Arise the Ginger Prince
As the net bulged from yet another Paul Scholes goal last night, it rekindled in me, my love for one of my idols (should be Sir) Paul Scholes. The evergreen 34-year-old rolled back the years with an expertly taken header, something he has been doing for years. As the saying goes 'Paul Scholes scores goals'. My admiration for Scholesly runs deep; I just couldn't try and describe it & him (my words wouldn't do him justice anyway). So instead I'll let a few excerpts from Manchester United: The Biography, do the talking.
In 1992 Eric Harrison's boys had won the club's first FA Youth Cup since the days when George Best was a teenager. Ryan Giggs was the talisman, but this was a side alive with talent, not least in the form of a short, red-haired lad from Langley, in Salford, a player whose name brings a tear to Harrison's eye even today.
'Scholesy', says Harrison, his voice drifting off wistfully. Robson, Bruce, Pally used to come watch the kids training whenever they could and they loved him. Saturday mornings at the Cliff there were big, big crowds for all their games. And everyone's favourite, always, was Paul Scholes. I never, ever worried about anything to do with him. I never taught him anything, Scholesly. He was as close to footballing perfection as it came.'
In 1992 Eric Harrison's boys had won the club's first FA Youth Cup since the days when George Best was a teenager. Ryan Giggs was the talisman, but this was a side alive with talent, not least in the form of a short, red-haired lad from Langley, in Salford, a player whose name brings a tear to Harrison's eye even today.
'Scholesy', says Harrison, his voice drifting off wistfully. Robson, Bruce, Pally used to come watch the kids training whenever they could and they loved him. Saturday mornings at the Cliff there were big, big crowds for all their games. And everyone's favourite, always, was Paul Scholes. I never, ever worried about anything to do with him. I never taught him anything, Scholesly. He was as close to footballing perfection as it came.'
(2003 Season)
But ask Martin Edwards how Ferguson did it and he will give you a one-word answer: Scholes, he says. 'He won it for us that year, no question'.
The little guy was a giant. Twenty goals he scored from midfield. But it was his intelligence, his use of space, his refusal to concede possession that marked him out. The temperamental opposite of Beckham, he kept out of the sun (and The Sun), lived quietly, had only one commercial deal, signed his own contract within a couple of days of being presented with it. All he was interested in, he said, was football, United, kids and wife.
Discussing the rumour that season that they might soon be joined by an Englishman. The Galacticos in the Real Madrid dressing room decided among themselves that they wished it might be Scholes.
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