Still Following the Trawler

Via ESPN : Paul Scholes has called some of the football his old club Manchester United are playing under Louis van Gaal "miserable." Van Gaal has taken United to third in the table in his first season in charge, but some critics have had issues with the style of play employed by the Dutchman. Another ex-player, Gary Neville, caused a stir when he compared them to a pub side earlier this season while Scholes -- who won 11 Premier League titles during his long playing career with the club -- also has aired his frustrations about the Dutch coach. Writing in The Independent in the wake of the midweek win over Burnley, the former Old Trafford midfielder said: "Part of being a Manchester United player under Sir Alex Ferguson, perhaps the most important part of being one of United's attacking players, was that when you were in possession you had to take risks in order to create goal-scoring chances. It was not an option; it was an obligation. "In the periods of my ca...

My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder.  Scholes is undoubtedly the best midfielder of his generation. Zinedine Zidane In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen — the most complete — is Scholes. I have spoken with Xabi Alonso about this many times. Scholes is a spectacular player who has everything. He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn’t give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more. Xavi Good enough to play for Brazil. I love to watch Scholes, to see him pass, the boy with the red hair and the red shirt. Socrates Out of everyone at Manchester United, I would pick out Scholes – he is the best midfielder of his generation. I would have loved to have played alongside him. Pep Guardiola I tell anyone who asks me – Scholes is the best English player. Laurent Blanc I have no hesitation in putting a name to the ...

Day’s after our Champions League defeat at the hands of Barcelona, we bid fair well to the greatest midfielder of his generation. After 675 games and 19 major honours with United, Paul Scholes departs United as a legend: one of the modern era’s few true gentleman. One of the few players in this day and age of greed and over indulgence who famously walks in and out of contract negotiations within minutes. Who keeps himself to himself, staying out of the limelight and rarely performing interviews. Who simply goes to work, plays the game, get's showered, goes home. The modern game has today lost its rugged romantic, its traditionalist, its loyalist, its perfectionist – the essence, in mind and spirit, of Sir Matt Busby's Babes. Manchester United 1994 - 2011