Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has addressed comments he made after his team’s defeat to Newcastle last week, which many saw as an attack on Michael Carrick.
Paul Scholes said he did not intend to offend Michael Carrick with his comments last week (Image: YouTube/The Good, the Bad and the Football Podcast)
Paul Scholes has insisted that the comments he made in an Instagram Story post last week were not intended to hurt Michael Carrick after speaking to Manchester United’s head coach.
The 51-year-old former midfielder caused a stir on social media after Carrick’s side lost to Newcastle last Wednesday. The Instagram Story featured a written message from Scholes, which read: “Michael definitely understands something about him…because United have been crap the last four games…tonight.”
Many saw Scholes’ comments as an attack on Carrick, who has overseen a huge improvement in results since replacing Ruben Amorim. The loss at Newcastle was his first loss since taking over. That includes Patrice Evra, with the former United left-back saying he hopes Scholes has been “hacked”.
But Mr Scholes cleared things up on Monday’s podcast The Good, the Bad and the Football amid backlash following his comments.
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He said: “There was absolutely no offensive intent towards Michael. Michael is one of the greatest people in football and I don’t want to offend him.”
“I sent a message to Michael anyway. I went straight to him and said, ‘Look, I didn’t mean to upset you.’ I don’t think I needed to say that anyway, and he said himself that he wasn’t upset about it.”
“I think people just take it in a different way than it’s supposed to mean,” Scholes added.
“All I wanted to say is, I don’t think they played that well in the last four games, but he’s still getting results.
Carrick has done an excellent job since replacing Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford in January (Image: Visionhaus, Visionhaus/Getty Images)
“We had the greatest manager in the world and he always said that sometimes you need a little bit of luck. So with sending offs and things that happen during the game, sometimes you need a little bit of luck. That’s all I wanted to say.”
The loss to the 10-a-side Magpies was the only blemish on Carrick’s record since taking over at United in mid-January. And he looked just as frustrated as Scholes after United lost 2-1 at St James’ Park.
“We weren’t happy with the way the game went, it was largely in our hands in terms of how the game played out, but credit to Newcastle,” he said after the match.
“We were able to get into a position where we felt we should have started the kick. We weren’t really disappointed that badly. I don’t think it was the 10-man thing. We just didn’t play well enough, there’s no excuse.”
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