Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has questioned vice executive-chairman Ed Woodward’s footballing knowledge ahead of calls for his old side to employ the ideal director of football.
Scholes, now retired, became a United legend after featuring in 499 matches in all competitions and being directly involved in over 100 goals for the Red Devils saw the Englishman lift 25 trophies during a two-decade long career with the Reds.
Scholes was a first-team figurehead under legendary gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson and become best known for being one of the Premier League’s greatest ever central-midfielders.
The talented former-pro lifted a monumental 11 Premier League titles and two Champions League trophies with United but since retiring for a second time in May 2013 Scholes has been forced to see his former side struggle both domestically and in Europe.
During the last seven years, Scholes’ old side have seen more managers than trophies with his former team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the latest to take the Old Trafford hot-seat.
Despite spending hundred of millions of pounds on talent throughout the last seven years, United have failed to recapture their best performances and ex-midfielder Scholes believes that could be down to the club not employing a director of football.
Speaking to Stadium Astro (as quoted by Manchester Evening News) Scholes said: “I think a director of football would take a lot of pressure off Ed Woodward, of course it would. I think Ed’s [Woodward] very good at running the club and making money for the club.
“I’m not sure he has the knowledge of football that’s required to go out and sign players and clearly there’s been some issues in getting deals over the line.
“I think a director of football would be very good for him to take him out of the limelight a little bit. We don’t seem to want to go down that road. Whether they’ve looked at people and they can’t find the right person, I don’t know.”
Scholes went onto highlight one old team-mate who could be the perfect candidate for the role as the Englishman lauded current Ajax CEO Edwin van der Sar, he said: “But I think someone like Edwin van der Sar would be perfect. He’s done that job at Ajax, it was always a role he wanted to go into. He’s been to university and studied for that role.
“The likes of Rio [Ferdinand] and Fletch [Darren Fletcher] are similar to me really, it’s more of a consultancy – what do you think of this player? Just someone to ring up and give a bit of an idea.”
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Scholes’ criticism of Woodward’s football knowledge implies that the idiot has some vague ideas about football whereas it is clear that Woodward has absolutely no clue at all. Instead of changing managers in the hope of creating a winning team, he, Woodward, should be sacked with no retrenchment package. In fact he should repay all the emoluments he has received in his wasted years at the club.