Paul Scholes has not hung up his boots. Not quite, anyway. Once a week he dusts them down and turns out for Chaddy Park Legends. “It’s just a bit of exercise on a Thursday night,” he says. “Just some lads I know. We’re all over-35s. There’s never any trouble, no one moaning at the ref. It’s just a game of football to try to keep a bit of fitness.”

This could be any accountant, builder or indeed journalist talking about pulling on an ill-fitting acrylic shirt and going through the motions in an attempt to defy the middle-aged spread. It sounds different coming from a man who was described by no less than Zinédine Zidane as “the complete player”, but then again Scholes always was