A biography for Paul Scholeshasn’t been written yet.
“OK, so I never had a transfer in my career, but I used to love deadline day: Dimitar Berbatov turning up at Manchester airport with hours to go, Robinho coming to Manchester City instead of Chelsea.”
“My view is that you show Messi one side or the other, and if he goes past you, he goes past you. But if he slips it through your legs, then you have to obstruct him and take the foul. Just don't ever let yourself be nutmegged.”
“In my world, the dressing room was sacrosanct. The only time anyone was permitted to take pictures in there was when we had won a trophy.”
“St James' Park was always, in the course of my career, a great place to play football, for the wildness of the crowd and the no-holds-barred football that both my team, Manchester United, and Newcastle would play.”
“You buy the right players for the system that you believe will be successful.”
“United's history was built on attacking football, which does not always mean that the team kept clean sheets or did not concede chances.”
“There is no doubt that my former manager Sir Alex exerted an influence over some referees. He was the master of dropping a comment into his Friday press conference - for instance, how long it had been since we had been given a penalty, or the treatment meted out to a player like Cristiano Ronaldo.”
“Let me be clear: I am sick of having to criticise the club which I gave my life to as a footballer.”
“The best goalkeeper I played with at United was Schmeichel. He was a phenomenon in training, never mind on match days. He just never wanted to concede, and he would do everything to stop you scoring.”
“I first remember Wayne Rooney from a game at Old Trafford in 2002 when he came on as a late substitute for Everton and, in a brilliant 15-minute performance, skipped past me on a couple of occasions.”
“United fans don't care if the team only has 40 per cent possession as long as they are watching an attacking team. My experience was that the supporters understood that even our best teams, even the teams with Peter Schmeichel or Edwin van der Sar in goal, were going to concede goals.”
“There are times in the career of every young English footballer when they simply need to take their chance to establish themselves.”
“Saturday afternoon is the hardest thing. I can go out and watch games, but I'm constantly on my phone looking at results: what score is this, what score is that. You have no real involvement, but you're obsessed with it.”
“You have to be careful when you time a move to one of the biggest clubs. Occasionally, these young players do not realise what a good thing they are on to when they know that they will be playing every week.”
“There were players I shared a dressing room with who didn't like each other. You don't have to talk to each other. You just need to win matches.”
“At United, we never used to change our style much away from home. The aim was always to score goals and dominate the match.”
“We know Mourinho can win league titles - he is brilliant at it - but how long can he do it at one club?”
“United are about attacking football, and everything else has to takes its place behind that.”
“I do wonder whether the bigger the game is, the more the risks that David Luiz decides to take.”
“When it came to playing Arsenal over the last eight years of my career at United, we always went into games against them feeling like we would win - and we usually did.”