Quotes from Paul Scholes

I don't know why anyone would want to be a goalkeeper. It is a hard position to do well.

In some ways, I admire the principle of a manager who is determined that his team must play their own game.

I don't go looking for the post-match team pictures posted by players on Instagram, but usually, someone ends up showing them to me, or I notice them when they get printed in the newspapers.

I knew the shirt-swapping business in general was getting out of hand when opponents would ask me for my shirt while we were still mid-match. Those are the wrong priorities.

When you are playing for a top club, when the pressure is on, when scrutiny is everywhere, you need some privacy. You need a place away from public view where people can be open, and, at times, difficult conversations need to be had.

To beat opposing teams, you have to attack, and to attack, you have to take risks.

The first time I retired, only Sir Alex Ferguson and I knew that the last league game of the 2010-11 season against Blackpool was to be my final game at Old Trafford. I was a little bit sad, but I am not one for tears. The end of a career comes to us all, and there is not a lot you can do about that.

Things change, although I believe that certain principles - of attacking, entertaining football - should always be protected.

I won three FA Cup finals, two League Cup finals, and played in one of United's two Champions League-winning finals. But I lost in a lot of finals, too: the FA Cup in 1995, 2005 and 2007, the League Cup in 2003, and the Champions League in 2009 and 2011.

I would never do anything to damage United, whoever the owners might be, and I am sure that no United fan would want me to do that.

Our modern coaching culture is not to put too much pressure on any one performance, to let an individual flourish over time.

There are times in the career of every young English footballer when they simply need to take their chance to establish themselves.

There is something about a cup final that brings out a different quality in a footballer. Do they have the courage to win a one-off match?

If you go down the leagues, you have to understand what level you're working with, and if you get frustrated, then it's not going to ever happen for you. That's why a lot of managers don't succeed where they should do.

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.

Pirlo is a cool customer who does things in his own time. On the pitch, he just looks so relaxed, no matter what is going on around him. He is one of those greats who looks like he could run a midfield with a glass of red wine in one hand.

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.

The hardest thing to coach is scoring goals and creativity.

When I finally quit for the second time in the summer of 2013, I had accepted that this really was the end, and, having got over that, the move into retirement was a lot easier.

In my years at United, I witnessed some signings who, over their careers, transformed the fortunes of the team. From Eric Cantona, when I was an apprentice, to Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Wayne Rooney. These were great footballers who became great United players.

Martin Skrtel is good at rattling the opposing centre-forward.

For any footballer who plays for Real Madrid in the modern era, the prospect of leaving the club must feel like a step down no matter where they go - but it does not have to be like that.

I suppose I should have realised that the very fact I was still playing for United at 38 years old was a sign that there was not enough pressure on us senior players from those coming into the side.

At some point, a young player has to grasp the opportunity and make himself undroppable.