Paul Scholes admits Manchester United weren’t interested in bringing him back to the club last summer
Scholes applied for the job of Under-23 coach, but they went with Ricky Sbragia instead
MANCHESTER UNITED legend Paul Scholes has revealed that the club REJECTED the chance to bring him back as a coach last summer.
Scholes, who won 19 major trophies in 718 matches at United, had applied to be coach of the Under-23s - but United decided to name former Sunderland boss Ricky Sbragia instead.
Scholes said the club weren't "particularly interested" and thinks his outspoken punditry may have had something to do with it.
He told the Daily Mail: "Maybe it was because I hadn't been too complimentary about a couple of their performances while I've been working as a television pundit.
"I was just giving my honest views whenever I saw them.
"It's different now but the way they were before [Jose] Mourinho arrived, not really competing, it was difficult to dodge around it.
"They employed me for 20 years and I had the best time of my life there and I don't want to be slagging them off all the time but when you see what happened and the way they played sometimes, it was very difficult to defend.
"The only club I want to be at is Man United and I thought I had a good chance of doing the U23s.
"That coaching role was something I really wanted to do but it didn't happen."
Scholes was close to getting the Oldham job a couple of months ago, before losing out to Richie Wellens.
"I'm glad it didn't happen in a way," says Scholes.
"Manchester United was my life for 20-odd years and if I worked for another club I'm not sure it would feel right."
The former England man also admits that although he does punditry, it's not something he's really "comfortable with", especially after he realised how much weight his words carried.
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The midfield legend admits he is now "a little bit more careful" with what he is saying.
"[It's] not right really," he added, "I shouldn't be like that.
"I should be honest. Whether it creates headlines or not should not be my concern really."