Are Butt and Scholes just ‘jealous’ as Man Utd fans turn on Class of 92? | OneFootball

Every single Manchester United in the Mailbox has picked Lisandro Martinez in his spat with the Class of 92.

It’s a massive and brilliant Mailbox also taking in Arsenal, Palace, Liverpool, Spurs and FIFA. Send your mails to theeditor@football365.com

The good, the bad and the alternate reality at Man Utd

For my sins I’ve just watched Scholes, Butt and Paddy McGuinness’s podcast, only to see their apology to Lisandro Martinez. It was one of those classic apologies that middle aged men like to give: reluctant and highly caveated.

Butt seemed to think that the stick United players get now is nothing compared to what they got when they were young. Maybe. If you overlook the advent of social media which has come in the intervening years and the general worsening of manners as anyone and everyone tries to be as controversial as possible for the sake of clicks.

For Scholes, who was singled out by Martinez, he was just having a laugh but did concede that if it had been about him he’d probably have been upset.

The most telling thing Scholes said was that his opinion of Licha hadn’t changed – United still won’t win the league with him as centre back.

Manchester United. 2026. Thirteen years since our last title, finishing an average of 24 points behind the leaders in the intervening years. United probably won’t win the title with Martinez. United probably won’t win it with any of the current squad because they are so far from being physically and mentally ready to win the league. This is a team that lost a European final to Spurs. And not just any Spurs. The worst Spurs team for YEARS.

The ex-United pundits, whether that be the class of 92, the still bitter Roy Keane or just plain old Paul Parker remain a problem because they continually compare the current United – players, manager, club – to that which they knew. That which is long gone.

This isn’t Manchester “1992-2013” Football Club we’re talking about. So probably don’t talk? Ashmundo

…As a Utd fan lucky enough to see all the class of ’92 I have a lot of respect for all those players that grew up under the leadership of Fergie.

However, this latest stupidity criticising Lisandro Martinez coming up against Haaland crossed a line. It was disrespectful, not even funny and showed a real lack of any thought for how Martinez is still an excellent player in his position despite his height.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the modern way of entertainment. Better to say something ridiculous to get the clicks and stay relevant as the measured opinion or honest truth just doesn’t get the clicks.

I get the Sun click-baiting and journos trying to make a living but these ex-Utd stars are already multi-millionaires and should have some loyalty to the club and its players and give some positivity back to the place every once in a while. No doubt Carrick will get his share of criticism from them even though he’s just holding the role and doing his best as he loves the club. Most likely these pundits are just jealous that the club didn’t find roles for them. Jon, Cape Town (And telling Martinez to grow up – why don’t you grow up, apologise for bad mouthing him just to stay relevant) and actually praise him and the rest of the team for what they just did).

…The fabled class of 92 – are a bunch of sea units, almost to a man.

Phil Neville is that man. There are no major issues with him – so far as we know.

Gary Neville. He’s a bit of a prick. Dumped all his friends, gobshite, colleagues have described him as a busy….sea unit. It gets worse.

Scholes and Butt – appear to be involved in what looks like online bullying. The initial podcast was crass – but to follow up in the way did shows their true colours.

Goldenballs – I’m thinking of f365’s legal bill. Shall we say….family disharmony? On several levels.

Ryan Giggs – he’s an animal. Little more needs to be said.

The class of 92 needs less airtime across the board. Great footballers but horrendous characters. Tom E13

…If podcasts have DNA, does it specifically encode gobshite tendencies in certain members of the Class of ’92? Ant (proof you don’t need a podcast to be a gobshite)

Taking Man Utd’s traditions back out of the bin

To give an alternative view to Johnny Nic and his latest piece… I think we all understand that football random is objectively pretty damn weird…but it’s also about an undeniably deep emotional connection to our clubs that everyone who loves (what’s left of…) the sport is beyond familiar with.

It’s romance, poetry, the odd high, crashing lows, friendship, ritual, many more true clichés and everything else we know about it. The love, the hate, the hope and all the other emotions we’re hopelessly addicted to, and – for most of us – are what have made it the game we’ve been hopelessly in love with since childhood.

To cite a few slightly well-known facts – we remember what they are, don’t we? Even in this 2026 timeline? Matt Busby became manager in 1945. He and Jimmy Murphy cultivated a quick, attacking style that emphasized youth and wingers. The Busby babes then played a famously-thrilling style from the early ’50s. By ’55 when the won their first of two consecutive titles, they were playing a 2-3-5 with Pegg and Berry bombing up and down like wing-backs. Fast, direct, brave, thrilling football focusing on width and youth.

The 60s post-rebuild: Fast, direct, brave, thrilling football focusing on width and youth. The 70s post-relegation under Tommy Doc (and pre-dullard Dave Sexton) : Fast, direct, brave, thrilling football based on width and youth.The 80s under Big WRong Atkinson: Fast, direct, brave, thrilling football based on width and youth….Then we get to Ferguson…

People can of course balk at the use of “DNA” – fine, I’ve no issue with that – it’s clearly quite cringey, especially to non-fans of your club. We can use the word ‘tradition’ if you prefer, but face it, we are discussing the exact same thing. You’re far from the only ABU to be regaling us all with such “insights” John – but to be an intelligent, knowledgeable football fan (I know, big oxymoron alert) and wilfully just reduce everything Neville (who I also find unbearable) said about United on his podcast post the total City destruction to “…just a few years in the mid-90s”…Beyond asinine.

But that’s cool fella, keep enjoying any stories you tell yourself to feel better – the truth shall remain the truth.

For most of the last 80 years – in successful times and not-so-successful times – an organic, beguiling and compelling football tradition happened. We have the receipts. Football should make us feel something – and for United fans, we’ve had way more than our fair share of those emotions. That Means Most. Ken Legend (Cowboy and hopeless romantic – Manchester)

Cheer up Johnny, man

Long time reader (probably 15 years plus at this stage) and occasional mailbox contributor but just had to get something off my chest today without putting it on a chat or forum.

I really enjoyed John’s columns insofar as I was looking at his website and thinking of buying a couple of his novels I thought they might be a bit like Ronnie O’Sullivan’s, write about what you know in a tone that relates to who would appreciates it. I know previously people took the p*** about his rock n roll stories and living in LA, or wherever, that sounded a little bit how great am I and this is what you could have won.

The only reason I click on his articles now is to re-affirm that he’s raging at the clouds I couldn’t not read the latest one because being a United fan and wishing Carrick well and it being juxtaposed with the Boro connection. He just sounds angry all the time relentlessly so if you can’t find any joy just stop. As erudite and articulate as he is it’s becoming a constent whinge maybe I’m the fool for clicking on and says more about me.

Thank you. Adrian

Our resident Crystal Palace man on the Crystal Palace saga

On Saturday evening I posted on BlueSky that I didn’t think Oliver Glasner would still be Crystal Palace manager at the end of the season.

However, I am not particularly surprised that the club’s response to his outbursts has been to keep him in post. This is, after all, a club that values its principles enough to stick to them even when straying from them would have brought more success, at least in the short term, according to an article I wrote for this site back in 2016. Jesus of Montreal I didn’t realise it was that long ago.

I have some sympathy for Glasner, because the timing of the decision to sell Marc Guehi (and therefore withdraw him from selection for the Sunderland game) was about as bad as it could get. At the same time, it seems hugely unlikely that he would not have been aware of the negotiations taking place, and must have expected this would happen eventually, so there’s no real excuse for being caught out by it.

Glasner’s main mistake, however, is not spinning the story his way. His previous comments have suggested he wants about 20 first team-calibre players but wants to pick the same starting XI when everyone is fit. The first of those is the preserve of the biggest clubs, and while it’s a nice ambition to have, there’s a reason clubs the size of Palace tend to fall into the second group.

While his squad on Saturday was, as Harry Redknapp might say, down to the bare bones, it was almost the perfect opportunity to make his case to the board: “I used the players I had available but they’re not ready for the Premier League yet, we need reserves who are”. Instead, he made no substitutions, even with his team 2-1 down with 20 minutes to play, a move that came across as petulance bordering on unprofessionalism.

This is where I have sympathy for the board: by their standards they did spend significant money (approximately £50m) in the summer on fleshing out the squad, something they likely did knowing they’d receive a big fee for Eberechi Eze. For Glasner’s talk of having his heart broken, Palace did make a good start to the season, even without Eze. If the timeline we’ve been told about is correct, then Glasner informed the board he was going to leave at the end of his contract. Despite knowing this, they still broke their transfer record to sign Brennan Johnson, a player described as a perfect fit for Glasner’s system, in January. It’s not reasonable to expect a club to spend a fortune every time their manager has a fit of pique, even if there will always be the lingering suspicion that a couple of judicious signings in the summer might have avoided all of this.

Where the board deserve some credit is in (at least as of 3pm on Monday) not being so fragile of ego as to sack Glasner for his insolence. I don’t expect they’re happy about what their manager has said, but it’s definitely the reaction of a grown-up to treat it for what it is, an outburst rooted in frustration and a situation that can be mediated, if not fully repaired. It’s fair to say that plenty of club directors would not have given Glasner this much leeway and you have to wonder if potential employers are having second thoughts about appointing him.

It’s probably the most Typical Palace TM thing that someone who should be one of the greatest heroes in the club’s history has set about tarnishing his legacy with such gusto. Ed Quoththeraven

An attempt at Thomas Frank perspective

I see it’s been decided that Thomas Frank doesn’t have what it takes to be Spurs manager. He can’t deliver what Spurs fans want. But Spurs fans won’t say what ‘it’ is. What do you want? To be in the top 6 every year? Champions League every year? Title race? Ok, but ahead of who? There are 7 other teams who want all that and can realistically achieve it – which of those should Spurs be displacing? Which of the midtable sides – Everton, Sunderland, Brentford, Brighton, Palace, etc – are Spurs entitled to be ahead of?

The fact bears repeating: Spurs finished *17th* last year. Obviously their fans immediately spring into action when this is pointed out: ‘oh, we won a European trophy!’ Brilliant, let me know how following in West Ham’s footsteps is working out for you. ‘Oh we were concentrating on Europe, we could have finished higher in the league, we just didn’t want to.’ Yeah ok. Maybe you shouldn’t have sacked the manager who masterminded this false rubbishness in that case? And just told him, g’day, we want to finish higher in the league this year mate. Yeah, 1st would be lovely actually mate. Have a VB.

Some of this year’s games have been awful and hard to watch; some of the results have been terrible. Yes. And? Welcome to being a football fan. Everyone has to deal with this. Superclubs like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, etc feel they’re entitled to skip this part of the experience. Spurs are not these clubs. Their fans think they are long-suffering. They are not.

Look at the defensive players Frank has got to work with: Paulinha has the brain of a dog; Udogie and Porro are complete disgracia; Spence acts like a child on Supernanny. Spurs fans won’t hear anything said against their centre backs, but they are objectively average: Van der Ven can run fast and Romero kicks people and complains a lot, wow. Maybe stop people from scoring occasionally? And Vicario.

But Frank is getting a better tune out of his back 6/7 than anyone since the last time Spurs finished above Arsenal. They’ve conceded over 60 goals for the last 3 seasons in a row; this year they’re on course to concede 50. And aside from Arsenal, they have the best away record in the league – a sign that when they can keep games tight and put the onus on the opposition, they can be successful. It’s not hard to find signs that Frank is actually improving this team, if anyone has the patience to look. Granted, not relative to the imaginary version of Tottenham that their mad fans have in their heads; but relative to the one in the real world that, apart from the worst set of promoted sides since the competition started, was the *worst team* in the premier league last season. Pretend this wasn’t true if it makes you feel better, knock yourself out.

Obviously, Spurs’ problem in translating this quiet improvement into more points and better home form is, constructing coherent attacks and scoring a lot more goals. But how does a new manager fix this? Richarlison is their best attacking player. *Richarlison*. Unless Ryan Mason CDXXVII can give Maddison new legs and find a 20 goal a year striker down the back of the sofa, where do the goals come from? Tel? Simons? I mean, we’re immediately talking the transfer market aren’t we?

Unless the plan is to hire a new manager and tell them, you can’t sign any new players because actually we already have one of the best 4 squads in the country. If so, I have some bad news. But if it is time to sound the warchest klaxon, then it’s implicit that the current squad is not good enough for what is apparently desired. So why fire a workmen you hired less than a year ago when you’re also admitting the tools you have given him are no good? Neil Raines

Gyokeres fails the eye test

Really enjoyed the mailbox on Monday, some good contributions in relation to the AFCON final and Villa fans starting to get that sinking feeling. But the mail that most caught my attention was from Rob A the Arsenal fan. I can’t get my head round his defence of Viktor Gyokeres.

Having last season watched Rasmus Hojlund do a similarly ineffective job up top, I do get the instinct to defend Gyokeres. Having an inept striker can be an especially grating experience – even if the rest of your team is humming and producing cohesive build-up play, you’re never far from a move breaking down via the link in the team that should add that crucial iota of potency.

It’s made all the worse when they show occasional flashes of quality or produce a smart finish. “See? The ability is there, consistency is what’s missing”, we tell ourselves. But when the required quality is lacking, you can’t expect a sub-standard striker to produce those flashes more regularly. Sometimes, your expensive frontman is only able to impact games sporadically because that’s his ceiling.

Rob’s argument for Gyokeres doing fine doesn’t really touch on his ability though – it seems entirely based around Arsenal sitting pretty in mid-January with him in the team. Arteta picks him for the team top of the league, and he’s an actual football manager, so if you think he’s crap, you are clearly wrong sir. But it doesn’t work that way does it? Anyone who’s watched a middling amount of Arsenal this season will tell you that he’s struggled badly.

Isn’t it possible, or even probable, that Arsenal would be in an even stronger position if they’d invested in a striker who was at a level consistent with the rest of their team? 10-15 points clear with no lingering doubts over their goal threat maybe? Gyokeres really doesn’t pass the eye test – poor goal return, minimal contribution, looks laboured and out of sync when he does get involved. The frequent rush to highlight his effort and attitude has been a giveaway to be honest – it’s a classic case of damning with faint praise. Hojlund often got the same sympathetic treatment when charging after a pass down a channel only for it to bounce off his knee out of play.

You can be top of the league, top of the Champions League etc., but still have some weak links Rob. And it’s hard to term Gyokeres as anything other than that up to this point. You’re rightly happy with a season that’s well on track in spite of his struggles. But if it ends with a trophy (or more than one), it might be fairer to laud the strength of the squad around him than trying to say that he must be good just because Arteta made him part of it. Keith Reilly

I agree with much of what Gofezo says and I enjoyed your mail Sir/Ma’am. Apart from one thing: “Secondly, too much change and too many injuries means the team isn’t playing anywhere near its potential – yes yes every team has these, but how many times has changing the manager miraculously fixed everything? ”

My problem with this is the way he has set up the team; it’s just so f**king boring to watch. My belief is it’s the system not the injuries or the bedding in. I’d honestly relinquish a few places in the table in exchange for some excitement. The infinite horseshoe tactic is the worst thing I’ve seen in all the years I’ve watched them play (mid 80s – god I’m old). A new manager coming in may actually release the shackles and let them play with expression and freedom we so desperately lack at the moment. Point taken though, let’s ride the season out. Nagelsmann, Alonso, hell even Alan bloody Pardew might be a more exciting shout.

Otherwise, great mail. Somerset Dave (haven’t written in for years despite still regularly reading)

(Welcome back – Ed)

Boycotting World Cup just the start

Following on from Quarantino’s mailbox suggestion that Europe boycott the World Cup. I think the crap is really going to have to hit the fan in Greenland for that to really become a consideration. But if it did happen, I wonder why we don’t go a step further and arrange an alternative tournament. Call it the ‘Invitational Global Cup’ or whatever silly name the marketing people create. Invite the qualified European teams and try to get a few others to make it global.

Then use that as a springboard to withdraw from FIFA completely and create a new world governing body managed by the major footballing nations. FIFA are never going to change. They will always be a corrupt, money-grabbing bunch of ***** that could not care less about the fans or the good of the game. Their latest ticket pricing structure shows that.

Their most recent host selections have included Russia, Qatar, North America triple up and Saudi Arabia. The only good one for fans will be Spain, Portugal and Morocco (and Morocco was only selected to exclude Africa from bidding for 2034). Money is their only motivation, what’s good for football and the fans is not even on their agenda. Jim (FIFA can’t be fixed, start again!)

Sympathy for Senegal

Imagine this scene. It’s a Euro’s tournament final. England have made it, and they are up against the hosts. (It doesn’t particularly matter who, but let’s say Spain so we don’t have to strain our imagination too far.)

During the match, Pickford’s towel is repeatedly filched by Spanish ball boys and staff members. You might normally say it was a bit of a prank. Quite unprofessional, but ball boys can sometimes be a bit cheeky… However Spain pulled the same trick in the semi-final and got away with it. Noting that match officials seem utterly non-plussed to these anticss and that Pickford needs to stay focused on the game, Dean Henderson comes over to keep the towel safe personally. Unpeturbed by this the ball boys and staff continue to play capture the flag with this towel and then, Spain’s subs start going tying in on the act.

Then things get very surreal indeed as the balboys chase Henderson onto the pitch and basically attempt to mug him of this towel, resorting to dragging him by his ankles along the grass.

The referees and tournament officials shrug and ignore what is now basically an assault on the goalkeeper.

Of course you can’t imagine this because it simply would never have been allowed. Spain would never have contemplated going so far over the line, and no matter how corrupt UEFA are, they would have no choice but to end the game and throw the boom at Spain team and it’s FA.

So you can imagine the feeling among the England camp and fans as the ref appears to be acting, let’s say, rather generous to the Spanish team in chalking off an England goal for the softest of not quite fouls expertly preventing VAR intervention, and then giving the Spanish team a soft penalty at the other end moments later?

Could you at this point really feel too shocked and appalled when, let’s say Southgate calls his players off down the tunnel in disgust, eventuality giving in to Harry Kane’s insistence that we have to be professional? Would you still really not be at the point of cheering when Pickford, bullied all match, decides to put off Ferran Torres before the spot kick?

And when somehow England win the match and lift the trophy against all odds and apparently the will of literally everyone else involved in this sham of a match, and as Southgate brings his daughter out to the presser, to be greeted by heckling Spanish reporters, could you truly blame him for adjusting the medal around his neck then walking off and giving two digits to all involved?

What can you say about AFCON organisers when they allow a tournament to end with a match so farcical, you’d think it was the script for a WWE title match, with the only thing missing being the Moroccan manager distracting the ref whilst Hakimi delivers a steel chair to Mendy’s back?

Unbelievable. Nick

*Checks notes*

About 10-15 years ago, in another era of internet culture and memes, there were a bunch of cringeworthy posts written by “neckbeards” where they’d use asterisks for their actions, with perhaps the most infamous one being *tips fedora* when writing about interactions with the opposite gender. These were funny to read due to the absolute cringe and embarrassment that someone would write these actions in, with some worse than the fedora one talking about blushing and smiling nervously and saying “m’lady” when talking to a girl.

Anyway, in the last couple of months it seems the amount of people writing in with the action *checks notes* in their emails has exploded, it seems like more than half of all mailboxes have at least one mail containing this (although I admit I could be just noticing it more due to confirmation bias) and it is so cringey. You’re not checking notes, you’re just stating an extra fact or opinion that you would’ve already known before you started writing. Please either stop, or commit to writing in with at least a dozen sets of asterisks and pointless imagined actions from you sitting at your desk that no one needs to know.