Paul Scholes has named the two Manchester United team-mates he did not like playing alongside at Old Trafford.
Scholes came through United’s youth setup as part of the ‘Class of ’92’, before retiring for the first time in 2011.
After a season out of the game, he accepted an offer from Sir Alex Ferguson to return for the 2012/13 campaign and won his 13th and final Premier League title.
During his time at Old Trafford, the legendary midfielder would play against some of world football’s elite stars of their generations, including Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
His Class of 92 team-mates Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs would both be at United for the entirety of Scholes’ first stint and, like their team-mate, would play their entire careers at the Manchester club.
But Scholes has admitted that, out of all of his team-mates, there were only two players that he did not particularly enjoy playing alongside.
Speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap Xtra, he revealed that he preferred featuring in midfield alongside players who were not naturally attack-minded – as he often struggled when paired with Juan Sebastian Veron or Anderson.
He explained: “I played with Nicky Butt, I played with Roy. Michael Carrick. I loved playing with all of them.
“It wasn’t great playing with people who [were] attacking people. I needed someone who played that position really well.”
Neville replied: “Someone like Veron, you mean?”
“Yeah. Me and Veron were a disaster,” Scholes admitted.
“I think me and Anderson did it once. Just, no, it’s not working, is it?
“Just two lads who don’t care about defending, don’t know the [defensive] position that well. But it worked better with a Michael or a Roy or a Nicky.
“They were brilliant playing that position, they knew. I didn’t know the position that well. I didn’t play in the position that well, as you know.”
Veron became the most expensive player in English football history when he signed for United from Lazio in 2001, for a fee of £28.7 million.
But his two years at Old Trafford were largely unsuccessful as he struggled to adapt to English football, though he showed more of his talents following his decision to join Chelsea.
Now 50, Veron is still involved with football as the president of his former club Estudiantes in Argentina.
Veron is the president of Argentine club Estudiantes (Image: Getty)
Anderson, meanwhile, quit football in 2019 and became assistant manager of Turkish club Adana Demirspor.
He won the Golden Boy award in 2008 shortly after signing for United, but became an increasingly bit-part player over seven seasons and left the club in 2015.
Writing in his autobiography, his former United team-mate Rafael gave an insight into why the Brazilian did not become one of the best players in world football..
“Give him a football and he would just play with freedom,” Rafael explained. “If he got a good run of games, he could play as well as any player in the league. Not only that, but when he was playing well, we were playing brilliant football.
“He picked up a lot of injuries, and then his problems with eating the way he did started to affect.
“It was no coincidence that his best form came when he had a lot of games, because that was when he couldn’t eat so much.”
