Paul Scholes' Transfer Blueprint for Manchester United
Paul Scholes has never been shy of a bold opinion. This time, his transfer blueprint for Manchester United cuts straight to the heart of their problems: tear up the defence, pay big for a proven winner, and build a new midfield around one of the Premier League’s rising stars.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, the former United and England midfielder made it clear where he would start.
“Go and sign Christian Romero”
For Scholes, the spine of the team remains the glaring issue.
“I think they sorted out the forward areas last summer,” he said. “But I think they probably need two centre backs. You might laugh at this and I might get stick for this, but I would go and sign Christian Romero from Tottenham.”
That name will raise eyebrows. Romero is as combustible as he is commanding, a World Cup winner with Argentina but a defender whose disciplinary record often dominates the conversation around him.
Scholes didn’t dodge that.
“I know he’s a nutter, I know he’s got disciplinary issues, but he can be a very good centre half and someone that Michael Carrick could really calm down,” he argued.
The logic is simple: elite pedigree at a price that, in today’s market, looks almost restrained.
“They’re talking about 30 or 40 million quid for a player who has been centre half in a World Cup final. I know he’s got disciplinary issues but I would go and get him. I think they’re desperate for a centre-back, the current ones aren’t good enough.”
In Scholes’s eyes, the need is no longer up for debate. United’s back line, he believes, has fallen too far below the standard required. Romero, fiery or not, represents the kind of proven, top-level defender he feels the club have ignored for too long.
Wharton as the midfield pivot
Scholes didn’t stop at the defence. His rebuild stretches into midfield, where he sees a missed opportunity and a new one waiting.
In his view, United should have moved quicker for Sandro Tonali, who instead chose Tottenham. With that door closed, Scholes has turned his attention to Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, a player he clearly rates highly.
Wharton’s stock has risen rapidly. The young midfielder has already helped Palace lift both the FA Cup and the Conference League, performances that have marked him out as a composed, intelligent presence in the middle of the pitch. Scholes sees him as an ideal fit for United’s midfield pivot.
Wharton, though, will not come cheap. Palace have reportedly placed an £85m price tag on the playmaker, a figure that underlines both his importance to them and the scale of ambition required from any club trying to prise him away.
Scholes, however, cannot understand why United are not already at the front of that queue.
Continuing on the podcast, he said: “I can’t believe they’re not trying to buy Adam Wharton. Sandro Tonali would have been my first-choice but with him gone now, Adam Wharton looks perfect to me.”
Two centre-backs. One young, expensive midfield conductor. A World Cup finalist with an edge that needs taming. Scholes’s plan is not subtle, and it is not cautious. But with his blunt assessment that “the current ones aren’t good enough,” he has thrown down a challenge: how long can United wait before they start acting like a club prepared to pay for proven quality again?
