With Paul Scholes's testimonial round the corner those with limited brain capacity have been flooding social networks ready to slate the great man. Why these idiots are allowed to interact with society is beyond me. So I write this knowing only true football fans along with Manchester United's and Scholes's followers will read this as the thugs will have lost interest already.
Firstly his longevity is seconded only to Ryan Giggs and Scholes could have played another season or two but didn't want to become a bit part player. Like his career it was all or nothing. In his time at Old Trafford he amassed 676 appearances scoring 150 goals. He played 66 times for England which is not enough. His scoring ratio for England was 1 in 4 by the time he got bored of being mucked around over his position. England were wrong to let him go. He won 10 Premier League titles, 3 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 2 Champions Leagues, 1 Intercontinental Cup, 1 FIFA World Club Championship Cup and 5 Charity Shields for good measure. While he trails Ryan Giggs that is an impressive career in any one's eyes.
In his 66 England matches Scholes scored in 11 of them. Only once when he scored did England lose. Out of those other 10 matches he scored one hat trick, a brace against Scotland, he scored the first goal in 3 winning matches and the second goal in three 2-0 wins. In one of the other matches he scored the equaliser from one down against Croatia that led to a 4- win and the other match he scored in he made the score 2-0 on the way to a 3-1 win. Important goals when someone needed to stand up and be counted for. How many of his 150 United goals could you watch over and over again.
Blessed with 2 great feet and an electric brain he made the game look easy. 40 and 50 yard passes landing on a postage stamp and technically brilliant. He possessed a cannon of a shot and an exemplary attitude to young footballers. He was a coaches dream, a footballing sponge gifted with natural ability. Surprisingly for a short man he was good in the air. His only weakness was his tackling which some will say was dangerous but he miss timed a lot and over the years and little rivalries develop and he never left men on crutches. Even in his youth days Eric Harrison described him as a dogged character. In those days he played as a striker and his record was good but Ferguson started playing him further back and Scholes's transition to midfielder was seamless. When players of the calibre of Zidane rate you as the best opponent and Xavi genuinely say they model their games on Scholes and Henry rate as the best premier league player then you have to be pretty good.
The argument is he did not win enough individual awards but after a little rummage since 1998 3 players have won the European Player of the Year who won the World Cup that year, Owen in Liverpool@s treble season, Shevchenko for goals in 2004 Champions League, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo at their peaks, Ronaldo for his goal tally for Manchester United in 2008 and Messi last season. Also the fact that Man United are a team with everyone contributes means Scholes may not have stood out as much as players that carried their teams or played at a less competitive level.
Taking all things into consideration to label the quiet shy family man anything other than a legend is unthinkable. His rare TV interview in 2002 summed him up completely. He described his perfect day as go training in the morning, pick up my children from school, play with them, have tea, put them to bed and then watch a bit of TV. Born to play football and wanted to do just that and happy to let the fame and attention go to others leaving him to do what he did best.
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