Manchester: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has revealed Paul Scholes regretted retiring at the end of last season, after the midfielder made a dramatic return in last weekend’s FA Cup victory over Manchester City.
The 37-year-old hung up his boots at the end of last year's campaign, but the Old Trafford boss persuaded him to return for the latter half of this campaign to assist an injury-hit squad.
Ferguson rejected the idea it was a negative move to bring Scholes back and was adamant it was a clever decision, especially to announce his return just an hour before such a huge tie with their local rivals.
“I don’t know how we managed it, we registered him on the Friday and we thought somehow it would get out,” Ferguson admitted to Eurosport-Yahoo!.
“We left it as late as we possibly could; the game was a Sunday so we had the whole of Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning to worry about it.”
“But somehow we managed to keep it quiet and we did not let any of the players know. We did that simply because of the impact value.”
“We are going away from home in a very difficult FA Cup tie against Manchester City and when the 5,000 fans in the away end of the ground knew he was on the team sheet they were fantastic, the response was great.”
“There were no negatives as far as I am concerned. He only stopped playing seven months ago and he has been training all the time with the reserves, coaching and training, so his fitness levels have been decent.”
“However in the last few weeks he stepped it up to intensive training because when he came to see me he said, ‘I think I have made a mistake, what do you think about me playing again?’”
“And for me as I said earlier, there were no negatives. For me great, for the players in the dressing room terrific, for the fans great."
The 70-year-old also slammed suggestions that Scholes' return was a bad move for the club, instead asserting that the midfielder is still one of the top players in his favoured position.
“There were no negatives as far as I was concerned. The only negative you were going to get was from the press, and one or two have been negative.”
“They're making out - it's been a 'regressive step' for Manchester United. How can it be regressive? You're getting a player for nothing who's been part of the club for 20-odd years, so how can it be regressive?”
“He knows the club. He's not going to play every game, and Paul knows that. But in terms of composure and passing ability, is there a better player going around? Definitely not.”
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