Scholes: I Was Itching To Play Again

Paul Scholes remarkably came out of retirement last season to face Manchester City in our FA Cup victory at the Etihad. Having played in a testimonial in the summer before, saying goodbye to the club, Scholes found it difficult coming to Carrington to work with the youth players when really he just wanted to play himself.

Scholes’ decision to retire had been based on the limited amount of playing time he would have had. However, he soon realised that playing some football is better than playing none at all!

“I was itching to play again,” he said. “I was all right for the first couple of months after retiring and didn’t really miss anything. But once I got back into going to Carrington and coaching the reserves, as well as being with the lads, it was difficult, especially when there were so many injuries to the team. If I’d stayed away from the reserves and the club I’d probably have been OK. But every day that I was going in I just wanted to train and be involved. ‘I did feel nervous when I first came back,’ he said. ‘When I first went to go back on the pitch I thought: “What the hell am I doing here – I could just be at home watching this”. But once I got the first few games out of the way I felt pretty normal again. I had trained a few times with the reserves and felt OK. I felt quite fit. I just got my head on, started training and went to see the manager. But I struggled a little – it probably took me about three or four games to get into the swing of things.”