Manchester United have enough problems without players turning post-match interviews into a public grievance list. Yet that is where the club now finds itself, after Lisandro Martinez used the fallout from the 2-0 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid to question the ambition of the people running recruitment.

It was a bad result, made worse by context. United were already under pressure, Michael Carrick is under scrutiny, and a team reduced to 10 men offered little resistance in Madrid. Then came Martinez, airing frustration at technical director Jason Wilcox and effectively asking why more was not done in the market after last season’s third-place finish.

That sort of candour will always divide a fanbase. Some hear honesty. Others hear indiscipline. Either way, it adds noise to a club already drowning in it.

The sharpest response came from Roy Keane, and it was predictable in tone and fair in substance. He did not deny that the club looks disorganised. He simply questioned whether Martinez had earned the right to speak like that while his own level has dipped.

Keane said on The Overlap: “There will be some fans saying it’s great and some saying you’re letting the team down, especially from a player who hasn’t been at his best, when the team is struggling.” That gets to the point quickly. Leadership in a difficult dressing room starts with performance. If you are going to call out the structure above you, your own game had better be in order.

He then widened it beyond Martinez alone, saying, “I think as a reflection of the club, it’s obviously chaos there, like a bit of a circus.” Hard to argue with that. United have spent heavily, remain unbalanced, and still look like a side built in pieces rather than with a clear football plan.

Keane added: “Listen, that’s where I go and look at the man in the mirror. Before you start coming up with all these comments, go back to… at least start playing well yourself. To get Man United back to where you think they should be, near the top of the table, is to start defending better.” Again, blunt, and again difficult to dismiss. Martinez is not solely responsible for United’s defensive issues, but he is part of them.

Martinez’s frustration did not emerge in a vacuum. Manchester United spent close to £150 million in the summer, bringing in Carlos Baleba, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans to refresh midfield options. Fine. Useful players, sensible profiles. Yet they still failed to sign a left-back or a striker, which looked questionable at the time and looks worse now with Luke Shaw and Benjamin Sesko injured.