Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson refutes the suggestion that Paul Scholes' return is a step backwards. The Scottish tactician sprang a major surprise when he confirmed 37 year old Scholes had come out of retirement ahead of the FA Cup tie at Manchester City last Sunday.
"One or two people have been negative. They're making out it's been a 'regressive step' for Manchester United.
"How can it be regressive? You're getting a player for nothing who's been part of the club for 20-odd years.
"He's not going to play every game but in terms of composure and passing ability, is there a better player going around? Definitely not."
In fact Ferguson's biggest dilemma was ensuring the news did not leak out, not even inside his own dressing room.
"I don't know how we managed it," he said.
"We registered him on the Friday, and thought somehow it would get out. But we didn't let any of the players know simply because of the impact value.
"We were going away from home in a very difficult FA Cup tie against City. We had 5,000 fans at that end of the ground and as soon as they knew his name was on the team sheet they were fantastic, there was a great response." "There were no negatives as far as I was concerned," Ferguson said in a joint interview with Eurosport and www.yahoo.com.
