Bruno Fernandes was benched for the Bournemouth game for questioning manager Michael Carrick’s tactics after their Champions League defeat to Como. Meanwhile, Martinez had criticised Jason Wilcox, Manchester United’s director of football, for failing to strengthen the club’s ranks sufficiently in the summer window.

“For a player — the captain and the star player — to come out and speak like he did, we’re only getting probably one or two per cent of what the team thinks. You imagine what they’re like in the dressing room. Imagine what they’re saying and thinking inside. It will be toxic. Probably the two most prominent players in the team, a World Cup winner (Martinez) and a PFA player of the year (Fernandes) coming out hammering the owners, hammering the sporting director and criticising the manager all in the space of a week means that the players have completely gone. There are a number of these players who have been a wrecking ball through managers for the last three to five years. And it looks like unfortunately it’s happening again,” Neville said on Sky Sports from Old Trafford before the game began.

On his part, Carrick gave an emotional press conference after Fernandes’ comments before benching him for the entirety of the Premier League game on Sunday.

“When you’re starting to have to justify the values of this football club to an audience. Saying people have to be humble… Carrick was talking about humility and resilience. That message can only be to the players because it felt like because there’s 75,000 people in this stadium and there’s millions around the world who don’t need reminding of what Manchester United is. So, the only people who he’s sending that message out to are the football players in the dressing room. And if you’re having to remind them of the club’s history, of its values, character traits and personality traits to play for this football club, you’re at a pretty low point,” Neville added.

While Martinez was not penalised for his outburst because he came out and apologised, Fernandes was forced to watch the entire 90 minutes from the bench. Neville said that he understood why Martinez was let off, before launching an attack on the current crop of United players.

“If you go back 25 years — which we’re not in that position anymore — these players would never be anywhere near the club, let alone the pitch. They’d be gone. Finished. But Manchester United aren’t in that position right now. Neither is Michael Carrick. I was actually supportive and thought that the Martinez situation was handled well because there’s no defenders. The ones that are there aren’t good enough. I’ve not got any inside knowledge. I haven’t spoken to anybody at the football club. To be fair, Fernandez has been world-class at times for United and his assists and goals are outstanding. But let’s be really really blunt about it: he’s played awfully this season. His standards have been really poor. So you could leave him out actually on performance alone, let alone on the words that he said.”