FERGIE: SCHOLES IS A CERT IF WE MAKE FINAL

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Mar 2, 2008 | by SIMON MULLOCK

SIR ALEX FERGUSON has told Paul Scholes his place in the team will be guaranteed if Manchester United reach the Champions League Final.

The United boss, while insisting Scholes still has a part to play in his plans even at the age of 33, admitted that sentiment would shape his side should the Reds march all the way to Moscow in May.

Suspension meant that both Scholes and Roy Keane missed United's European Cup triumph in 1999, while the former England midfielder has also suffered three semi-final disappointments during a career in which he has won every other top honour at club level.

With United favourites to progress once again to the last eight when they face Lyon at Old Trafford on Tuesday night following a 1- 1 first-leg draw, Ferguson said: "Hopefully we can get to the Final again - and this time Paul will get his opportunity.

"I'm not a sentamentalist by any means. My one aim has always been to manage this club in the right way.

"But if we got to the Champions League Final again then I'm telling you that I would have to be sentimental when it came to choosing my team for that one. I'd have to pick Paul to play because he deserves it.

"Paul doesn't say much about missing out in 1999, but it must have hurt him. He will still feel it - because players like that always do.

"Players with his calibre and with his record of being a winner will have felt bad about missing out. It would have hurt Paul just as much as it hurt Roy Keane.

"To miss the biggest club game in the world must have an impact.

"Paul won't talk about things like that because he is not the kind of man to let disappointment destroy him. You only have to see what he has won in the game to realise that."

Ferguson substituted Scholes and Ryan Giggs as United went chasing an equaliser in the first leg in France. But the United boss is adamant that the move did not represent a changing of the old guard at Old Trafford.

He added: "Maybe we have to define the roles of Giggs and Scholes a bit more because they're getting a bit older now, but they both still have a part to play for our club. Scholes has been out for three and a half months with injury so it is going to take him time to get back into things properly.

"But he is only 33 and although he won't get us 15 goals from midfield every season like he used to, there are still a few years left for both him and Ryan."

The key to United's progress into the last eight will be to stop Lyon striker Karim Benzema.

The 20-year-old scored the French champions' goal in the first leg with a strike that illustrated just why he has moved to the top of Ferguson's wish-list.

And the United boss said: "Juninho will be a big threat from set- pieces, but Benzama is Lyon's main striker and the way he took his chance in the first game showed what he is capable of.

"It was a goal out of absolutely nothing. It wasn't even a chance, but he controlled the ball well and then scored with a fantastic shot."