Zlatan Ibrahimovic has hit out at the Class of ’92 for criticising Manchester United from the sidelines.
Several members of the fabled generation which broke into the first team at Old Trafford in the mid-1990s have moved into punditry since retiring, and they have rarely held back in their assessments of recent United sides.
Paul Scholes has been a particularly vocal critic in the last few years, with Paul Pogba often on the receiving end of his condemnations, and Ibrahimovic has called on the group to stop grumbling from the outside.
“They are not there any more,” the LA Galaxy striker told the Daily Mirror. “They are on TV and complaining all the time because they are not active in the club.
“If you want to work in the club, go and search for work in the club.
“So you cannot be on TV and always complaining and criticising. Yeah, OK, you’ve had your time, we know it.”
Pogba has recaptured his best form since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took charge in December, and Ibrahimovic believes his ex-United team-mate has been unfairly maligned by some of the club’s former stars.
“With Pogba, he was with United when he was young, then he went out and he came back.
“And in the circle of [Alex] Ferguson, they don’t like that. Because they stayed all their life under Ferguson and they never moved from Ferguson.
“And they didn’t even talk if Ferguson didn’t tell them to open their mouth.
“So now if they are talking, I don’t know whether Ferguson gave them permission or not.”
United have struggled to adapt to life after Ferguson, having failed to win the Premier League title since his departure in 2013.
And Ibrahimovic, who scored 29 goals during his 21-month stay at Old Trafford, thinks the club must stop comparing the present day to how things were under the legendary Scot.
“Everything that happens is judged by the era of Ferguson. They are saying if Ferguson was here, this would not happen, Ferguson would not do it like that.
“Ferguson would do it like this. Everything was Ferguson. If it was me, I would say: ‘I don’t have Ferguson any more’. And I come here and I want to make my own history, I want to make my own story.
“So I do not want to hear what happened before. I want to do it in the present. You come in with a new mentality.
“Ferguson has his place in history at this club but now the club continues. It has to find its own identity and it is difficult.”
Solskjaer’s side will face Watford after the international break as they attempt to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League.
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