HE SCORES GOALS

Over the past couple of weeks the redoubtable trio of Sir Alex Ferguson, Patrick Vieira and Edgar Davids all said the same thing in separate interviews, offering the unbidded opinion that Paul Scholes is just about the best midfielder around at the moment. It is entirely typical of the quiet man of Manchester United to be blissfully unaware of any of the compliments.

'I hadn't heard that,' he says, reddening slightly with embarrassment. 'It's great when people say stuff like that but it doesn't affect me. I just go out and play the same as I normally do. I make my own judgments. The only people you've got to impress are yourself and the manager, it doesn't really matter what others think. When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what people write in papers. It's what the manager thinks, and his staff.'

You won't see Scholesy at a film premiere and that's the way he likes it.

'It's just what I prefer,' he says. 'I think a lot of players are like me. It's nice to get recognition but that's not the reason for being a player. It's just part and parcel of what you do. I don't really think about the trophies we've won, or what I've done in my career. You think about what you've done on the day you win a league or a cup but after that it's gone. It's just a medal. Maybe in 20 or 30 years I might look back and think "I did all right", but at the moment it doesn't really mean anything.'

The considerable Scholes medal collection, which could see its first Worthington Cup winner's souvenir if United are successful against Liverpool in Cardiff this afternoon, is not on show and is rarely looked at. 'I keep them all in a safe, locked away,' he explains. 'I never get them out. Occasionally family will want to have a look at them but I don't bother.'

On bunking off against the Gunners.

'I didn't see it as standing up to the manager. If I had, I probably wouldn't have done it,' Scholes says. 'I just felt I was standing up for my own position. I think the manager knows I'm not a troublemaker. We spoke about it and that was the end of it. I just wasn't happy at the time, the way things were going for me. I thought it was something worth standing up for. I've always tried to be totally professional in my career, but I suppose I did feel a little bit as if I was being messed about, otherwise I wouldn't have done something as stupid as I did. At the time I didn't think it was stupid. I just felt as if I'd had enough. Looking back now it was a mistake.'

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