One of the best midfielders of his generation almost didn’t make the grade.
Lee Sharpe appeared on BT Sports’ Football Tonight last Friday, and told a humorous story about how Paul Scholes was almost released by Manchester United as a youth player.
Sharpe came through before the much-heralded Class of ’92, making his debut age 17 in 1988, and was arguably the first youth team player under Alex Ferguson to make the step-up to the first-team.
Before his Old Trafford career derailed, and he was sold to Leeds United in 1996, the midfielder was established member of the Ferguson’s first great team.
According to Sharpe, the senior players from that side would regularly watch the third team – which featured future United greats David Beckham, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes – and on one occasion asked the manager who was going to make the cut.
Apparently Ferguson was planning to keep Neville, Beckham and Nicky Butt, but wasn’t sure “about the little redhead in midfield,” – until he went on a mazy run, beating a number of players, dummied the goalkeeper and scooped the ball into the net.
Sharpe claims this prompted Bryan Robson to ask his manager “Are you sure you know what you’re talking about?”
