Paul Scholes has become the spokesperson for most Manchester United fans. The legendary central midfielder's role as pundit on BT Sport has thrust him into the picture as moaner in chief of a group of fans moaning about the state of their club. But is there more to his criticism?
United's season has bounced from one poor performance to another. Last week's performances against West Brom and Liverpool might have been the worst since Sir Alex Ferguson retired and that's including the David Moyes error. The draw against West Ham at least kept them in the FA Cup but nothing is going well at Old Trafford.
Scholes has found himself in the role as Van Gaal's loudest critic but it was put to him that there is more to what he says than just criticising the boss. The Mancunian was asked by United fanzine United We Stand if his constant jabs at the Dutchman in an attempt to get his pal Ryan Giggs the top job at OT Scholes said:
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"What a load of bol****s! What I've always done is nothing more than say what I think I've seen on a football pitch, whether that's been good or bad."
Scholes also suggested that he had been positive at times about the former Bayern manager's time with the Red Devils but that never got picked up adding: "The thing with Van Gaal is that everything he has read and everything I say that gets printed, is only the negative stuff. There are times when I have tried to be positive. The best example I can think of was PSV away when we got beaten and didn't play great but I felt that I could see something happening in the United way...But when only my negative comments are picked on, it looks worse than it actually is."
Giggs is amongst the favourites to get the job when LvG vacates, whether that is the end of this season or next, and Scholes has recently talked about his desire to get into coaching at Old Trafford.
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Most fans would rather Jose Mourinho took over from his former mentor at Barcelona and Van Gaal's future remains up in the air with Ed Woodward continuing to look out of his depth as far as actual footballing decisions go.
(h.t Independent.ie)
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