Manchester United coach Michael Carrick has insisted that he was not offended by Paul Scholes’ criticism of his side.
This comes after Scholes appeared to take a personal dig at Carrick on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast after United were beaten by Newcastle United last week.
Writing on Instagram, the ex-United midfielder wrote: “Michael has definitely got something about him…cos United have been crap last 4 games…night.” It came after 10-man Newcastle scored late to claim a 2-1 win at St James’ Park and condemn Carrick to his first defeat since taking over as interim boss in January.
Scholes later clarified that he hadn’t meant to be offensive towards his ex-teammate and that he had messaged Carrick to clear the air.
He said: “It was in no way intended to be offensive towards Michael. Michael’s one of the nicest people in football, he would be the last person I want to offend.
“I messaged Michael anyway. I went straight to him and said, ‘Look I had no intention of upsetting you’. I don’t think I needed to say that anyway, and he told me himself he wasn’t upset by it.”
“I think people have just taken it differently from what was meant,” Scholes added. “The only thing I was saying was that I don’t think they played that well the last four games, and he’s still managing to get results.
“We had the greatest manager in the world and he always said, sometimes you need a bit of luck. So with sending-offs and different things that happen through games, sometimes you do need a bit of luck, that’s all I was saying.”
Carrick played alongside Scholes in United’s midfield for seven years and, to some, the comments suggested a personal issue between the two, who now find themselves on the opposite side of the manager-media divide.
Speaking in a press conference before United face Aston Villa in the Premier League, Carrick dismissed the criticism.
“There’s nothing to say about it really,” Carrick said. “I think that’s just where we are in terms of social media and things and captions and quotes, and it can be taken in different ways.
“Calm about it and understand actually what the real meaning of things. So, listen, there’s different opinions out there, you know, and it’s fine, people can have different opinions.
“It’s just things get taken way out of one extreme to the other, and it is what it is, but I’m not worried about it. So I don’t make a big deal of it either.”
