WHEN RED DEVILS HIT BACK! 9 Man Utd players who have turned on their own club after Martinez's furious outburst divides fans

Lisandro Martinez has dropped a bombshell on Manchester United with his post-Atletico Madrid tirade. But he's far from the first player to speak out against the club publicly.

By their lofty standards, Michael Carrick's United have started this campaign poorly. They've won just a single Premier League game from six and have already been sent packing from the Carabao Cup after losing 3-2 to Brighton. On Saturday, they failed to beat 10-man Tottenham and drew 1-1 to the ire of supporters.

Tuesday's European clash away at Atletico offered an outside chance of redemption, but it ended in a 2-0 defeat. United conceded inside the first minute and were never truly in the game, losing Leny Yoro to a red card in the 74th minute and conceding the second, decisive goal five minutes later.

Post-match, defender Martinez spoke to Amazon Prime and unleashed a scathing rant. He attacked the hierarchy, saying he expected more investment in the summer and singled out technical director Jason Wilcox. The Argentine claimed that United's current squad lacks the quality to compete in the Champions League but deflected blame from his manager.

The outburst has rocked Old Trafford, but United have weathered similar storms before. Mirror Football takes a look back at eight other players who publicly spoke out or rebelled against the club.

One of the more recent examples came from the now clubless Jadon Sancho. After signing for United in 2021 for £73million, the winger endured a miserable time of things. His situation reached a boiling point in September 2023 when manager Erik ten Hag publicly questioned his efforts in training and left him out of a matchday squad to face Arsenal.

Sancho was not best pleased and took to social media following the game, writing: "Please don't believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that [are] completely untrue. I have conducted myself in training very well this week. I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won't go into. I have been a scapegoat for a long time which isn't fair!"

The player refused to apologise for this statement and was loaned out to his former club, Borussia Dortmund, in January 2024 after being exiled. Time at Chelsea and Aston Villa followed before his United contract expired this summer.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 27 goals in his second stint with United. But it will always be remembered for his groundbreaking, explosive interview with Piers Morgan. In November 2022, the Portuguese icon had grown tired of manager Ten Hag after being dropped to the bench and also held reservations about United as a whole.

He appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored and infamously tore into his club with a handful of criticisms and opinions. Ronaldo admitted he had been seeking a move earlier that summer and said: "Manchester United tried to force me out.

"Not only the manager, but the other two or three guys who are around the club [at the senior executive level]. I felt betrayed. I don't care, people should listen to the truth. Yes, I felt betrayed."

He also directly called out the Glazer family and stated: "The progress was zero. Since Sir Alex left, I saw no evolution in the club. Nothing had changed." And he said about Ten Hag: "I don't have respect for him because he doesn't show respect for me."

Needless to say, Ronaldo's contract was soon terminated and he headed to Saudi Arabia to join Al-Nassr, where he continues to play at the age of 41. Although his Portugal career could now be over after yet another public outburst during the latest international break.

A few months before Ronaldo's outburst, goalkeeper Dean Henderson, now of Crystal Palace, took a pop too. Like CR7, Henderson had grievances with the hierarchy and previous management, having just sealed a loan move to Nottingham Forest.

He felt frustrated by what he considered broken promises regarding the goalkeeping position at Old Trafford and the potential replacement of David de Gea. The Englishman appeared on talkSPORT shortly after joining Forest and reflected: "It has probably been the toughest 12 months of my career.

"The conversation I had coming out of the Euros squad was, 'You're coming back here to be the No. 1.' I got Covid, came back, so I should have still been the No. 1, but then unfortunately nobody followed through with what they had told me. It was frustrating because I turned down so many good loans last summer for that reason, and they would not let me go.

"To sit there and waste 12 months, it is criminal really. At my age, I was fuming. I told the hierarchy that I need to be playing football, I don't want to be here and play second fiddle, it was planned out. I was almost gone before the manager (Ten Hag) came through the door. I have not spoken to him since."

The goalkeeper was still a United player when these statements were made, but, as expected, he wasn't for much longer. He signed for Palace in 2023 after his Forest spell ended and has gone on to lift the FA Cup, Conference League and Community Shield with the Eagles.

Paul Pogba became the world's most expensive player when he swapped Juventus for a return to United in 2016, but his homecoming was littered with troubles.

Under Jose Mourinho in 2018 he lashed out at the tactics and said: "When we are at home we should attack, attack, attack. That’s Old Trafford. We are here to attack."

But the midfielder also aimed a dig at his club in 2020 whilst on international duty with France. Having been dropped to the bench by Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Pogba said of playing for his country: "The France team is a breath of fresh air, the group is exceptional, it's magic. It's not that in the club we don't have fun, but here it's not the same. We laugh, we have fun, it's a family."

In 2022, he left Old Trafford and went back to Juventus, but just a year later, he was provisionally suspended after failing a drugs test. In 2024, he received a four-year doping ban, but this was later reduced to 18 months. He signed for Monaco in 2025 but departed this summer. He is now a free agent.

In August 2019, Romelu Lukaku - a big-money £75m signing from Everton in 2017 - was facing a diminished role under manager Solskjær and sought a move away. But with transfer negotiations ongoing, he appeared on NBA player Josh Hart's LightHarted Podcast.

Lukaku unleashed, saying: "A lot of stuff has been said where I didn't feel protected. I felt like a lot of rumours, 'Rom going there', 'They don't want Rom', and nobody came out to shut it down.

"It was for a good three, four weeks. I'm waiting for someone to come out and shut it down. It didn't happen. I just wanted you to say, 'Rom is going to fight for his place,' but it never happened for four, five months."

The podcast was filmed just days before he completed a transfer to Inter Milan, where he spent two years before returning to England with Chelsea in another ill-fated spell that blew up with an infamous interview. He then headed back on loan to Italy with Inter and Roma before signing permanently with Napoli in 2024. Lukaku currently plays for Fenerbahce.

Wayne Rooney is a United legend and won five Premier League titles at Old Trafford. But things could have been so different: in October 2010, he demanded to leave the club, claiming they could not match his ambitions.

He said: "I met with [United's chief executive] David Gill last week and he did not give me any of the assurances I was seeking about the future squad. I then told him that I would not be signing a new contract.

"I have had a number of meetings with the club about a new contract. During those meetings in August, I asked for assurances about the continued ability of the club to attract the top players in the world. For me, it's all about winning trophies, as the club has always done under Sir Alex. Because of that, I think the questions I was asking were justified."

Just 48 hours later, a new contract was put in front of Rooney, which he duly signed. He spent the next seven years at United before leaving for a year at Everton. Rooney played for D.C. United and Derby County before hanging up his boots.

United snapped up Carlos Tevez on a two-year loan from West Ham in 2007 and he proved a hit up top alongside Rooney and Ronaldo. However, when 2009 rolled around, and he still hadn't been offered a permanent deal, he publicly expressed his dissatisfaction.

"I've been waiting for a year-and-a-half for them to make an offer," he said. "I don't know what my future is. United know what they have to pay if they want me to stay.

"It annoys me that they're beginning to play games with the people who cheer me with such affection in every match... If I have to leave the club then I want to leave in a good way."

And leave Tevez did. The Argentine eventually signed a deal to join rivals Manchester City in July 2009. His time at the Etihad Stadium was just as tumultuous, and he left in 2013 for Juventus, later playing for Shanghai Shenhua and Boca Juniors before ending his career in Argentina in 2022.

Perhaps the most brutal, unfiltered interview ever given by a United player occurred in October 2005 and featured, you guessed it, Roy Keane. United had just been beaten 4-1 away at Middlesbrough and Keane had been booked to appear on MUTV for a post-match segment.

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In the segment, Keane took aim at pretty much everything and everyone at the club, and the programme was subsequently never broadcast. The Irishman was slapped with a £5,000 fine and never played for the Red Devils again. But the recording leaked in early November 2005.

Amongst the ravings, some things stood out, such as: "I wasn't surprised by the result, I had been expecting one like this. I am sick of having to say it and they (the players) are sick of listening to me. They have let down the club, the manager, and the fans."

He specifically took aim at several players, including Darren Fletcher, saying: "I can't understand why people in Scotland rave about Darren Fletcher." On Kieran Richardson, he said: "He is a lazy defender who deserved to get punished. He wasn't doing his job."