Having spent his entire professional career at Manchester United, it comes as no surprise that Paul Scholes has strong opinions on the happenings at his former club. The Englishman is convinced that Juventus playmaker Paul Pogba - he has been strongly linked to Manchester United - is not worth the money. Scholes also believes that Zlatan Ibrahimovic will need to up his game if he is to succeed at Old Trafford. Scholes, the Premier Futsal Bengaluru 5s marquee player, spoke to select media here. Excerpts:
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s move to Man U:
I’m not sure about Zlatan. He is 34, so he will probably be around for a year, even though he is a fit lad. He was playing with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), so it was easy for him to create chances and score goals. This Man U team, however, is not as good as PSG, so he will have to do more to succeed.
Paul Pogba in talks with Man U, four years he quit the club:
As for the way he left Man U, the club did not have much of an option. From my understanding, Pogba - his agent, actually - was asking for too much money for someone who was not playing first-team football. Fine, he has improved massively since then. He is reportedly worth GBP 85-86 million now, but I don’t think this is the right figure. If you spend GBP 85-86 million, you want someone who can score 50 goals in a season - like Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Pogba is nowhere close to that.
Ryan Giggs and Jose Mourinho:
I have no doubt that Ryan will be a brilliant manager. Before the Christmas break, I’m sure that he will get 10-12 offers, because everyone gets sacked. As for Jose Mourinho taking charge at Man U, we just don’t know. All players, ex-players and fans want the club to do well. Things will be clear in a year or two.
England’s shock exit at Euro 2016, at the hands of Iceland:
It is a very difficult situation with the England national team. You have players from Manchester United, Tottenham and other clubs bunched together. But at the same time, at the club level, these same players go against each other every week to win the league title, FA Cup etc. It becomes difficult to form team spirit, which is the biggest problem.
Sam Allardyce’s appointment as England manager:
I think that Sam has been unfairly tagged as someone who fields long-ball sides. But look at his time with Bolton, where he had brilliant footballers like Fernando Hierro, Ivan Campo and Jay-Jay Okacha. If he has the right personnel, he can manage entertaining teams. That said, it’s most important for him to get the England players to like each other to get the right team-spirit going.
Developing Indian football:
Schools need to promote football. When your heroes are the likes of Virat Kohli and M.S. Dhoni, it is very difficult to introduce another sport. Hopefully, with the Indian Super League bringing foreign stars over, more kids will be attracted to the sport.
Comments
SHARE