Paul Scholes Calls for Manchester United to Sign Elite Defender and Midfielder

Paul Scholes has never been shy about what Manchester United need. This time, he’s gone straight for the heart of the defence – and straight for one of the Premier League’s most combustible centre-backs.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, the former United and England midfielder insisted the club must prioritise a truly elite defender, and named Tottenham’s Christian Romero as the man he would target.

“I think they sorted out the forward areas last summer but I think they probably need two centre backs,” Scholes said. “You might laugh at this and I might get stick for this, but I would go and sign Christian Romero from Tottenham.”

That’s not a casual shout. It’s a demand for a centre-back with scars from the very top level. Romero, a World Cup winner with Argentina and a starter in a World Cup final, fits that brief. He also comes with a reputation: aggressive, confrontational, always on the edge.

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. “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’ eyes, the calculation is simple. United need personality and pedigree at the back, not just tidy ball-players. The price, he suggested, is more than reasonable in a market where unproven defenders go for similar sums.

But his rebuild doesn’t stop with the back line.

Having seen United miss out on Sandro Tonali, who chose a move to Tottenham, Scholes turned his attention to midfield – and to one of the most coveted young players in the country.

Adam Wharton, fresh from helping Crystal Palace lift both the FA Cup and the Conference League, is the player Scholes believes should be at the top of United’s list.

Wharton has grown into a commanding presence in the middle of the pitch, a modern pivot who can dictate tempo and still cover ground. For Scholes, he ticks every box United have been trying – and failing – to fill for years.

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.”

Perfect on the pitch, perhaps. Far less straightforward in the boardroom.

Palace have placed an £85m price tag on the young playmaker, a figure that underlines both his importance to them and the financial muscle it would take to prise him away. Any move would be ambitious, bordering on audacious, but Scholes’ tone made clear he feels United should at least be in that conversation.

A World Cup-winning enforcer at the back. One of England’s brightest midfield talents at the base of midfield. In Scholes’ mind, that’s the spine of a new United.

The question now is whether the club’s hierarchy see the same thing he does – or whether these remain the sort of ideas that live only on podcasts, while the team on the pitch continues to search for an identity he believes could be built around exactly these kinds of signings.