10 Footballers Who Refused To Play

10. Paul Scholes

Paul Scholes could never quite manage to pull out of a terrible tackle, but he did manage to pull the wool over the eyes of the adoring British football media. Just as the Red Devil's red-headed perennial convinced all but rival fans his aptitude for picking up yellow cards was down to hapless myopia, so too did he retire from the game with a reputation as as an ultra-professional one-club man, a servant to Manchester United who was ever-dependable.

It's an august testimony to one of English football's legitimately finest ever midfielders - but it's also a bit bogus. As it happens, there was one incident - only one, mind - in which the midfield maestro got the hump.

After splashing a then-record English transfer fee on Lazio's Juan Sebastian Veron in the summer of 2001, Alex Ferguson was more or less obliged to find a place for the Argentine playmaker to justify the outlay. La Brujita's berth came at the expense of Scholes, who was asked to sit out of a crunch tie with Liverpool in November - a game they duly lost 3-1.

Despite eventually replacing an injured David Beckham, Scholes was nevertheless furious with the starting snub, and promptly refused to participate in Man Utd's League Cup tie with Arsenal the very next day.

Scholes was fined for his impertinence, but the proof of his worth was in the performance; United were thrashed 4-0 by the Gunners, and the Salford saboteur was quickly restored to the team.