Paul Scholes is not backing down from a take that even he admits sounds ridiculous on its face.
The Manchester United legend went on The Good, The Bad and The Football and argued that England has better individual players than Spain. Yes, the same Spain that just won the World Cup. Yes, the same Spain that shut down Argentina 1-0 in the final. Scholes knows how it sounds. He said it might be “f***ing stupid.” He said it anyway.
“Let’s just compare our team to Spain,” Scholes said. “I think we’ve got better players now, it might sound f***ing stupid that, but I think we’ve got better players individually, individually.”
He didn’t stop there. Scholes claimed England’s problem isn’t talent. It’s that the squad doesn’t function like a real team. He called the group “selfish” and said too many guys worry about their own performance instead of the collective goal.
“It’s not a team. Do you know what I mean? I don’t feel like everybody’s too concerned about their own performance. I think we’ve got some brilliantly talented footballers but very selfish.”
Tuchel Already Looking for an Exit?
On top of the Spain rant, Scholes took aim at England manager Thomas Tuchel. The Three Lions finished third in the World Cup after losing to Argentina in the semis and then beating France 6-4 in the consolation match. But Scholes thinks Tuchel might already be planning his way out of the job.
“It seems to indicate that he does want to leave from the stuff he was saying because it was quite hard to come back from that,” Scholes said. “I didn’t realise until yesterday when I heard someone talking about it, how much he fell out with people at the football clubs he’s been at. You think about it, he’s not been at clubs for very long, has he? PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich – he falls out with people and maybe he’s just engineering his way out.”
Scholes added that “there’ll be a few players fuming with the managers.”
England’s collapse against Argentina came after they parked the bus for 30 minutes. Spain didn’t make that mistake. They outplayed the reigning champions and won their second World Cup trophy cleanly. Argentina tried the dark arts. Spain just played better.
Solskjaer Not the Answer
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s name has been floated as a possible replacement if Tuchel leaves. Scholes and his former United teammate Nicky Butt shut that down fast.
Butt said, “I don’t see him as an England manager.”
Scholes agreed: “I don’t think anybody sees it.”
Butt went further: “I don’t think Ole would see that, to be fair. No disrespect to Ole. Ole’s not in that league, so England should be going for the best available manager. And they should do that now as well in my opinion. I don’t think (Tuchel) is the right one for the country now.”
The FA hasn’t commented on Tuchel’s future. But the noise is getting louder, and Scholes isn’t the only one listening.
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