Scholes is simply the best English player of his generation

Posted Sunday, September 16, 2012 by Dailymail

Scholes is simply the best English player of his generation
At the heart: United players run to congratulate Scholes after his goal on his 700th United outing

You have to search deep into football’s history to find someone of his kind of class and honour. Players like that don’t seem to exist any more. There might be no knighthoods, no MBEs or OBEs, but every single team-mate will say he is the best they have ever played with. And every player he had played against, including Xavi and Zinedine Zidane, would say he is the best midfielder they have faced. Every fan or every club, no matter who they support, loves the way Paul Scholes plays.

He’s a private man, a family man, and those are the parts of his life he values most. He doesn’t have an agent, he doesn’t employ a PR guru and there are no celebrity mates. He’s just a kid from Middleton who grew up playing football on the streets and achieved his dreams. He is certainly the best player I’ve ever played with and the best English player of his generation.

He’s a model performer for younger footballers to look to in how he plays on the pitch. And given that he’s approaching his 38th birthday, and coming to the end of his career, I would urge anyone who loves football, particularly if they have a child who wants to learn from professionals, to go along to watch him play in the flesh this season.

Don’t watch anyone else. Just watch him for 90 minutes. Sacrifice your gate money and don’t look at the ball, unless
Scholes has it. Don’t worry about watching the goals or any other player. Just look at his positioning, where he places himself, his body shape when he receives the ball, where he moves when he hasn’t got the ball and how he sets himself to play the ball. You’ll learn more about the game in 90 minutes than you will from any coaching video or training session.

There’s just one thing I’m worried about. As soon as he finds out that I’ve written this article about him, he will be texting
me to say: ‘What the hell did you do that for?’ But for once I have to ignore his concerns. Today he should be in the spotlight.

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