Manchester United great Wayne Rooney has labelled the current squad "babies" and "selfish" after a humiliating Uefa Champions League capitulation and post-match criticism by Bruno Fernandes of manager Michael Carrick.
Carrick's men are 13th in the English Premier League ahead of Sunday's visit by Bournemouth and could drop into the bottom three if results go against them this weekend. With the club beset by infighting and off to their worst domestic league start for decades, Carrick was left clinging to his job after the 4-1 defeat at Como on Wednesday.
Deepening the sense of crisis, the captain Fernandes afterwards took aim at his manager's tactics, saying United had to be more "brave". Defender Lisandro Martinez last week criticised the club's board for not investing enough in the transfer market.
Rooney, United's all-time leading goalscorer, said he was in "shock" and "disbelief" at the Como display. A friend and ex-teammate of Carrick, former striker Rooney pointed the finger at the players.
"When Martinez came out, I said this is an absolute nightmare because it will rip the dressing room apart," Rooney told The United Stand podcast on Thursday.
"That was the start. We've seen it now with Bruno and you're going to see it with more players because these players, they don't want to take responsibility.
"You can say whether Bruno was right or wrong in what he said, but you have to take responsibility on the pitch. You have to take responsibility as a group of players."
He added: "These players, they're selfish.
"They don't care about their teammates, don't care about the manager, the staff or the fans, they care about themselves. If they're not getting what's right for them, they're like babies and just throw their toys out of the pram and go and deflect the blame on to anyone else but themselves." | AFP