Paul Scholes resigns as Oldham manager | Ole invites him to Carrington

Bastian

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Don't get the schadenfreude but I never thought he'd make a top manager. And I don't particularly like him as a pundit. But as a player he was one in a generation.

He might still try to make a go of things elsewhere, if it's down to the chairman going back on his word.
 

IrishRedDevil

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Yeah, about as classy as quitting via what’s app after 7 games.

I loved Scholes as a United player, doesn’t mean I have to love and agree with everything else he does in life. It’s about time people accepted we aren’t all robots following one regime.
 

Bastian

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If that's true then no one in their right mind would stay on.
 

adexkola

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I don't think Scholes walking away from the job, or Neville being fired from Valencia, makes them less qualified to give their opinions on managers. That would instantly disqualify the Caf from engaging in any meaningful football discussion.

However, I wish more pundits and casual fans would be more humble and understanding of the intense challenges and pressure faced by football managers, and not be so quick to think that they have no idea of how to manage and coach a team.
 

The_Bloods

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Owner should just be the manager. My colleague's club is like that and they are getting promoted to Conference South.
Droylsden FC have been like that for getting on for 20 years (if not longer - I lose track) - whilst there were some highs in the early days when he flashed the cash around, his later tenure has taken the club back 30 years to the depths of the semi-pro game.

Owners interfering with the playing side of the club never ends well for anyone.
 

tenpoless

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Sure, the opinion of the likes of Scholes and Neville worth more than us mere supporters.
But it's true that They spoke a lot of bollocks and nonsense as pundits. If you are an owner of a football club, surely You'd think twice before appointing them? add to that is the fact that both failed at their first clubs. They didn't play it safe in choosing their first clubs, not very wise.

Also, for those who say "different expectations". Well of course, the feck did They expect from Oldham and (that version) of Valencia? smells like people who think highly of themselves only to find out They're not as good/capable as They think.
 

stevoc

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I didn't think he would succeed at Oldham but i'm still sad for him that it didn't work out. Hopefully this experience will help him in the future if he manages again. At the very least i hope it give him an idea of just how difficult football management is and his opinions as a pundit change accordingly when criticising managers.
 

DavidDeSchmikes

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Oldham fan here.

Scholes wanted assurances before taking over that our owner (or his family) wouldn’t interfere with his job whilst at the club - as there were rumours they were picking the team etc.

Obviously they’ve gone back on their promises and it looks like Scholes has stood his ground and left.

This owner could end up running us into the ground. With 4 managers and a relegation in the last 10 months, it’s worrying times indeed for us.
The club is an absolute shambles.

After a decade of just keeping our heads above the water with the old owner, the club was sold a year or so ago to Abdallah Lemsagam, a Moroccan agent who operated heavily in France.

When the old manager Richie Wellens was at the club AL was heavily rumoured to be signing players himself, usually French, and often paying completely mediocre huge wages (for a club our size anyway). Shockingly enough we were relegated that season ending a long stint in League One.

Lemsagam showed no signs of stopping with his interfering with the club in League Two, allegedly picking the team and even going into the dressing room at half time on occasions. A season which really should have seen us challenging for promotion never really got started and with the team underperforming the manager Frankie Bunn was sacked.

Pete Wild, who was the caretaker youth team manager, was made caretaker first team manager while Lemsagam worked on appointing Scholes - this process took almost two months(!!) - significantly longer than Scholes actually lasted in the job!

Lemsagam gave assurances to Scholes that he would no longer interfere but had very clearly not kept his word.

All the Oldham fans I’ve seen comment are completely on Scholes’s side - tellingly few are actually surprised. We’ve had literally no success for a quarter of a century, we very nearly went bust in the early 2000s, but this is amongst the darkest times I can remember for the club.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/b12wum/paul_scholes_leaves_role_as_oldham_manager/
 

Posh Red

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I find it somewhat ridiculous how offended people get by punditry. It’s just ex-players getting paid to shoot the shit after the game. @el3mel honestly mate why does it bother you so much? If punditry was made up of exclusively successful managers there would be a pretty short list of available candidates. Some of you lot need to calm down.

And low and behold, it looks like he was perfect entitled to walk away according to the above article. As ever people jump to conclusions before they know any context.
 

Negan

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This was a write off. It doesn’t tell us anything about Scholes as a manager.

I’d go as far to say Henry at Monaco doesn’t, either.

Solskjær has changed the game. We saw him at Cardiff and now look at him.
 

devilish

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I don't think Scholes walking away from the job, or Neville being fired from Valencia, makes them less qualified to give their opinions on managers. That would instantly disqualify the Caf from engaging in any meaningful football discussion.

However, I wish more pundits and casual fans would be more humble and understanding of the intense challenges and pressure faced by football managers, and not be so quick to think that they have no idea of how to manage and coach a team.
we aren't paid to do so don't we? Also redcafe is hardly Sky football either.
 

roonster09

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we aren't paid to do so don't we? Also redcafe is hardly Sky football either.
So what? If only successful managers are allowed to comment then we won't have anyone to comment on games or even for live commentary.

Pundits don't have to be successful managers just like how managers don't have to be successful players.
 

youngrell

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The state of this thread. You'd swear it was about Steven Gerrard making a tit of himself with all the gloating from supposed United fans.
 

Owen06

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You think he's criticizing our club for the money? I'd like to see some facts to back that up... heres a list of some of his supposedly harshest comments.

https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/a-look-at-some-of-paul-scholes-grumpiest-quotes/

I think they are mostly spot on tbh. One of the few who had the balls to call us out on our terrible style, despite the occasional on-field success.
Yeah you are right. i was really happy when he was calling mourinho out for his shit.i'm sure he didn't derive any joy from criticizing the club he gave his all for.he like the rest of us was just so irritated by how the standards dropped hence the reason he was so critical of the manager and the players most times.

I hope the fanbase understand this.
 
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devilish

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So what? If only successful managers are allowed to comment then we won't have anyone to comment on games or even for live commentary.

Pundits don't have to be successful managers just like how managers don't have to be successful players.
First of all lets make a distinction between posting on redcafe and sky football. The former is the modern equivalent of a supporter venting his views at a supporters club or at a pub. The audience is limited, everyone here accepts that none of us are experts in football and that some might have a bad day at the office. If things degenerate then mods would tackle it. Pundits on the other hand are being paid quite handsomely to deliver a well balanced professional view of things to a way wider audience. They are hired because of their past (ie you won't see Joe bloggs as pundit wouldn't you?) and therefore there is a certain responsibility towards the club that made them + their supporters not to sound too silly. That's because without that past and without those supporters they would be nobodies and they will return to being nobodies if they ever lost that. I mean would you hire someone as pundit whom even their own fans think they are stupid? I very much doubt it.

Now let me share something about myself. I was raised in a country were we were exposed to both the Serie A and the EPL. Having said that,we had free access to the Italian TV stations but not to the English channels. Which means that while we had to go to the supporters club to watch the game only for our relative to pick us up immediately after, we were fully exposed to Italian punditry of the late 80s and early 90s. The difference between then and now was that pundits of the time (at least in Italy) knew their limits. They would analyse and comment about the game in every detail (fouls, penalties, yellow cards, offsides etc) and maybe suggest substitutions but they would never trespass beyond those boundaries. Which made sense as pundits have zero idea what football management is and even if they did, they have no idea the circumstances the manager is living in at the moment. For example its easy for a pundit to suggest that United need to buy 2 CBs and then pin it on the manager or owners for failing on that but no one outside OT would know why such a thing didn't happen. Who knows maybe we're aiming for a big project (ex developing Carrington) which would mean we have to work on a limited budget. Else we might have tried 2-3 options and failed. Shit like that happens all the time. Therefore the problem isn't really about the class of 92 but more about people being paid quite handsomely, to talk about stuff, they have zero idea upon.

TBH I find the class of 92 to be lousy managers and pundits and there is a reason why. These guys were exposed to just 1 manager who happened to be a genius. Throughout time SAF sheltered them from the realities of football (ie bad CEO/shareholders, lack of cash flow which lead to difficult times, a falling out with the main shareholders, a hostile takeover etc) and kept them safe while he took the slack. All he asked in exchange was full commitment on the pitch like the foot soldiers they were. Which explains why they tend to be so idealistic as opposed to more pragmatic people like Carra who had to live under 4-5 managers who were nowhere near to SAF's level and therefore knows that football is tougher then the Nevilles portray it to be. Its not just the class of 92 tbh. Others who had a similar upbringing to them seem to share their very same flaws. Take Keane or Souness for example and you'll think that they spent their lives jumping from D Day to the Battle of Agincourt right to Stalingrad rather then playing football at some of the best clubs and the best managers of their era. What the feck they know about cash strapped clubs, lousy managers and lousy owners? Which explains why these guys fail big time when managing teams who are facing such circumstances (Sunderland, Valencia, Oldham)

Asking these people about their view about management is basically like asking a student from Eton to give their own solutions about knife crime in the some of the most socially deprived area. They have no idea of what they are talking about.
 

Lay

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Seems a poorly run club. Good on him for leaving
 

Strachans Cigar

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Quit via Whatsapp apparently out of the blue without discussing anything with the board or backroom staff....sounds like he's shit himself and quit.
Wouldn’t be surprised. Scholes’ son has Autism. He’s probably skirting around the edges of the spectrum himself, if not officially on it, given his lack of/unorthodox social skills over the years.

Not using that as a stick to beat him with btw, I have an Autistic son myself, just an observation on him.

It’s not normal really to resign like that is it? You’d normally have a conversation at least. Maybe he didn’t want the awkward situation because he simply didn’t know how to handle it, given his personality.
 

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Mindboggling amount of shitty comments towards Scholes on a United forum. Even more so by some who commented negatively before the exact reason became apparent.
 

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Don't know why everyone is getting overly defensive about Scholes. He himself admitted he had left himself wide open to criticism having been so personal about Mourinho who he accused of being boring, out of date, not good enough and even claimed he engineered his way out of united. I think he definitely had a vendetta against Mourinho which might be understandable given his connection to United but hardly professional as an unbiased pundit. We freak out over Sourness' comments on Pogba saying its blinkered rather than constructive analysis and I think the same could be said of Scholes.

I don't think the same understanding is extended to Roy Keane's managerial or punditry career going on previous threads.

As @adexkola says it shouldn't render his opinion irrelevant but hopefully it might give added context to his criticisms that there can be more going on than what you see on the pitch.

https://www.the42.ie/scholes-expects-mourinho-scrutiny-4489203-Feb2019/
 

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If he doesn't manage again he'll be the greatest manager ever within the next 10 years.
 

Gandalf Greyhame

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Even though your next sentence is even more pathetic, what the feck is this?
No, talking crap about your ex-club on TV is not useful in any way. As a matter of fact, it's actually the exact opposite.
Scholes didn't start his moaning when LvG and Mourinho were done and not only the fans, but the players had given up on them. He started it much earlier and nobody needed that added media pressure that he among others caused.
He didn't lay into the club, he criticised the manager and some of the players and rightly so. Looks like you don't understand the difference.

Also, talking crap about your ex-legend is not useful in any way either. I wouldn't have a problem with people criticising him as a pundit or manager, but laughing at his failure is unacceptable.
 

VP89

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Resigned on WhatsApp? Poor show Scholsey..
 

Gio

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It can't be easy to go into a dressing room / onto a training pitch of sub-par footballers and try to instill the same kind of winning mentality and work ethic you had as a player when you were one of the best midfielders of your generation. It's was a total mismatch in terms of ambition, ability and approach to the game.

Good on him for taking a chance but really a man with his knowledge and experience of football should be starting his managerial career a lot higher than Oldham, no disrespect to Oldham. Paul Scholes could be a great manager at the right club, look at how much some people on here wrote off Ole because of his time at Cardiff.
I'm not really buying this line of argument. By the same logic you could make the same case that Maradona, Pele and Messi cannot manage any team because there is a gulf between their unique abilities and those of their teams. It's not as if he's managing the local pub team here - Oldham are still a full-time professional outfit comprised of players superior to 95% of those playing the game at any kind of organised level. The difference between them and players operating a couple of divisions higher is unlikely to be down to winning mentality, work ethic and ambition. It's much more likely to be a result of superior technique, quicker decision making and better physical genetics.

Nonetheless, this stint doesn't really prove anything. All it shows that Oldham is a basket case of a club and Scholes remains unproven as a manager.
 

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:lol: Honestly, just have to laugh, not at Scholes but at some of the posters on here. Going on about how Scholes and Neville should shut up now. They simply criticised our previous managers, which the majority agree were poor.

People act as if you cant discuss a topic if you've never experienced it or were poor at it. How many people on here were managers? Professional footballers? Are you better than Pogba? If not what gives you the right to criticise them, going by your own logic...
 

12OunceEpilogue

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This was a write off. It doesn’t tell us anything about Scholes as a manager.

I’d go as far to say Henry at Monaco doesn’t, either.

Solskjær has changed the game. We saw him at Cardiff and now look at him.
It seems the one mistake he made was taking the job against the advice of everyone who knew how poisoned a chalice the job is.

As I've said previously I'd like to hear from Oldham players how they got on with Scholes and that I get a feeling he's not manager material, but this episode doesn't seem to tell us anything about his attributes one way or another.
 

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Wow this thread. fecking hell..
 

Sassy Colin

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They did towards the end. There has always been a tinge of resentment it seems from Scholes in particular about how Giggs didn't walk in to the United job and how Jose didn't have him working for him.

I never really warmed to Jose either and I do think Scholes was right what he was saying but he was very critical of a manger and has now jacked at the first opportunity of something getting tough.

Mourinho apparently wanted certain players in the summer and didn't get them but he did try and carry on, Scholes can't say the same here.


I don't think there's anything wrong with being critical if there is a reason behind it, I don't dislike Scholes at all but he has been left with egg on his face a bit here.
Barely, he was just waiting for his big payout, he didn't try at all.
 

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It all reminds me of when Keano complained to "thick Mick" about poor training conditions in the lead up to Japan World Cup.

Finally he walked out, backed by United Fans, and slated by anti-United Fans...