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Manchester United's Paul Scholes And The Cowardice Of English Footballers
The ex-Manchester United star and England ladies manager have both had a pop, but is shooting from the hip really the way to solve the problems with English football?
'80 yards and a bag of shi....'
Manchester United’s Paul Scholes And The Cowardice Of English Footballers
The ex-Manchester United star and England ladies manager Hope Powell have both had a pop, but is shooting from the hip really the way to solve the problems with English football?
Selfish and cowardly: just two of the criticisms thrown at England players of both genders over the weekend. While Paul Scholes took unnamed former international team-mates to task for hitting 80-yard passes in a bid to “get themselves noticed”, England’s women’s coach Hope Powell accused some members of her squad of “cowardice” for failing to step forward and take a penalty in Saturday’s World Cup shootout defeat to France.
Whatever the motives behind the outbursts – and his detractors have suggested Scholes is a fine one to talk about selfishness having successfully extended his club career by ending his international one, while Powell’s words have since been rebutted by some of her players – their comments raise further questions about the capacity of England teams to challenge for honours.
Coming from a player not known for his outspoken opinions, Scholes’ views amount to a scathing indictment of the priorities of modern-day players employed by the Premier League’s also-rans, who, to his mind, view international football as not so much an opportunity to represent their country as a chance to advertise their wares to bigger and richer clubs. In illustrating his point, Scholes singled out “players at clubs like your Aston Villas”, who “use England as a way to get to a top club”.
While his criticism might strike a chord with some England fans, especially in the wake of last year’s dismal showing in South Africa, Scholes is at fault in belittling a proud club that has provided more England internationals over the years than any other in the land. Currently sizing up the possibility of a move into coaching, the Ginger Prince can presumably be relied upon to select only players from the Big Five should he ever land the England job.
Shooting from the hip and scoring points are not going to solve it, practices as wasteful and as pointless as the spraying of those Hollywood passes Scholes was bemoaning
Secondly, might it not be the case that these players’ supposed propensity for hitting big passes is merely a desire to show they belong on the international stage or even to ape senior figures such as David Beckham and Steven Gerrard, neither of whom have earned a reputation for keeping it simple? Surely a player of Scholes’ standing in the game, a player lauded by some of Europe’s finest passers and technicians, could have used his influence to modify the wayward habits of his less gifted team-mates.
Powell also has some questions to answer following her broadside, which was delivered after she had initially praised her team for their gallantry in losing to the French. While centre-half Casey Stoney also expressed her disappointment that more senior players did not volunteer to take spot-kicks, Powell’s methods should be brought into question, particularly as her squad had been practising penalties religiously in training. She must have had a fair idea, then, who the five best penalty-takers were among the 11 players left on the pitch, all of whom would presumably have taken their kicks had they been nominated.
Perhaps they were scared of failing, scared of coming in for the same Twitter abuse directed at striker Eniola Aluko earlier in the competition. Whatever the case may be, Powell left the decision in her knackered players’ hands when she should have taken it for them. That, after all, is what she has been paid to do.
Both she and Scholes may have valid points to make, and it’s clear that England’s international ills are about more than a failure to recycle possession and an inability to convert penalties. Perhaps there is an attitude problem, a self-interest that needs to be addressed. Yet even if there is, shooting from the hip and scoring points are not going to solve it, practices as wasteful and as pointless as the spraying of those Hollywood passes Scholes was bemoaning.
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COMMENTS
A very naive and muddled statement from Scholes in my view. Either name names or keep it closed. There is a lack of effort and certainly selfishness in the way England play but I've always put it down to players being too thick to execute tactics and not caring enough about the result. Scholes cared so little he quit. Cheers Paul, don't do any more interviews.
Loved Scholes' earlier comments about Arsenal's 'pointless' football. Conveniently forgetting that, not only did Arsenal manage to avoid complete global humiliation in the CL against Barca, they also managed to beat them ....oh, and ... er ... the also managed to beat Manchester United too, in their last meeting. You can see why he never gave interviews, he makes Rio seem like Stephen Fry.
Scholes is god. Respected to the sky abroad, especially in the truely great footballing nations like spain, italy, brazil and argentina. They rate him as the best we ever had. Hated, feared and envied by little ingurlanders. He is the most gifted player this country has ever produced. When he speaks he is spot on with what he says, especially in this case. Why would you give your all for the shite that is the english national team, when you play in the most prestigious shirt in football every week. There is no bigger honour in football than pulling on the red shirt, especially not playing for bigoted chavvy england with selfish scum like john terry and fat frank. If some people find that hard to accept thats their problem and shouldnt be bitter. UNITED>ENGLAND. Always have been, always will be.
Well, I think the honour he feels at pulling on the prestigious red shirt is part of the problem GortonGeorge. I've got no truck with Scholes saying England players need to pull their socks up. Turning your nose up at "your Aston Villas" is cocky and disrespectful though. He should choose his words more carefully, especially if he's thinking of going into coaching.
I thought what Scholes said was bang on. Too many England players in the last 10 years have played for themselves and not the team - the 'Golden Generation' never got past a quarter-final in a major competition even with players like Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand, Owen and Rooney. Every single one of them would have walked into any top team in the world at their peak but never got close to winning anything with England. Why? They don't play as a team and Spain, Germany, Italy, Argentina and Brazil do.
Too often we bemoan footballers, managers etc for trotting out old cliches and middle of the road bollocks. Just for once we hear something, that while being easily taken out of context, that sparks interesting debate we berate those that have the nerve to say it. Paul Scholes has manged to alienate every Aston Villa fan but his comment is using Aston Villa players as an example (read: Young, Downing)of a symptom which is very apparent to most followers of the national team. Faith Powell is questioning her players, quite rightly, strength of mind and their stupidity in following their idols in the Premier League (check out the pointing at names on shirts or the finger to the lips after scoring). I hope the comments made do make people think and I hope for more interesting comments in the future, after all it is a team game and the three points are the most important thing, innit?
The facts are that England don't get close to winning anything so scholesy probably has a point. As for retiring from England duty, he was aged wide left when the one thing he definitely neverhad was pace. England did not deserve scholes.
*played
JLF. He said in the same interview that playing on the left for England never bothered him - that he had his best goalscoring run for United playing in that position. What bothered him was players who were either tossing it off or spraying Hollywood passes around to try and make themselves look good and neglecting their role in the team. England should've built their team around him but instead got caught up in the Gerrard/Lampard conundrum that was never, ever solved.
I've lost a bit of respect for Scholes for this. If he had said it when he was playing I would have said it was brave and fair enough as he had a point. The fact is that he never played that well for England but then again who does? The players see England as an inconvenience to their time off and it means nothing to them.
Agree cantons that he said that, but for me he was wasted out there. Spot on re lampard/Gerrard. England have never played like the teams that the players normally play for, which for the most part is a passing game on the deck. Btw if Barry can play for England there's hope for us all!
Cantona (fuckin spell check)!
Martin Quirk what type of football do you watch? How Naive can you get. Arsenal beat Barcelona last season but didn't win the champions league,Beat Birmingham in the league, but lost in the Carling cup Final when it mattered, Beat united in the league but where dumped out of the F.A. cup by united when it mattered. They beat united in the league but failed to win it, the words "FLATTER TO DECEIVE" comes to mind....
Jay Hood - Scholes played for a team that were humiliated in front of a world wide audience by Barcelona, then slags of a team who not only managed to avoid humiliation but actually BEAT thegreatestfootballteamthereseverbeen.com. The words 'PRIZE BELL END' spring to mind.
No wonder he retired from England. Imagine being Paul Scholes stuck out on the left wing and looking across seeing Frank fucking Lampard playing in your position.
Martin Quirk: sshh mate youre embarrassing yourself. Arsenal pointless football for 5 fucking years! Don't you get it? You won nothing. Well done Paul Scholes for bursting the bubble of all them primmadonna tossers: not fit to clean his boots.
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