55. Paul Scholes

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 2-1 win vs Port Vale (League Cup tie, scored twice), September 21st 1994
League Record: 404 games (+95 as sub), 107 goals
Sold to: Retired in the Summer of 2013

Ah, how we can laugh now. Youngsters may not know of the hoo-ha surrounding the debut of Paul Scholes: Fergie essentially decided to use the League Cup to blood younger players, in part due to the fact we had, in 1994/95, qualified for the Champions League group stage for the first time. This meant six extra games for the first teamers, though the “three foreigner” rule meant our first foray led to embarrassment in Barcelona and Gothenburg.

Therefore, with the first team stretched, the League Cup was what give way and the Boss decided to use it blood younger players. At the time, pundits moaned about United “cheating the paying fans” but in hindsight, how many of those that paid for the first Port Vale game boast about seeing the debut of the finest English player of his generation?

Short, asthmatic and (as a youth) topped with a crop of bright ginger hair, if Paul Scholes looked like a footballer it was more in the midfield-terrier style of a previous North Manchester-born legend - Nobby Stiles.  However, “the Ginger Prince” was born with an uncanny football brain that gifted him a superb range of passing and an ability to time his runs into the box to score vital goals. As for tackling… well, everyone has their kryptonite.

Initially playing as a centre-forward, by 1997, he had moved back to the centre midfield role, his superb range of passing and vision becoming a crucial part of our play. By 1999, Scholes and Roy Keane were doubtless the best midfield combination in the country and drove United to the Champions League final – Paul scoring a vital goal at the San Siro to get us past Inter Milan in the Quarter Finals. Bookings in the Semis against Juventus saw both miss out on the final, but Scholesy would finally get his medal nine years later, sealing our path to the final with a winning goal against Barcelona.

On the international stage, he was initially a success – Kevin Keegan was a huge fan. However, by the start of the new century, the pressure to play a system that featured Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard (both of whom enjoyed the limelight) saw our man shunted out to the left wing by Sven-Goran Erikkson. It was a joke of a compromise, albeit one opposition teams were thankful for, seeing as it put England’s most dangerous player in a relatively harmless position. After the 2004 European Championships, he’d had enough and asked to not be considered for selection again. There was calls for him to be brought back for the 2010 World Cup, and Fabio Cappello was apparently keen, but Scholes decided he’d rather spend the summer at home in Oldham.

Though initially retiring in the summer of 2011, he came back in January 2012, a decision which would prove decisive to one young Frenchman who felt his deserved his chance in the first team and wasn’t happy to see the veteran get there instead. He played a final season, though his powers were clearly very much on the wane, before quitting for good at the end of 2012/13, another Championship medal in the bag.

It was a privilege to have seen the man play football.