The short-lived Paul Scholes coaching career might be over after 31 days.
Scholes took over for Pete Wild at League Two Oldham Athletic in February, the 44-year-old's first ever full-time coaching gig. About a month later, the former England midfielder quit after recording one win in seven matches.
Now the manner in which Scholes quit has come to light, and it’s not flattering for the Manchester United legend.
When news initially broke of Scholes leaving the club, he alluded to meddling from club owner Abdallah Lemsagam and his brother, Mohamed, the club’s sporting director, as reasons he could not continue with Oldham. Combined with financial issues such as unpaid gas bills, Scholes decided to quit the team.
But he did so in a less-than-savory manner — by text. Who is going to want to hire a guy who quit via text?
“I was very surprised as he simply resigned by text on Wednesday afternoon and has refused to discuss matters that influenced him to make his decision,” Abdallah Lemsagam said in an official club statement on Friday.
— Oldham Athletic AFC (@OfficialOAFC) March 15, 2019
“Management is a difficult job and both myself and everyone at the club would have worked with Paul to find solutions, had we been given the chance,” Lemsagam continued. “I personally believed that he would be the manager to take us forward this season and next and I know many of you felt the same.
“As a club we wish him well again and thank him for his contribution.”
Quitting via text message makes Scholes look like the bad guy in this situation. Maybe he is; maybe he isn’t — it’s impossible to tell from the outside, if there even is a bad guy.
Here’s a pro tip for everyone who wants to stay in the same business they’re currently in: Don’t quit via text message. If you don’t like the job you’re in or found a better one, tell your boss in person, preferably with a written letter/email giving two weeks notice. If you don’t, chances are high that your soon-to-be former employer will not speak kindly of you to possible future employers.
Then again, maybe Scholes has every right to quit via text message because it was such a short fling. Think about it: If you’re dating someone for a year, only an asshole breaks up via text message. But if you’ve just been dating for a month, a text message might be fine.
Where’s the threshold? Because we’re definitely the experts on this sort of thing, let’s say six months — less if you're older, more if you're younger.
As for Scholes, while his coaching career isn't likely to take off anytime soon (unlike his former teammate Ole Gunnar Solskjær), let's take a moment to remember when Scholes was a soccer great by checking out some of his greatest passes.
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