"I'll Decide When You Retire Paul"

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Paul Scholes had hinted he may retire at the end of the season, but the manager told our 35-year-old midfielder he will have to wait for permission first.

“I did speak to him,” said Ferguson. “He’d intimated that he may retire at the end of the season. I said, ‘I’ll decide when you retire…..look, Paul, you can play there’s no question of that. Your ability’s there, there’s no deterioration in your actual play’. When you get to his age, and the same goes for Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville, there’s a deterioration in the physical aspect of it. That’s natural. We all face that. But in terms of his ability, there’s no deterioration whatsoever. In fact, Paul’s every bit as good, if not even better, because the experience he’s added to the ability he’s got means he’s a big asset to us – as he was against City. He helped to control the match.”