The former Manchester United and England midfielder Paul Scholes didn’t particularly like playing for England according to Mick Clegg, who is currently the first-team strength and conditioning coach at Manchester United, and has opened up about the conversations he used to have with Scholes at the club’s training ground at Carrington in his new book The Power and the Glory.
Quotes via CaughtOffside
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Scholsey was always telling me to put the kettle on and one day we were having a chat about the Euros that summer. He said he hated playing for England, which came as a bit of a shock. I asked him why he kept turning up and he said ‘well it’s England, that’s what you have to do.
“Paul was worried about the reaction he would get from the rest of the country if he stopped playing for England.
“I asked him if he’d ever felt the same way playing for his school team or with his mates or for United – and he said that was different. He loved that. I told him that he was being bullied into doing something that went against his own instincts. Not long afterwards, he packed in international football. Was it down to our chat? I don’t know because we never spoke about it again.
“I know he didn’t like being away from home. He was always a family man and he didn’t want to be away from his wife and kids. If you go away with England and you’re not happy then you’re not going to perform at your best on the pitch.”