Top 113 Quotes & Sayings by Paul Scholes

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English athlete Paul Scholes.

Last updated on November 3, 2024.

Paul Scholes is an English football coach, pundit, former player, and co-owner of Salford City. He spent his entire professional playing career with Manchester United, for whom he scored over 150 goals in more than 700 appearances between 1993 and 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation and one of the greatest Manchester United players of all time.

English - Athlete | Born: November 16, 1974

Source: Wikipedia

There was no better manager at developing young players than Sir Alex. He knew just when to bring them in and take them out, and he believed in Paul Pogba. For once, in Paul's case, it did not work out. The timing was wrong, and the difference between expectation on the player's side and the manager's idea of his development did not match up.

Paul Scholes

I worked with many great assistants to Sir Alex Ferguson over the years. Yet sometimes a manager's second-in-command is more suited to that role than any other. You confide in them - you tell them things that you would not tell the manager - and they are that bridge between the boss and the players.

Paul Scholes

Pirlo is a cool customer who does things in his own time. On the pitch, he just looks so relaxed, no matter what is going on around him. He is one of those greats who looks like he could run a midfield with a glass of red wine in one hand.

Paul Scholes

As players, we were paid to do a job we loved - in my case, at the club I supported. And nothing I did could be allowed to interfere with that. The manager would not have permitted it.

Paul Scholes

The way a top team develops means that once you have won the league title, the natural step is to try to win the Champions League.

Paul Scholes

At United, my United, we had been honed into a ruthless team who played great football but, ultimately, were there to win football matches and league titles. At Newcastle, they could certainly play on their day, and the crowd was formidable, but there was a weakness - a vulnerability that you could seek out.

Paul Scholes

From United's point of view, it is always difficult to tell just when a young footballer is going to mature into a first-class professional ready to play at the highest level, but the story of how Pogba slipped away from United has more than one strand to it.

Paul Scholes

Playing against Messi, as I've said before, is as tough a test of your concentration as any in football. At any moment, he can take the mickey out of you. Physically, it is demanding, but mentally even more so. You cannot switch off.

Paul Scholes

The first time I retired, only Sir Alex Ferguson and I knew that the last league game of the 2010-11 season against Blackpool was to be my final game at Old Trafford. I was a little bit sad, but I am not one for tears. The end of a career comes to us all, and there is not a lot you can do about that.

Paul Scholes

All good players need to be appreciated.

Paul Scholes

When I watch Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund side, I see a manager who is determined to play in his opponent's half, who is committed to attacking football, and, from the way he conducts himself on the touchline, is clearly an interesting, charismatic personality.

Paul Scholes

Let me be clear: I am sick of having to criticise the club which I gave my life to as a footballer.

Paul Scholes

There are times in the career of every young English footballer when they simply need to take their chance to establish themselves.

Paul Scholes

I knew the shirt-swapping business in general was getting out of hand when opponents would ask me for my shirt while we were still mid-match. Those are the wrong priorities.

Paul Scholes

I got sent off a few times in my life, but I never lost my head. I mistimed tackles, and I made mistakes.

Paul Scholes

I don't know why anyone would want to be a goalkeeper. It is a hard position to do well.

Paul Scholes

Our modern coaching culture is not to put too much pressure on any one performance, to let an individual flourish over time.

Paul Scholes

In my years at United, I witnessed some signings who, over their careers, transformed the fortunes of the team. From Eric Cantona, when I was an apprentice, to Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Wayne Rooney. These were great footballers who became great United players.

Paul Scholes

It is very difficult for me to breathe when it's hot and humid.

Paul Scholes

Peter Schmeichel could make the goal look much smaller when you glanced up to hit a shot.

Paul Scholes

Little details about young footballers catch your eye when you have been around a big club for a long time. At first, it can be minor things, like the way certain young players stand out from the group when the academy lads cross paths with the senior team on their way to training in the morning.

Paul Scholes

If you go down the leagues, you have to understand what level you're working with, and if you get frustrated, then it's not going to ever happen for you. That's why a lot of managers don't succeed where they should do.

Paul Scholes

You knew where you stood with Sir Alex Ferguson.

Paul Scholes

As a striker, as I originally was, and then an attacking midfielder, it has always been my aim in life to embarrass goalkeepers: to dominate them, to force them into mistakes.

Paul Scholes

I played for 20 years for Sir Alex Ferguson, and he could be a scary man.

Paul Scholes

Sometimes fear can bring performances out from you.

Paul Scholes

At first sight, Pogba was notable for his size and physicality, and when you got to know him, there was also a confidence about him.

Paul Scholes

The best goalkeeper I played with at United was Schmeichel. He was a phenomenon in training, never mind on match days. He just never wanted to concede, and he would do everything to stop you scoring.

Paul Scholes

That is the issue with signing young players from other big European football nations - at some point, they will want to go home.

Paul Scholes

The hardest thing to coach is scoring goals and creativity.

Paul Scholes

We know Mourinho can win league titles - he is brilliant at it - but how long can he do it at one club?

Paul Scholes

When a team is relegated, a new leader can help turn the page at a club.

Paul Scholes

At some point, a young player has to grasp the opportunity and make himself undroppable.

Paul Scholes

I never wanted to lose my place in the United team, much less my place at the club. What went on beyond the pitch was none of my business.

Paul Scholes

I like to watch batsmen who will entertain and, as things stand, an opening spell from Jimmy Anderson is about as good as it gets.

Paul Scholes

You buy the right players for the system that you believe will be successful.

Paul Scholes

On my mum Marie's side, my nana was from the Republic of Ireland, and my granddad was from the north. Lots of families in Manchester have strong Irish connections, but it never occurred to me to play for anyone other than England.

Paul Scholes

At United, we like to have wingers who give the team width and pace.

Paul Scholes

When I finally quit for the second time in the summer of 2013, I had accepted that this really was the end, and, having got over that, the move into retirement was a lot easier.

Paul Scholes

I do wonder whether the bigger the game is, the more the risks that David Luiz decides to take.

Paul Scholes

Things change, although I believe that certain principles - of attacking, entertaining football - should always be protected.

Paul Scholes

It's the thing I miss about football, I suppose: being with the team day-in day-out, getting a team ready for a Saturday afternoon, or getting yourself ready for a Saturday afternoon - it's the most difficult part.

Paul Scholes

Managers live and die by their recruitment.

Paul Scholes

Martin Skrtel is good at rattling the opposing centre-forward.

Paul Scholes

I suppose I should have realised that the very fact I was still playing for United at 38 years old was a sign that there was not enough pressure on us senior players from those coming into the side.

Paul Scholes

My view is that the signing of players should be a simple process. The chief scout identifies them, the manager decides who he wants, and the chief executive is dispatched to do the deal. It really is as simple as that.

Paul Scholes

For my whole career, I concentrated on that cycle of games from August to May and being mentally and physically ready.

Paul Scholes

For any footballer who plays for Real Madrid in the modern era, the prospect of leaving the club must feel like a step down no matter where they go - but it does not have to be like that.

Paul Scholes

English clubs should not be pleased to go to places like Barcelona and get away without a thrashing. They should be able to compete. They have the resources.

Paul Scholes

As a young footballer at United, Steve Bruce was one of the senior pros I really admired.

Paul Scholes

We played 63 games in the treble-winning season of 1999, and I cannot remember feeling tired once. We won the league title with the last game of the season, and along the way, we knew that in any game we could miss out on this chance of a lifetime to win all three. We had 22 players who were ready to be called on at any moment.

Paul Scholes

You have to be careful when you time a move to one of the biggest clubs. Occasionally, these young players do not realise what a good thing they are on to when they know that they will be playing every week.

Paul Scholes

I would never do anything to damage United, whoever the owners might be, and I am sure that no United fan would want me to do that.

Paul Scholes

There were players I shared a dressing room with who didn't like each other. You don't have to talk to each other. You just need to win matches.

Paul Scholes

Let me tell you what it is like playing against Messi. You are up against a footballer who can take the ball either side of you, and you have no idea which side that might be from any hint about his body-shape.

Paul Scholes

St James' Park was always, in the course of my career, a great place to play football, for the wildness of the crowd and the no-holds-barred football that both my team, Manchester United, and Newcastle would play.

Paul Scholes

I am always loath to assign goalkeepers too much importance, but you have to make an exception for the greats.

Paul Scholes

My view is that you show Messi one side or the other, and if he goes past you, he goes past you. But if he slips it through your legs, then you have to obstruct him and take the foul. Just don't ever let yourself be nutmegged.

Paul Scholes

As a club, there was never any middle ground with Newcastle. They were as high as the sky or in a pit of despair.

Paul Scholes

The end of a career comes to us all, and there is not a lot you can do about that.

Paul Scholes