Skip to main content

Paul Scholes - end of an era

Scholes has finally announced what we have all been expecting for a while - his retirement. It was carried out in typical Paul Scholes manner - no big media conference - just a few lines on manutd.com as he went off on his holiday. He was in many ways the dream professional for any manager (even outside of football). He loved his profession, wasnt too flustered about attracting attention and was always keen to help out his peers. This earned him the respect of his counterparts as well. Case in point being the disappointment in Xavi and Messi's face when they were queing up to exhange shirts with Paul Scholes  - only to have Iniesta beat them to it at the end of the champions league final. From Zidane to Maldini -Scholes is the most highly respected footballer of his generation. Scholes's talent lies in his understanding of the game, for a boy who started his career as a striker and to have finished it as one of the game' finest playmakers - tells you all you need to know about his talents. His teammates and opponents would be often be dazzled by him on the pitch and on training ground. His array of passes, the breathtaking goals - all carried out with a sense of humility.

A quality human being and a legend in the true sense of the word. PS 18 you will be sorely missed on all football grounds, especially your tackles:-)  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Let's Make MUFC Pragmatic Again!

  Aspirational or Pragmatic, two simple words but with colossal repercussions when applied to the Great Manchester United Managerial Race. I have to admit like most United fans, I have long craved a proactive manager with a well-placed attacking philosophy. It’s why I am allured by the prospect of Ten Hag and dream of the possibility of Enrique. But one look at Ralf’s time in charge is enough to move the needle from aspirations of what Manchester United should be and the reality of Manchester United will continue to be. For this is a club that hired not just a club builder but one of the most proactive managers of all time and turned him into a pragmatist. Is it Ralf’s fault? No, Is it the club’s fault? Not entirely. Although the club have been lucky that this is a far more grey-haired Ralf, someone who has the maturity to adapt to the design of the squads. And that part right there is the quality that Manchester United should prioritize the most as they search for managerial c...

Rock Bottom

  A United fan I know, is also a psychiatrist by profession (yup wh at a tr uly relevant field f ull of case studies!). During our in-game zoom calls with other fans (some of whom are good friends now, yup misery and joy both act as great unifiers), he said something really relevant…this was rock bottom. It’s a way to make people look on the bright side after bitter disappointment. But, such is the tribal nature of football, all it needs is for one of your rivals to hit rock bottom…for you to temporarily escape your own emotional hellhole! Everything that has followed this football club since that fateful  day at Leicester has been pretty bizzare. The sheer relief of being back amongst the big boys, fo llowed by what was a strange Europa league campaign. We wanted to win it, but would contrive to lose it. Then the club captains gets himself into a strange circus of who dun ‘nit in Greece, Mason our wonderboy goes bonkers in Iceland and all this while the board is putting us ...

Something is broken in football and it doesn’t look like it will ever be repaired

No, I am not talking about VAR, Football Authorities, Inflated Transfer Markets, Players, Coaches or Club Executives. I am talking about us, the football fan.  During the lockdown, every stadium has displayed ‘Football is nothing without the fans’. While that is correct, today it’s the fans who are ruining the game. Sounds cruel, well asks the players how they feel, when they read what there own fans write to them on certain platforms. The term ‘reactionary fan base’ was coined by the hardcore loyalists to distance themselves from the volatile fans that surrounded them on different platforms. Terms like ‘agenda merchants’ have also been developed to define the reactions of certain fans. Actually, this is where the trouble really started, the division of the football fan base within a club has deepened since the turn of the millennium and has only accelerated further in the last decade. I see today the first tendency is to blame an increasingly connected world for giving a platform ...