Man Utd legends should think before speaking – this wouldn’t happen at Liverpool or Arsenal

Manchester United used to be a club with a siege gun attitude. It was them against the world. Gary Neville, of all people, made a point of encouraging new signings not to talk to the press.

And while Sir Alex Ferguson often used the media to his own advantage, he wouldn’t think twice about being economical with the truth either.

Even if it left him with egg on his face. Back in 2012, Fergie sat in a press conference in Cape Town during a United pre-season tour of the United States, and flat out denied he had signed Robin Van Persie from Arsenal.

What he didn’t know was at that exact moment, however, his own club had announced the signing on their official website. Oops.

Fergie once banned a journalist from United for having the temerity to reveal Rio Ferdinand had got injured and would miss United’s opening game of the season against Everton.

Guess what? Ferdinand missed the game through injury. In other words, the reporter in question had been punished for writing the truth.

But the point is that back then, United revelled in circling the wagons and sticking together. Division wouldn’t be tolerated.

It was the club’s mantra. It was one the club’s greatest strengths and helped them engineer remarkable success. But how times have changed.

So much so that some of those who once entrenched in such an attitude, are now combining or competing with one another to create a poisonous and incessant noise around their former club.

A constant drone of controversial opinion. An almost unbearable Tsunami of voices that is threatening to drown one of the biggest clubs in the world.

I once walked into a lift in a hotel in Rimini to find Roy Keane walking out. We didn’t know each other, but his decision to look straight through me while rejecting the chance to respond to a courteous ‘hello’, felt childish and pathetic.

Yet stick a microphone in front of Keane these days, and he cannot shut up. To the point where he is even stooping to the depths of mocking Michael Carrick’s wife.

Memo to Keane – if, as you suggested, Lisa Carrick is now picking the United team, then she’s doing a damn fine job mate, considering how well her husband’s side did against Manchester City last weekend.

But the nadir is still to come. Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes chose to mock Lisandro Martinez’s stature, by claiming Erling Haaland would pick him up and carry him on his back.

As it turned out, Martinez stuck Haaland in his pocket during United’s thumping win. Haaland was hauled off with 10 minutes remaining, and sat on the bench with a face like he’d seen a ghost.

What Butt and Scholes came out with wasn’t analysis. It was disrespectful and degrading to a fellow professional. It’s tantamount to bullying. And when Martinez had the cheek to offer a response, he was told to ‘grow the f*** up’. Classy.

Perhaps we might now have a week off from listening to pundits spout pointless vitriol towards United. If only because their mouths are full of humble pie. The rise of the pundit is startling and relentless in equal measure. There is no escaping the noise.

And where football is concerned, the right to free speech has now become so toxic and nauseous in certain quarters, that we find ourselves living in a world in which a footballer who has won a World Cup (Martinez), is so offended by comments made about him he is inviting some former greats to his house for a fight.