🚨Nemanja Vidić on Lisandro Martínez potentially leaving Manchester United after speaking out against the club’s board:
“Let me tell you something, Manchester United board. If you think pushing Martínez out will solve this problem, then you haven’t understood anything. You are the problem!
This is a football club, not a dictatorship. A player should not be punished for telling the truth about what is happening behind the scenes. If his words make you uncomfortable, maybe it’s because he has exposed something you don’t want people to see.
And to the fans attacking him, what exactly do you want? Do you want players to keep their mouths shut while this club continues to fall apart? Do you want them to smile, collect their wages and pretend everything is fine?
Martínez is one of the best defenders at this club. Look at his quality, his passion and what he brings to the team. Do you honestly think replacing him will fix Manchester United?
He is not asking for his teammates to be thrown out. He is demanding change! There is a massive difference.
Manchester United have fallen so far that speaking the truth has become a crime. That is shameful!
If the board cannot accept criticism, cannot fix the problems and cannot take this club forward, then what exactly are they still doing there?
This club belongs to its history, its supporters and its footballing identity…. not to the people running it today. If you cannot restore Manchester United, step aside and let someone else do the job!”
🚨Sir Alex Ferguson considering a sensational return to Manchester United for one season:
🗣️"Honestly, I've been watching this team, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to sit back and do nothing.
I'm seriously considering coming out of retirement, even if it's just for one season.
Manchester United means everything to me, and I cannot watch this club continue to struggle like this.
I've already held discussions with the owners and the board about the possibility of returning.
We have discussed what it would take to bring this club back to where it belongs.
I'm not promising miracles, but I know what it takes to build a winning team at Old Trafford.
This club needs discipline, character, accountability, and players who understand what wearing that shirt means.
Too many people have forgotten the standards we established here.
Manchester United was never a club where players could hide after poor performances.
If I return, nobody will be bigger than the club, regardless of their reputation or transfer fee.
I may be retired, but my love for this club has never disappeared.
If I can help restore the winning mentality, even for one season, then perhaps it's time to consider one final challenge.
Manchester United is my home, and I will never stop caring about its future.
🚨 Lisandro Martínez: “I expect more from our technical director”. 💣
“If you don’t change, next season it’s a big problem”.
“You keep changing managers but what about other areas?”.
“It’s easy to say coach, players, but also we have to see others?”, says via @NathSalt1.
🚨 Luis Figo on Portugal reportedly considering a farewell match for Cristiano Ronaldo:
“I think Portugal are beginning to understand something they should have understood before all this happened.
When you call Cristiano Ronaldo, you don’t call one player.
You call millions of people.
I know this because I’ve travelled around the world.
You go somewhere where people cannot name three Portuguese cities, but they own a Portugal number seven shirt.
Why?
Cristiano.
There are children in countries with absolutely no connection to Portugal who grew up celebrating Portugal goals because one Portuguese boy became their hero.
There are professional footballers playing today who were those children.
So when Portugal play, they watch.
When Portugal win, they celebrate.
When Portugal lose, they suffer.
Portugal inherited one of the biggest fanbases in football without signing anybody.
Cristiano brought it with him.
And this is why I never understood how the situation was allowed to become so ugly.
You can bench Cristiano Ronaldo.
You can tell him his role is changing.
You can prepare a national team for life without him. Of course you can. Football continues.
But with somebody this important, you manage the ending.
You don’t improvise it.
Cristiano has his own family, his own people, his own management, millions of supporters watching every decision. Portugal has its federation, coach, players and supporters.
When something goes wrong between those two worlds, you don’t throw it into public and then act surprised when everybody chooses a side.
Now I read they may bring him back for one final match.
Good.
But if true, don’t bring him back because you suddenly remembered he deserves applause.
Bring him back because you finally understand what the goodbye means.
I remember once somebody asked me what Portugal would lose when Cristiano retired.
I said, ‘Goals.’
I was wrong.
The goals are actually the easiest thing to replace. Eventually somebody else scores.
What you cannot easily replace is the little boy in Africa who has never visited Lisbon but asks his father when Portugal play.
The kid in Asia wearing number seven.
The young footballer in Brazil, America, the Middle East, everywhere, who supports his own country first but somehow also wants Portugal to win.
Those people came with Cristiano.
Portugal should make sure they don’t leave with him.
Because Cristiano retiring from Portugal should never mean Cristiano’s supporters retire from Portugal.
That’s the opportunity here.
Give him the farewell. Let the next generation stand beside him. Let him embrace them. Let people see him leave smiling and, afterwards, see him in the stands supporting Portugal like any Portuguese man.
Then something beautiful happens.
The next time Portugal play, Cristiano isn’t on the pitch.
But millions of people who arrived because of him are still watching.
That’s how you handle the end of an era.
The greatest legacy Cristiano can leave Portugal isn’t that everybody remembers him.
It’s that millions who came for Cristiano decide to stay for Portugal.”