Scholes still producing the goods at 37 years old

Paul Scholes always has been, and always will be, my favourite United player. I have been privileged enough down the years to have witnessed the likes of Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs all play in a United shirt. More recently, the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, and even Wayne Rooney have all been a pleasure to watch. Even though the signing of Robin van Persie has been an incredibly exciting one, even he, and all the others that came before him, will never trump seeing Paul Scholes at his very best.

I was devastated when, at the end of the 2010-2011 season, he announced his retirement from football and it was horrible knowing that his testimonial against New York Cosmos just over 12 months ago would be the last time I would see him in a red and white shirt. Last January, when I was walking into the Etihad ahead of our FA cup derby against City, you can only imagine the true delight on my face when I heard that he had made a second coming and would be on the bench for the tie.

Scholes’ return was the catalyst to a run in the league that saw us pick up 11 wins and a draw from 12 games – seeing us surge from 5 points behind to 8 points ahead in the league. As you know, a very City-like moment happened to us and we ended up as runners up. More about that another time. But this season, although we were slow to start with the 1-0 opening weekend defeat to Everton, we’ve seen Scholes’ masterclasses yet again in the victories against Southampton and Wigan.

Whilst the opposition aren’t exactly Real Madrid or Barcelona, you can only play what is in front of you and Scholes has done that to devastating effect again so far this year. When Scholes came off the bench against Southampton at 2-1, as Fergie so brilliantly described it, he simply brought an order to the proceedings. Even hat-trick hero RVP credited Scholes as the game changer, saying he deserved the man of the match award. The respect he has from teammates, especially considering he’s a modest person off the pitch, just goes to show how good he really is.

Once again against Wigan, he had another important role to play in the game. Following an edgy first half, Scholes opened the scoring shortly after the break to calm the nerves that were certainly building up. Not only did we see a performance typical of the Paul Scholes of ten years, we notably saw a spell of good, strong, hard tackling which brought about a Scholesy special. He was later replaced by Nick Powell, who scored a typical Scholes volley into the bottom corner – the heir to the throne perhaps? It’s not worth getting carried away but time will tell.

Whilst the opposition in these games were not the best in the league, if we can rest the likes of Cleverlerly and Kagawa for the big games and see Scholes outclass the opposition in the others, we can be sure of that 20th title. Exactly how many games Scholes and Giggs can play this season remains to be seen, but even at the age of 37 and 38 respectively, you can still count on them to perform – both in smaller and bigger games. As Gary Neville said in his column this weekend, we will never see another Paul Scholes.