Manchester United legend Paul Scholes said the team look unhappy and have little chance of winning this season’s Premier League, warning that Jose Mourinho needs to quickly turn their fortunes around.
Scholes said “I wouldn’t be happy either” playing Mourinho’s pragmatic brand of football, in comments that threaten to reignite his feud with the Portuguese manager.
The former England midfielder pointed to a gulf in class — and playing styles — with Pep Guardiola’s free-flowing Manchester City, who won the title 19 points ahead of their neighbours last season.
United begin their campaign against Leicester City on Friday, after a downbeat pre-season when they lost 4-1 to Liverpool and Mourinho voiced his frustration over a lack of new signings.
“It doesn’t really look like the players enjoy… playing the way they do,” Scholes told AFP in Hong Kong, where he was promoting 433 Token, a blockchain-based system aimed at nurturing young talent.
“If I was there playing… in that style of play, I wouldn’t be happy either,” said Scholes, who won 11 titles and two European cups at United under Alex Ferguson.
“As a manager, you want your team to entertain… That very, very rarely happens at United these days.”
The latest salvo from the TV analyst follows a highly publicised run-in with Mourinho last season, when the Portuguese thundered: “If Paul one day decides to be a manager, I wish that he can be 25 percent as successful as myself.”
– ‘Difficult position’ –
Scholes said the former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan boss, whose sour demeanour in recent weeks has triggered speculation over his future, now finds himself in a “difficult position”.
“If his team don’t do well, if they’re not playing well, they’re not entertaining people, not challenging for the league, then he possibly could go, yeah,” Scholes told reporters.
“But he’s got great experience, he’s been at top clubs. He’s been in difficult positions before. He’s in a difficult position now, I think, but he needs to try and find a way out of it.”
He added: “It just doesn’t look like United are in the right place at the minute to challenge for the league.”
Scholes also urged French World Cup-winner Paul Pogba, who has been linked with a move to Barcelona and is said to have a difficult relationship with Mourinho, to stay put.
“What his relationship with Mourinho is like, I don’t know from the outside. The one thing that does surprise me is Barcelona: I don’t see him as a Barcelona player,” said Scholes.
January 2012, Scholes reversed his decision to retire because of the injury crisis in the Manchester United squad and made his return as a substitute during a 3–2 win, against neighbours Manchester City in the FA Cup. Since his customary number 18 shirt was occupied by Ashley Young, Scholes wore the number 22 shirt. He made his first start in the next game against Bolton Wanderers, where he scored his first goal since returning in a 3–0 victory at Old Trafford, converting a Wayne Rooney pass; this meant he had scored at least one goal in every season in the Premier League since 1994–95.He scored his second goal since coming back in a 2–1 away win against Norwich City.
On 30 May, Scholes signed a one-year extension with Manchester United, keeping him at the club until summer 2013. He marked his 700th appearance for Manchester United by scoring in a 4–0 win at home to Wigan Athletic on 15 September 2012. This goal meant that he had scored in his 19th consecutive Premier League season, a feat only surpassed by teammate Ryan Giggs, who holds the record of 21 consecutive seasons.
On 11 May 2013, Scholes announced that he would make his second and final retirement from football at the end of the season.#Scholes made his 499th and final league appearance on 19 May 2013 against West Bromwich Albion as a substitute. During the game, Scholes earned his 97th Premier League yellow card, at the time the third most in the history of the Premier League behind Lee Bowyer and Kevin Davies .