MANCHESTER UNITED coach Mick Clegg has revealed Paul Scholes once told him he “hated playing for England”.
Scholes won 66 caps for the Three Lions, representing his country at four major tournaments.
But Clegg recalled a tell-all chat between himself and the Manchester United legend back in 2004 in which Scholes laid his feelings bare.
The midfielder was often deployed on the left side for England in order to accommodate Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
And bosses Sven-Goran Eriksson, Glenn Hoddle or Kevin Keegan never really managed to get the best out of Scholes, who won 11 league titles, three FA Cups and two Champions League trophies at club level.
Clegg wrote in his new book, The Power and the Glory.: “[Paul] said he hated playing for England, which came as a bit of a shock.
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“I asked him why he kept turning up and he said ‘Well it’s England, that’s what you have to do’.
“Paul was worried about the reaction he would get from the rest of the country if he stopped playing for England.”
Clegg went on to reveal that he advised Scholes he was being “bullied” into playing for England.
And soon after the chat between the pair in 2004 Scholes retired from international football, seven years after making his England debut.
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He called time on his international career in a shock announcement aged just 29.
Clegg though doesn’t know whether it was his words that cued Scholes to halt his England career in order to focus solely on Manchester United.
He continued: “I asked him if he’d ever felt the same way playing for his school team or with his mates or for United – and he said that was different. He loved that.
“I told him that he was being bullied into doing something that went against his own instincts.
“Not long afterwards, he packed in international football. Was it down to our chat? I don’t know because we never spoke about it again.
“I know he didn’t like being away from home. He was always a family man and he didn’t want to be away from his wife and kids.
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“If you go away with England and you’re not happy then you’re not going to perform at your best on the pitch.”
Scholes played on at Old Trafford until retiring in 2011, but returned a year later for the 2012-13 season before finally calling it a day for good.
