Paul Scholes has identified the two teammates from Manchester United that he did not enjoy playing with while they were at Old Trafford.
Scholes was a member of the United youth organisation and was a member of the ‘Class of ’92’ before he retired for the first time in 2011.
After being absent from the sport for a year, he decided to take Sir Alex Ferguson up on his offer to come back for the 2012–2013 season, during which he went on to win his thirteenth and final Premier League title.
During his time at Old Trafford, the legendary midfielder would compete against some of the most prominent players in the history of football, including Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Wayne Rooney, among others.
Each of Scholes’ teammates from the Class of 1992, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, would remain at Manchester United throughout the entirety of Scholes’ first stint there. Additionally, both of these teammates would go on to spend their entire careers playing for the Manchester club.
Nevertheless, Scholes has admitted that, out of all of his teammates, there were only two players that he did not particularly enjoy playing alongside. These two players were the only ones.
During an interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap Xtra, he disclosed that he preferred to play in the middle of the pitch with players who were not naturally attack-minded. This was due to the fact that he frequently struggled when given the opportunity to play alongside Juan Sebastian Veron or Anderson.
His explanation was as follows: “I played with Nicky Butt, and I played with Roy.” It was Michael Carrick. All of them were a lot of fun to play with.
Having to play with people who were attacking other people was not a pleasant experience. I was looking for someone who was capable of playing that position excellently.
The response that Neville gave was, “Someone like Veron, you mean?”
“That’s right. Scholes admitted that he and Veron were a complete and utter failure.
My guess is that Anderson and I did it at some point. Simply put, nothing is working, is that correct?
“Just two young men who don’t care about defending anything and don’t have a very good understanding of the defensive position. But it was more successful when it was done with a Michael, a Roy, or a Nicky.
They were aware of the fact that they were playing that position brilliantly. My familiarity with the position was not very strong. As you are aware, I did not perform so well when I was playing the position.
With a transfer fee of £28.7 million, Veron became the most expensive player in the history of English football when he completed his transfer from Lazio to Manchester United in the year 2001.
Although he struggled to adjust to English football during his two years at Old Trafford, he was able to showcase more of his talents after he made the decision to join Chelsea. However, his time at Old Trafford was largely unsuccessful.
Veron, who is now 50 years old, continues to be involved in football by serving as the president of his former club, Estudiantes, which is located in Argentina.
In the meantime, Anderson left the sport of football in 2019 and took a position as an assistant manager for the Turkish club Adana Demirspor.
The Golden Boy award was bestowed upon him in 2008, not long after he signed with United. However, over the course of seven seasons, he became an increasingly irrelevant player, and he eventually left the club in 2015.
Rafael, who was a former teammate of the Brazilian player at United, wrote an autobiography in which he provided an explanation as to why the Brazilian player did not become one of the best players in professional football.
Rafael continued by saying, “If you were to give him a football, he would just play with complete freedom.” He has the potential to play at the same level as any other player in the league if he has a good run of games. In addition to this, when he was performing well, we were playing football at an exceptionally high level.
“He sustained a number of injuries, and then as time went on, his issues with eating in the manner that he did began to have an impact.
“It was no coincidence that his best form came when he had a lot of games, because that was when he couldn’t eat so much.”
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