Why England should keep their hands off of Paul Scholes:

Many will have been surfing the net on Friday and visited the BBC Sport website to see a story regarding a certain Mr. Paul Scholes. Of course, on the 8^th of January, he shocked the footballing world by coming out of retirement while the Manchester United players were still in the dressing room before their highly-anticipated FA Cup third round tie with “more noisy than ever before neighbours” Manchester City, and came on as a second-half substitute in the 59^th minute of the game.

This story was again about Scholes coming out of another form of retirement and coming back to playing football internationally for England. Former Manchester United centre-back Gary Pallister told BBC Sport that he thinks Harry Redknapp would be the only man who could tempt Scholes back into playing for the Three Lions, following on from Redknapp’s statement in February that the Red Devils stalwart should be included in the squad to go the 2012 European Championships in Poland and Ukraine.

These stories continue to baffle for several reasons, we see them time and time again. There’s no doubting Scholes’ ability; since he’s come back from retirement, it looks like he’s hardly been away. Indeed, his mistake gifted Manchester City their second goal in their 3-2 defeat but his pass completion rate of 96% given his rustiness and lack of match fitness coming into the match was astonishing. Ever since then, has continued to produce consistent performances in the Manchester United shirt, including scoring goals against Bolton Wanderers and Norwich City.

It was no surprise that the Barcelona players were clamouring to swap shirts with Scholes after the 2011 Champions League final, what with the likes of Xavi and Andres Iniesta being in complete awe of his passing prowess, and any team would love to have a player of such calibre in their side, hence why stories of Scholes coming out of international retirement continue to crop up.

However, one main reason why this will not happen is the reason why Paul Scholes retired in the first place under Sven-Göran Eriksson in August 2004, due to being played out of position on left-midfield in order to accommodate Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard (that centre-midfield pairing that worked so well…). While Lampard may well be saying goodbye to the international game sooner rather than later, there are still a plethora of centre-midfielders in the England senior fold, including Gerrard, that Scholes would have to compete with. Gareth Barry, James Milner, Jack Rodwell, captain for the Holland game Scott Parker and United team-mate and injury-stricken Tom Cleverley are all names that would probably come before Scholes on the team-sheet.

Furthermore, whoever guides the England side through preparation for the Euros and the tournament itself should be looking to future England talent rather than continuing to rely on those whose time in the international frame is probably up. It really wouldn’t help England’s chances in future major international tournaments if a 37-year old player is favoured and selected and leaving any potential of a young English hopeful to stagnate in the under-21 level of the game.

Overall, as England managers have come and gone since Eriksson, the constant has always been the question of Scholes coming out of retirement. It reared its head when Steve McClaren took over in 2006 and nothing ever came of it. It persisted to present itself when Fabio Capello got the job; this time Scholes said no. While Scholes has since said given more time by Capello, he would have returned to the international scene and that he may have made a mistake in not being able to play in one more World Cup, he will not only remain a Manchester United man for the time being, but a family man, a reason he has often cited for his retirement and not coming back.

66 caps, 14 goals, and that’s the way it will stay.

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