Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has sent a strong message to Ralf Rangnick amid the bizarre saga involving Anthony Martial’s future.
The German tactician recently made the surprise claim that Martial didn’t want to play for the club against Aston Villa, only for the Frenchman to then come out on social media and deny the interim manager’s claims.
Ferdinand is clearly far from impressed by what’s gone on, and wants the club to clarify the situation, as he’s urged Rangnick to be strong on this.
Speaking on his YouTube channel Vibe with Five, the former Man Utd defender said: “They need to give pure clarity, put a line in the sand, put a flag down and say, “this is us and this is where we’re at”.
“At the moment, Rangnick has come out with what he said and Martial responded and basically said the manager is lying.
“Someone better come out today or tomorrow and say something. You can’t have a player coming out and belittling what you say. No chance.
“He needs to get shut down if it’s true. If Rangnick is right, there’s no way any player should be allowed to speak like that.
“I don’t understand it. Manchester United can’t allow players to talk like that. There’s a truth and a false in this situation and I want to know.”
This is far from the kind of start Rangnick will have wanted since taking over as interim manager when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked.
Martial has a bit of a history of rubbing his managers up the wrong way, with The Athletic claiming Solskjaer wanted to sell him, while The Times claimed the same of Jose Mourinho.