Paul Scholes will go down in history as a Manchester United legend, with countless trophies to his name and a memorable return from retirement, but things could have gone very differently if Sir Alex Ferguson had reacted differently when the midfielder committed what he says was "probably a sackable offence".
Back in the 2001-02 season, United found themselves in the unusual position of playing two games in as many days, with a league meeting with Liverpool followed by a League Cup clash with Arsenal. Scholes was benched for the first game, making a late cameo, in place of David Beckham, but Ferguson has planned to use the midfielder in a rotated XI for the trip to Highbury.
Scholes, however, took the unusual decision of telling the manager - who had at one point looked set to retire at the end of the season - he wouldn't play in north London. Looking back on the incident, the former England international has admitted he was lucky to get away with a fine for his "stupid" decision and suggested he would have reacted differently is he was the manager.
"It was something stupid that I created myself," Scholes told former teammate Gary Neville on Sky Sports Retro. "I didn't really get the wrong side of him - I refused to play a game.
"I think it was Arsenal away in the cup. We'd played Liverpool a day before and he'd left me out of the game, and as you are in those days - or as I was - you're stupid, you're young, and you probably feel you're more important than you actually are.
"We were getting beaten 2-0 in the game as well and there was no sign of him bringing me on, and I was thinking he should have done. But I had a feeling he was trying to wind me up and trying to save me for the game the night after, which was really basically a reserve game."
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United's XI at Highbury was undoubtedly a weakened one, with Danny Webber and Michael Stewart among several academy talents in the starting line-up. However, Scholes wasn't involved after taking matters into his own hands.
"I think we were going from Stockport station, and I drove down to see [Ferguson] and told him 'I'm not going'," he said. When you think of someone doing that, it's stupid of me - how daft can you be?
"To this day I still regret doing it, and he fined me a week's wages - possibly two weeks' wages - I was quite lucky just for that, really. If you look now, it's probably a sackable offence, you'd have to say."
Scholes has spent time in the dugout since retiring, including a brief stint with Oldham Athletic and some time in caretaker charge of Salford City. His former teammate Neville has also dipped his toes into the managerial water, most notably with Valencia, and Scholes suggested neither of them would be as forgiving as Ferguson was if the boot was on the other foot.
"If I was a manager or you were a manager and one of your players did it, you'd have to say a sacking wouldn't be out of the question, but he fined me two weeks' wages, said that was the end of it, shook hands and that was that," he said. "He didn't hold a grudge or anything, and as you know he likes to deal with stuff there and then and lets you get on with it."
The season in question wasn't the most memorable for United, though, even after Scholes returned to the fold and scored in a league game against Arsenal later in the same month. The Gunners still ended the campaign as Premier League champions, with United down in third, and Ferguson's team suffered a frustrating Champions League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen at the semi-final stage.
Ferguson's relationship with Scholes went through plenty of ups and downs over their two decades together at Old Trafford. The manager had come close to writing off the academy graduate in the early part of his career, amid worries about his size, but would ultimately bring Scholes out of retirement to help the club win the most recent of their Premier League titles in 2013.
"I will always remember Paul Scholes first day at our club," Ferguson wrote in his autobiography in 2013. "He came in with a little guy called Paul O'Keefe.
"His father, Eamonn, had played at Everton. They were standing behind Brian Kidd, who had told me he was bringing in two lads, he liked the look of.
"They were 13. 'Where are these two young kids?' I asked Brian. They were so small they were invisible behind Brian's frame," Ferguson continued.
"They were about four feet eight inches tall. I looked at this tiny pair and thought; 'How are these two going to become footballers?'
"It became a standing joke at our club. When Scholesy came into the youth team, I said, in the coaches' room: 'That Scholes has got no chance. Too small.'"
Those fears were soon put to bed, though, with Scholes making his United debut as a teenager and winning leagues, cups and Champions League trophies with the club. Even in 2001, he had seemingly done enough to convince the manager a fine and a stern talking-to was punishment enough.
Perhaps Scholes can still count himself lucky he had that good relationship with the manager, or even that he didn't catch him on a bad day. Ferguson fell out with plenty of high-profile players during his time at Old Trafford, and who knows what would have happened if he had reacted differently back in 2001.
