Transfers - Gossip Shop: Scholesy's waddle to Oldham
Eurosport - Wed, 04 Feb 12:38:00 2009
As the picturesque snowstorms of Monday turn in to the icy pavements and grey gutter slush of Wednesday, so Monday's bright-eyed and optimistic transfer talk turns to bitterness, recrimination and ridicule.
More StoriesPaul Parker: Give refs a break
Early Doors: Dreams can come true
But there's plenty of time for the bitterness later. First, let's get things going with a fresh snowfall that's targeted on Manchester - and for once, it's the red half of the city.
United's uber-midfielder Paul Scholes has been one of Alex Ferguson's great warhorses, a 400-plus appearance colossus who first turned up at the club to start training as a callow 14-year-old.
Now, an incredible 20 years later, Scholesy has eight Premier League medals framed on his mantelpiece - not to mention a dozen or so other assorted medals, certificates and commemorative T-shirts from various successful Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup and Club World Cup campaigns.
But the world's most famous ginger footballer has admitted that the time is fast approaching when he'll pull on the Red Devils shirt for the last time.
"The end isn't far away," he told the Daily Express. "Times have changed in terms of not playing as often as I would like."
He'll see out the season, of course. Fergie has used the experience that he, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville have with great, if sparing, aplomb this term - but with 18 months left on his contract, the summer will be the perfect time for him to take on one last challenge before he retires to the Algarve to improve his golf.
And what better challenge than a move to Oldham Athletic? It's the club who he supported as a boy, and a team who are currently pushing for a play-off berth in League One. It'd be reminiscent of Chris Waddle's brief but memorable tour of duty with Bradford at the age of 36.
Scholes admitted in December that he's got no more than a couple of years left. His decision is whether to spend them sitting on the bench at Old Trafford or making one last set of memorable footprints, this time on a different piece of turf.