Top 50 Paul Scholes Quotes

You have to be careful when you time a move to one of the biggest clubs. Occasionally, these young players do not realise what a good thing they are on to when they know that they will be playing every week.

As players, we were paid to do a job we loved – in my case, at the club I supported. And nothing I did could be allowed to interfere with that. The manager would not have permitted it.

When I finally quit for the second time in the summer of 2013, I had accepted that this really was the end, and, having got over that, the move into retirement was a lot easier.

When a team is relegated, a new leader can help turn the page at a club.

There is something about a cup final that brings out a different quality in a footballer. Do they have the courage to win a one-off match?

Modern managers have a lot of demands on them, and many feel, with justification, that they do not have the time to commit to watching the junior sides.

In my years at United, I witnessed some signings who, over their careers, transformed the fortunes of the team. From Eric Cantona, when I was an apprentice, to Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Wayne Rooney. These were great footballers who became great United players.

My view is that the signing of players should be a simple process. The chief scout identifies them, the manager decides who he wants, and the chief executive is dispatched to do the deal. It really is as simple as that.

It’s the thing I miss about football, I suppose: being with the team day-in day-out, getting a team ready for a Saturday afternoon, or getting yourself ready for a Saturday afternoon – it’s the most difficult part.

Playing against Messi, as I’ve said before, is as tough a test of your concentration as any in football. At any moment, he can take the mickey out of you. Physically, it is demanding, but mentally even more so. You cannot switch off.

My view is that you show Messi one side or the other, and if he goes past you, he goes past you. But if he slips it through your legs, then you have to obstruct him and take the foul. Just don’t ever let yourself be nutmegged.

Playing in attack is difficult. You are under scrutiny, and you have to be able to deal with that.

There were players I shared a dressing room with who didn’t like each other. You don’t have to talk to each other. You just need to win matches.

It goes without saying that no one at United ever expected any help. We understood that decisions can go against you. We believed we were the better team, and therefore, if the referee got his decisions right, then we would win the vast majority of our games.

At United, my United, we had been honed into a ruthless team who played great football but, ultimately, were there to win football matches and league titles. At Newcastle, they could certainly play on their day, and the crowd was formidable, but there was a weakness – a vulnerability that you could seek out.

‘Elusive’ is the word that immediately springs to mind when I think about Messi’s style of play. You think you have an eye on him and then – blink – he has gone, only to reappear somewhere else in space, with the ball.

As a young footballer at United, Steve Bruce was one of the senior pros I really admired.

The way a top team develops means that once you have won the league title, the natural step is to try to win the Champions League.

On my mum Marie’s side, my nana was from the Republic of Ireland, and my granddad was from the north. Lots of families in Manchester have strong Irish connections, but it never occurred to me to play for anyone other than England.

The hardest thing to coach is scoring goals and creativity.

It is very difficult for me to breathe when it’s hot and humid.

The first time I retired, only Sir Alex Ferguson and I knew that the last league game of the 2010-11 season against Blackpool was to be my final game at Old Trafford. I was a little bit sad, but I am not one for tears. The end of a career comes to us all, and there is not a lot you can do about that.

When it came to playing Arsenal over the last eight years of my career at United, we always went into games against them feeling like we would win – and we usually did.

As a player, I loved being tackled, whether it was in training or in a game. I took a full-blooded challenge as an invitation to do exactly the same thing to an opponent. I would wait for my opportunity and nine times out of 10, I would get him back.

If I was to become a manager, I would not want someone else to be signing the players for the team that my job depended on.

I won three FA Cup finals, two League Cup finals, and played in one of United’s two Champions League-winning finals. But I lost in a lot of finals, too: the FA Cup in 1995, 2005 and 2007, the League Cup in 2003, and the Champions League in 2009 and 2011.

Peter Schmeichel could make the goal look much smaller when you glanced up to hit a shot.

I got sent off a few times in my life, but I never lost my head. I mistimed tackles, and I made mistakes.

A cup final is all about seizing the moment. You cannot put right a mistake or a missed opportunity the following week.

I was lucky enough to play at Old Trafford, and we always talked about the atmosphere on a Tuesday night, the special atmosphere you create, and the crowd is rocking when you go out for a warm-up.

I suppose I should have realised that the very fact I was still playing for United at 38 years old was a sign that there was not enough pressure on us senior players from those coming into the side.

I don’t know why anyone would want to be a goalkeeper. It is a hard position to do well.

I expect positive play from Manchester United all the time, whether you’re at home or away.

I first remember Wayne Rooney from a game at Old Trafford in 2002 when he came on as a late substitute for Everton and, in a brilliant 15-minute performance, skipped past me on a couple of occasions.

United fans don’t care if the team only has 40 per cent possession as long as they are watching an attacking team. My experience was that the supporters understood that even our best teams, even the teams with Peter Schmeichel or Edwin van der Sar in goal, were going to concede goals.

In some ways, I admire the principle of a manager who is determined that his team must play their own game.

To go and watch Manchester United, whether it’s home or away, is entertainment; it’s goals – whether you concede goals or whether you can score goals.

Saturday afternoon is the hardest thing. I can go out and watch games, but I’m constantly on my phone looking at results: what score is this, what score is that. You have no real involvement, but you’re obsessed with it.

I like to watch batsmen who will entertain and, as things stand, an opening spell from Jimmy Anderson is about as good as it gets.

There is no doubt that my former manager Sir Alex exerted an influence over some referees. He was the master of dropping a comment into his Friday press conference – for instance, how long it had been since we had been given a penalty, or the treatment meted out to a player like Cristiano Ronaldo.

In the periods of my career when I stopped passing the ball forward or when I stopped looking for the risky pass that might open up a defence, the consequences were the same. The manager stopped picking me. I got back into the team when I went back to doing it the way he wanted.

There are times in the career of every young English footballer when they simply need to take their chance to establish themselves.

United are about attacking football, and everything else has to takes its place behind that.

As a striker, as I originally was, and then an attacking midfielder, it has always been my aim in life to embarrass goalkeepers: to dominate them, to force them into mistakes.

As a club, there was never any middle ground with Newcastle. They were as high as the sky or in a pit of despair.

The best goalkeeper I played with at United was Schmeichel. He was a phenomenon in training, never mind on match days. He just never wanted to concede, and he would do everything to stop you scoring.

If you go down the leagues, you have to understand what level you’re working with, and if you get frustrated, then it’s not going to ever happen for you. That’s why a lot of managers don’t succeed where they should do.

I would never do anything to damage United, whoever the owners might be, and I am sure that no United fan would want me to do that.

Messi is as famous as any footballer has ever been, and yet, when it comes down to it, we don’t know much about him. I read that he is a family man and likes to walk his dogs, but beyond that, he’s a mystery, really. I like that.

At some point, a young player has to grasp the opportunity and make himself undroppable.