Mourinho takes aim at Scholes
JOSE MOURINHO launched an astonishing attack on Manchester United legend Paul Scholes after last night’s victory at Everton. Scholes has claimed Paul Pogba is unfit and ‘just strolling through games’ but, after the midfielder’s man-of-the-match performance, Mourinho said: ‘The only thing Paul Scholes does is criticise. It’s not Paul’s fault he makes much more money than Paul Scholes. If one day Paul decides to be a manager, I wish he can be 25 per cent as successful as myself.’
With an air of premeditation, Jose Mourinho felt emboldened enough to take aim at Paul Scholes and the ‘kings of rock ‘n roll’ after Manchester United finally started singing again.
Scholes was vocal in his criticism of Paul Pogba ahead of victory at Everton, suggesting he ‘just strolled through games’ before the United captain hit back superbly with a man-of-the-match performance.
then his manager finished the job. ‘the only thing Paul Scholes does is criticise,’ said Mourinho. ‘he doesn’t comment, he criticises.
‘it’s not Paul’s fault that he makes much more money than Scholes. it’s just the way football is. i think Scholes will be in the history books as a phenomenal player, but not as a pundit.’
Critics are on the minds around Carrington. Jesse Lingard motioned a zipping of his lips towards a tV camera after scoring the stunning second goal before later tweeting: ‘Don’t talk too much.’
it wouldn’t be a great surprise if both were under instruction at the manager’s behest. Mourinho has been hurt by those throwing stones in his direction — including Scholes’ Class of ’92 colleagues. Another aiming digs has been Noel Gallagher, who took great delight in
Wonderwall blaring out of the Old trafford dressing room after last month’s derby win. the Oasis star labelled Mourinho ‘the most hated man in football’ days later.
‘the performance was really good, so maybe i’m lucky this time and the kings of the rock ‘n roll that said i wasn’t performing last month will say i’m performing,’ added Mourinho.
United, who want to do business in attacking areas this month, could welcome back Romelu Lukaku against Derby County in the FA Cup on Friday night.
Lukaku wanted to play yesterday after leaving Old trafford on a stretcher with a head injury at the weekend, with Mourinho revealing ‘protocol’ on potential concussions had to be followed. the etiquette of not picking fights with club greats seemingly did not, however, and while Scholes will not be silenced after this outburst, it offers more than a little indication that fire still burns inside United’s manager. Mourinho was not done with Scholes. ‘if one day Paul decides to be a manager, i wish he can be 25 per cent as successful as myself,’ he said. ‘twenty-five is around six (trophies). if he is 25 per cent, he will be quite happy but in my mind Paul Scholes is one of the best players i have seen playing in midfield. ‘he gave so much to my club that i thank him for that because the prestige of this club is based on people like him. Not every one of us has to be phenomenal like he was as a player. ‘Paul (Pogba) tries to do his best all the time and sometimes he plays very well, sometimes he plays well, sometimes he doesn’t play so well. ‘i think they (ex-players turned pundits) would love to be here and that’s a problem i can’t resolve.’ Meanwhile, Sam Allardyce is trying to solve a lack of goals and claimed Everton should know if they’ve landed Cenk tosun from Besiktas today. ‘We’ve done all we can. We’ll know in the next 24 hours or so,’ Allardyce said. ‘that may help us to achieve results. Our attacking powers are limited, we know that.’