The weekend’s football has been dominated by the handshake between Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez, or lack of one, as it turned out.
As I picked up my Sunday paper, I was disappointed – but not surprised – that the columns related to Liverpool’s visit to Manchester United on Saturday lunchtime were dealing with the damage which Suarez has done to his club’s reputation rather than the game of football which also took place.
Indeed, the lack of handshake was even featured heavily in papers in the United States. It is through no fault of the writers – the blame should be placed firmly at Suarez’s door, despite Kenny Dalglish’s frankly embarrassing insistence otherwise.
The handshake incident sadly overshadowed what was a good quality game between teams whose rivalry stretches back much further than Suarez’s racist comments at Anfield in October.
One player who until recently Suarez wouldn’t have expected to be shaking hands with at Old Trafford on Saturday for the right reasons was Paul Scholes, and he is probably wishing he hadn’t have to walk past a United line up that included the returning veteran.
On the morning of January 8, Scholes – by then retired for just over seven months – was spotted walking into the Etihad Stadium, seemingly to watch his former team mates take on their local and title rivals in the FA Cup Third Round.
How wrong Gareth Southgate, who was in the ITV studio that day, was when he tweeted to say that rumours of Scholes playing couldn’t be true as he wasn’t holding a wash bag.
Just five weeks later and Scholes is back in the United squad and as much more than just a squad player. On Saturday he dictated the play from the middle of the park with obvious hunger for the ball at his feet and the unerring passing accuracy for which he has been acclaimed by those at the very top of the game over the years.
It’s not the first time he has demonstrated just what United were missing in the first half of the season. In that first game back at the Etihad, in his half hour on the pitch, Scholes played more passes than anybody on the pitch and more than any Manchester City player in the whole game. Not only that, but his completion rate was a remarkable 97.2%.
It was evidence, if any was needed, of his ability to make a team tick and that, providing he is used wisely (he can’t play every game at 37), age should not stop him from significantly adding to his total of 683 appearances for United.
After his first game back, Scholes has played in all six United games since, including his return to Old Trafford against Bolton Wanderers against whom he opened the scoring with his 151st goal for the club.
In the FA Cup Fourth Round against Liverpool at Anfield two weeks ago, he was at the centre of all United’s play – a major reason for their 57% of posession. When he was withdrawn for Javier Hernandez in the 76th minute, the game changed and Liverpool went on to win.
Sir Alex Ferguson was careful not to make the same mistake in the Old Trafford clash on Saturday and Scholes rolled back the years with a majestic performance. He could even have given United the lead in the first half when he was involved in some terrific interchanging of passes before rolling back the years, ghosting into the area to latch on to Ryan Giggs’ cross, only to head straight at Pepe Reina.
Giggs must have been an inspiration in Scholes’ decision to come out of retirement, himself still a fixture in Ferguson’s line-up. The Welshman signed a new one year contract this week and all United fans would be mad not to be hoping that Scholes will take more inspiration from his old pal and do the same.