Martin Edwards, who was president of Manchester United between 1980 and 2003, gave an extensive interview to 'La Gazzetta dello Sport' in which he left messages for some of the world's most famous players.
Although he was a reserved guy during his time at United, after a long time off the scene, he wanted to talk about everything that is going on in the world of football. And he did not leave a stone unturned. To begin, with the everlasting comparison between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Messi is more of a team man. You can tell when he celebrates, he goes to his teammates. Cristiano is more selfish, he tends to celebrate waiting for his teammates to come to him", he commented as a differentiating factor.
As for the Portuguese, Edwards wanted to demystify how they approached his signing. "We bought him after a friendly in August against Sporting, our players went to Ferguson to convince him to sign him: ''Sir, buy him''. In fact, Ferguson already knew about him thanks to Queiroz, who had already spied on him. He's grown a lot, none of us could have imagined he would reach this level," he said.
Another star, Neymar, got a good reaction from the former president of United: "He's a good player, but he pretends a lot, he throws himself too much to the ground. Mbappé is a very fast youngster with a lot of quality. I was impressed by his World Cup with France.
As for Zinedine Zidane, he revealed how his career could have changed radically. "I was at the Girondins and many scouts recommended him to me. Ferguson told me he was playing in Cantona's position and we needed him. It was also to convince Cantona to stay after his suspension. Coach, sign Zidane, he's fantastic,' Cantona said, but Ferguson didn't listen. Instead, we signed Gascoigne and Shearer," he said.
On the future of Pogba, who has been in the spotlight a lot recently, he passed over the topic swiftly: "He has more quality, he's tall, fast, athletic, physically strong, back or in front knows what to do, assists, mark ... with Solskjaer has returned to the best level".
Solskjaer has turned the club around in general after the departure of José Mourinho, for whom Edwards also had words.
"He didn't have good relations with the players or with the fans. He was not happy at work, he lived alone in a hotel. And if you don't like work, you can't motivate others. And he criticised the players in public, something Ferguson never did, it was in private that he gave them advice," he stated.
On the clash between United and Barcelona, he admitted the difficulties despite having made the comeback against PSG. "The match in Paris was a miracle. When you lose 2-0 at home, it's hard to come back. Barcelona are the best team, play the best football and have an exceptional attack, with very dangerous players like Messi, Suarez and Rakitic. I would have preferred Porto or, at best, Tottenham," he admitted.