafford dressing room — and rightfully so.
However, both Martinez and Fernandes have not cowered from the off-field challenge that they have faced during United’s Premier League season.
Whether it is Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt or Roy Keane, Martinez and Fernandes have both stepped up in their own ways to deal with a contentious problem.
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Bruno Fernandes’ dismantling of Roy Keane is no different from Lisandro Martinez’s handling of Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt
Neither Paul Scholes nor Nicky Butt did themselves any favours with Manchester United fans after their frankly embarrassing criticism of Lisandro Martinez.
When accountability came knocking for their words, Class of ‘92 stars Butt and Scholes continued to intensify their war of words with Martinez for no point.
Martinez, on the other hand, came out better after he stood up for himself and wanted United legend Scholes to come to his house for face-to-face talks.
Roy Keane’s ranting and raving in recent weeks saw the legendary former Man Utd captain lose sight of his main reason to criticise Bruno Fernandes again.
The 54-year-old Irish hardman misquoted what Fernandes had said in a post-match interview, and Keane was rightfully dressed down for his poor comments as well.
Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Fernandes said: “Like I’ve always said, I don’t mind criticism, I’ve always taken criticism from everyone and anyone and I never reply to anything or whatsoever. People have an opinion, they think it’s good [or] bad, whatever.
“What I don’t like is when people lie about things and [in] this case that you said about Roy Keane basically, what he said is a lie because […] either he saw some other interview or he can’t say that I said one thing that I’ve just not said and, luckily for me, everything is on record.
“I accept his criticism, I accept that he might like me as a player or not, like me as a person or not.
“But what I don’t like is that he puts words in my mouth that have not been said, that’s the only thing I don’t like.”
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Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez are rightly holding Man Utd legends to account for their terrible armchair punditry
Talk is cheap, and both Fernandes and Martinez are the shining examples of where other United first-team players must put their foot down over lazy punditry.
It was a breath of fresh air to see Martinez handle Scholes and Butt in a professional way and for the two United legends to dig themselves further into a hole afterwards.
Fernandes has matched the energy of his Man Utd teammate and rightfully put Keane on blast for not even getting his facts right amid his criticism around him.
For far too long, Man Utd legends have simply ranted and raved about anything and everything in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era of the Premier League club.
However, Fernandes and Martinez have shown the essential blueprint to make bigger fools of the likes of Scholes, Butt and Keane without even trying.
The ball is in Keane’s court to come out and apologise to Fernandes or show his true colours by digging himself into the same hole that Scholes and Butt did before him.
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