Paul Scholes has broken his silence after his ‘brutal’ criticism of Man United boss Michael Carrick last week.

Scholes had caused controversy after United’s 2-1 defeat by Newcastle on Wednesday, branding the team ‘c**p’ under Carrick’s leadership. 

In an Instagram story that he later deleted, Scholes posted: ‘Michael has definitely got something special about him… cos United have been c**p in the last four games… night’.

Scholes added a kissing face emoji, before writing ‘Tonali’ and following the Newcastle star’s name with a love heart. 

This was widely interpreted as Scholes gunning for his former team-mate, which follows the likes of Roy Keane and Gary Neville also criticising Carrick and suggesting that he shouldn’t get the job long-term despite overseeing just one defeat in eight matches. 

However, speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, Scholes attempted to shed more light on his viral post and claimed that it had been taken out of context.

Paul Scholes has broken his silence on his social media attack on Michael Carrick last week

Scholes branded United as ‘c**p’ under Carrick after their 2-1 defeat by Newcastle

‘It was in no way intended to be offensive towards Michael,’ Scholes began. ‘Michael is one of the nicest people you will ever meet in football and he’d be the last person I would want to offend. 

‘I messaged Michael anyway and said “look I was never intending to upset you”, and I don’t think I needed to say that anyway. He told me he wasn’t upset. 

‘I think people just interpreted it differently from what was meant. The only thing I would say is I don’t think they’ve played that well over the last four games, but they’re still managing to get results. 

‘We had the greatest manager in the world (Sir Alex Ferguson) and he always said sometimes you need a bit of luck with sendings off and different things that happen through games, but that’s all I was saying.’

Scholes’ co-host Wes Brown then interjected and said he understood both sides of the argument, although he had initially interpreted the post as a dig.  

The midfielder replied: ‘What Wes said… and I hadn’t heard that before, was that I was saying he was just a lucky manager. 

‘I wasn’t saying that, I was saying he’s a very talented manager because he’s been getting a result for the last four games since the West Ham game when they’ve not been playing very well.’

Nicky Butt then gave his thoughts and appeared to defend Scholes as he added: ‘Michael would never take it that way. He’ll have taken it the way it was meant by Scholsey. 

‘Michael even said it himself that we’ve not played that well in the last few games.’ 

Rio Ferdinand also weighed in on the saga and said he had spoken to Scholes about his post

United legend Rio Ferdinand also weighed in on the saga on his Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast and revealed he had spoken to Scholes.

‘Everyone was saying “what’s Scholsey doing”,’ Ferdinand said. ‘I texted him saying what’s going on? Scholsey doesn’t mince his words.

‘He said “I said he’s special, but we have been rubbish the last four games”. He isn’t wrong in terms of performance, it hasn’t been top quality. 

‘People have been like “I thought he was his team-mate, I thought he’d support him a bit more”. The questions people are asking is whether there is a little bit of beef between them. 

‘Listen, there’s not beef between them. They’re two really placid and calm guys who have the utmost respect for each other. It was just interpreted differently to the way Paul Scholes meant it to come across. He is just being honest and brutal.’

Ferdinand added: ‘Scholesy didn’t say much in the changing room but when he did it was normally a cutting comment so I’m not surprised at how he is as a pundit now.’

Scholes’ social media storm also came after he recently questioned whether Carrick, who previously managed Middlesbrough for two-and-a-half seasons, had what it takes to get the job on a permanent basis.    

‘The question is, has Michael got the experience?’ Scholes said. ‘I know it’s a big question, I know he has managed in the Championship, but this is different.

‘Can we see Michael winning the Premier League? I don’t know yet, and I think the biggest thing is, what type of manager will they look for? A tactician or a man-manager who looks after people?

‘Ole Gunnar (Solskjaer) was that. But all the people who are man-managers, they always have a brilliant coach next to them, which Michael has got (Steve Holland).

‘The club have to decide, do they want a master tactician, which has failed… Ole Gunnar had the man management skills, but did he have the experience to go on and win a trophy? The same questions will be asked of Michael.’

Scholes has previously questioned whether Carrick should get the United job on a long-term basiss

Speaking about the constant noise around him from his former team-mates back in January, Carrick said it ‘didn’t bother’ him.

‘They’re not putting more pressure on me,’ he said. ‘I don’t feel that. There are plenty of opinions around, some positive, some not too much. It’s totally irrelevant in terms of what I focus on.

‘I know what we want to improve on, how we want to work with the players. There’s a lot that can be said, it’s the way of the world.

‘I’m not going to pay too much attention to that. For me, the players and staff it’s a focus on how we’re going to succeed.’

Elsewhere, Patrice Evra last week hit out at the likes of Scholes, Keane and Neville for not supporting their former team-mate. 

‘I hope Paul Scholes’ Instagram story is fake, I hope he was hacked,’ Evra told Stake. ‘To be honest, I’m not surprised at that from Scholesy. He was the quietest player I’ve ever played with in my entire career. Now, in the media, he drops bombshells.

‘I really don’t understand the lack of support behind Michael Carrick, he’s one of us and he’s doing very well.

‘There’s been negative analysis from Scholesy, but also from Roy Keane and Gary Neville. It annoys me because we want to be in the top four, and those comments are unnecessary, but this is what you do when you work in TV. You can’t be positive, you have to be negative.

‘Most of these guys get a managerial job and get fired straight away. I said to Neville: “It’s easy to talk on TV. When you were at Valencia, they asked you for paella, and you gave them fish and chips.”

‘After three months, they said goodbye. People can’t forget what they have done as a manager. As players, they’re legends, but as managers, they haven’t done a great job. So for them to speak and possibly kill the career of a manager, it’s a little bit too much.’