Manchester United’s two most exciting players this season have been promising young duo Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo.
A woeful 2023/24 season is not without its bright spots. Whatever the future holds for Erik ten Hag, Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho have big futures ahead for the club.
Two years on from winning the FA Youth Cup, Mainoo and Garnacho are embedded as regulars in the first team, a best possible outcome in their development, also both senior internationals.
There is a sense, however, that their dramatic rise has come despite the wide dysfunction at United, and there is a lot of improvement required behind the scenes.
Former star Paul Scholes has seen something new he doesn’t like. Once a shy figure, Scholes’ opinions are now as uncompromising as his tackling.
Paul Scholes blasts training picture
Manchester United’s players are in training at Carrington as preparation builds for Saturday’s Premier League game against Bournemouth.
Without a win in three league games, United now face a team who won 3-0 at Old Trafford.
Today’s training session was a wet one, and this prompted an outburst from Paul Scholes upon seeing images from Carrington.
Reacting to an image of Mainoo and Garnacho looking well sheltered from the weather, Scholes put the duo on blast.
He wrote on Instagram: “Don’t mind hats and gloves but no way can you train properly with your hood up… standards begin on the training pitch…bye!”
Assessing Paul Scholes comments
It’s easy to put this down to Scholes being grumpy and hitting out at modern footballers, and you wouldn’t be wrong. You also know he would have said this directly to them had they trained like this in his day.
However, the context of the picture is unclear. Was it taken just before training began, or once the session had finished, as opposed to actually being an image of during the training drills?
Other pictures from the session, above, show Mainoo pictured without his hood on. While the young duo weren’t the only ones to put their hoods up at times either.
Scholes might argue it doesn’t matter, and the young players should ‘tough out’ the rain and wind at all times.
This might even be something Sir Dave Brailsford looks at. His ‘marginal gains’ philosophy takes stock of all the minor and seemingly insignificant improvements which can be made to a team, and argues that added up, they can make a difference.
Even so, it feels like a little bit of an unfair shot from Scholes to be targeting the two best players at the club this season. On the other hand, he might be trying to help, in his own way, and can’t be accused of going after the ‘easy targets’.
For Scholes to be making his point publicly is not so helpful. Surely there’s a contact at the club he can privately pass his advice onto?
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