Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson rules out possibility of Wayne Rooney replacing Paul Scholes

EPL : Wayne Rooney, Blackburn Rovers v Manchester United

Related Links

Teams

Players

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed there is no chance of Wayne Rooney replacing Paul Scholes in Manchester United’s midfield.

Ferguson has been linked with a host Europe’s elite names, including Arsenal’s Samir Nasri and Inter’s Wesley Sneijder, but has so far failed to bring in a replacement for the recently retired midfielder.

Scholes has even suggested that the United boss could try Rooney in midfield, although Sir Alex has ruled out the possibility.

“Scholesy is being very generous there,” he told reporters.

“He’s underestimating himself and the value he had to us. Wayne could play centre midfield, but not the way that Scholesy played it. They’re too different.

“The way Wayne would play as opposed to Scholesy is that he would be more dynamic and all over the place, using his energy to run everywhere, challenge and hit those cross-field passes that he’s terrific at.

“Scholes was more calculated. He always had that control about him, controlling the speed and pace of a game, which is pretty difficult to do. He was an absolute one-off.”

Sir Alex believes Scholes is irreplaceable but will continue to search for a suitable player to come in.

He added: “You can’t replace players like that. You hope you can get something approaching it, but you’ll never replace Scholes.

“We’re all searching for that. Everybody is searching for the special player who makes the difference to his team.”

The Red Devils boss has been busy reshaping his squad over the summer and believes fans could well witness the emergence of another fantastic side.

He added: “We lost five experienced players in the summer. Five players who gave the club great service – Wes Brown, John O’Shea, Edwin van der Sar, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville.

“At the time, you think it’s a big slice out of the cake, but we have replaced them by adding De Gea, Jones and Young, and also bringing back Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley, who were on loan.

“We’ve actually got 12 players aged 22 or under with us now, so it could be an emerging team again.

“There are also some experienced players who are maturing and will carry the responsibility of performance – Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand have responsible roles, as do Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Michael Owen.

“These are experienced players we’ve got, and the young players will be desperate to get in their positions, so I think it’s a healthy situation we’re in.”