Quotes from Paul Scholes

I do wonder whether the bigger the game is, the more the risks that David Luiz decides to take.

I was fortunate to play with so many wonderful footballers and under the greatest manager of all time, but I do believe that a club's ethos, the principles of how it plays, should outlive even the biggest individuals in its history.

'Elusive' is the word that immediately springs to mind when I think about Messi's style of play. You think you have an eye on him and then - blink - he has gone, only to reappear somewhere else in space, with the ball.

The game changes so quickly, and you have to get yourself in a position mentally where you can deal with whatever is thrown at you.

I worked with many great assistants to Sir Alex Ferguson over the years. Yet sometimes a manager's second-in-command is more suited to that role than any other. You confide in them - you tell them things that you would not tell the manager - and they are that bridge between the boss and the players.

We played 63 games in the treble-winning season of 1999, and I cannot remember feeling tired once. We won the league title with the last game of the season, and along the way, we knew that in any game we could miss out on this chance of a lifetime to win all three. We had 22 players who were ready to be called on at any moment.

The way a top team develops means that once you have won the league title, the natural step is to try to win the Champions League.

Let me be clear: I am sick of having to criticise the club which I gave my life to as a footballer.

On my mum Marie's side, my nana was from the Republic of Ireland, and my granddad was from the north. Lots of families in Manchester have strong Irish connections, but it never occurred to me to play for anyone other than England.

Modern managers have a lot of demands on them, and many feel, with justification, that they do not have the time to commit to watching the junior sides.

At first sight, Pogba was notable for his size and physicality, and when you got to know him, there was also a confidence about him.

My view is that the signing of players should be a simple process. The chief scout identifies them, the manager decides who he wants, and the chief executive is dispatched to do the deal. It really is as simple as that.

If I was to become a manager, I would not want someone else to be signing the players for the team that my job depended on.

If you want a measure of how private a place the dressing room was when I was growing up at Manchester United, consider this: even Sir Alex Ferguson would knock before coming into the dressing room at the Cliff, the old training ground. The dressing room is for the players - and the players only.

I played for 20 years for Sir Alex Ferguson, and he could be a scary man.

Part of being a Manchester United player under Sir Alex Ferguson, perhaps the most important part of being one of United's attacking players was that when you were in possession, you had to take risks in order to create goal-scoring chances. It was not an option; it was an obligation.

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.

As a club, there was never any middle ground with Newcastle. They were as high as the sky or in a pit of despair.

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.

Peter Schmeichel could make the goal look much smaller when you glanced up to hit a shot.

Little details about young footballers catch your eye when you have been around a big club for a long time. At first, it can be minor things, like the way certain young players stand out from the group when the academy lads cross paths with the senior team on their way to training in the morning.

That is the issue with signing young players from other big European football nations - at some point, they will want to go home.

There was no better manager at developing young players than Sir Alex. He knew just when to bring them in and take them out, and he believed in Paul Pogba. For once, in Paul's case, it did not work out. The timing was wrong, and the difference between expectation on the player's side and the manager's idea of his development did not match up.

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.