Scholes' Opinion on England NT Failures

Paul Scholes blames England’s international failures on “very selfish” stars who use the Three Lions as a platform to boost their club careers and bank balances rather than playing for the team.

The former Manchester United midfielder retired in May after helping the Old Trafford outfit win a record 19th English title.

He admits one of the reasons he quit England after Euro 2004 was his frustration at a lack of national pride in the ­international set-up – not the fact that Sven-Goran Eriksson played him out of position on the left of his diamond formation.

He revealed: “I got fed up. When you are going to a team, you want to be part of a team and play well, but there are individuals who are after ­personal glory.

“When there is a simple pass of 10 yards, they might try and smack it 80 yards. They will do things to try and get themselves noticed.

“Playing on the left was never a problem. I played on the left for ­United I don’t know how many times. I probably had my most successful time scoring goals in that position so it was never a problem.”

Scholes admits Jamie ­Carragher’s claim that it hurt more to lose for Liverpool than England ­probably summed up the lack of ­passion and commitment, as well as selfishness, that runs through the Three Lions set-up.

Scholes said: “You still hate losing whether it is United or England. Maybe that is half the problem then, if players are going into that squad and not caring about it.

“I think there ­definitely is an ­element of that – what Jamie said about not being bothered about ­England losing.

“I always felt players at clubs like your Aston Villas try to use England as a way to get to a top club.

“Which, I don’t know, you feel, ‘Are they there for the right reason?’ I think they are very selfish people.

“It happened in my day. I think they are all there to get their bit of glory, their bit of headlines to think ‘Oh, I will get a move from this’.

“That is the biggest problem with English players – most of them are just too selfish.”

Scholes admits that players using England as a platform to further their careers, and engineer transfers to top clubs, was a source of ­frustration for him and some of his Man United team mates at international level. The midfielder always gave 100 per cent for his ­country and could not understand the people who only turned up ­because playing ­international football enhanced their status as players.

He insisted: “They have probably done what they have ­wanted to do and that is enough to get to a big club. I think it was a ­frustration for us United lads.

“It was just selfish.”

He admits some ­players use England call-ups as a way to boost their club wages by citing what other ­internationals earned.

“But is that the right ­environment to do that?” he asks.

Scholes believes English players are not technically ­inferior to those of ­previous World Cup-winning teams such as Spain, Italy, France or ­Brazil, but are let down by their ­attitude and play too much for ­themselves.

“I think it is probably more ­attitude,” he explained. “If you look at the Spain team now, they all seem to play for each other.

“There isn’t one of them who would try to do something in a game that doesn’t suit the team and the way they play. And that could happen over here.”