Paul Scholes feels he didn’t do himself justice during his England career and has denied Sven-Goran Eriksson pushed him into retiring from international football.
Scholes finally ended his glittering club career at the end of the season at the age of 36, there is a widespread belief among fans that Scholes hung up his boots for the national team far too early, having retired aged just 29 having won 66 caps.
“Maybe for half the games I played for England, I was all right,” the ex-United midfielder said.
“My England career started quite well. In the first 20 to 25 games I scored quite a few goals. From then on it just didn’t go as well as I would have liked.
“It was my fault for not playing as well as I should have done.”
After being played out of position, out wide left by Eriksson, Scholes abruptly left the national team set up in the aftermath of Euro 2004. Many felt this change in natural position played a big role in his decision to retire from international duty but he claims this was not the case.
“That was rubbish,” Scholes insisted. “Some people said I fell out with Sven because he played me on the left, but that was never the case.
“I’d played on the left at Manchester United for a couple of seasons, done well and scored a lot of goals.
“That was never an issue. It was just, for one reason or another it didn’t work out.”
Steve McClaren tried and failed to talk the creative midfielder back into the international fold before Fabio Capello’s attempt but as he explains it was not because he didn’t enjoy his time representing England.
“It was a pleasure to play for England,” Scholes said.
“To be recognised by your country and to be asked to play for them is something special and something everyone would want to do.
“Obviously I would have liked to have won something with England but it wasn’t a successful time – well there hasn’t been one of those for a while. That is just the way it went.”
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