The former Netherlands defender has been reflecting on the Red Devils’ famous 1998-99 season ahead of a reunion game this weekend
Jaap Stam says Paul Scholes is the former Manchester United team-mate he would most like to sign.
Stam played alongside Scholes at Old Trafford for three years between 1998 and 2001, taking in their famous treble-winning 1998-99 season.
The Dutchman returns to Manchester this weekend to play in a reunion game against Bayern Munich marking 20 years since that famous campaign.
The 46-year-old, who is now manager of Eredivisie side PEC Zwolle, was in no doubt when asked who he would choose from that side to play for his team.
“I think Scholesy was one of the best players I played with in my career from all my teams. He was probably the complete midfield player, he had everything,” Stam told the club’s official website.
“The goalscoring, his passing was very high quality, technically he was very strong, he could run and he wasn’t afraid to put in a tackle as well. I would love to have signed him. Even now he can do it!
“Will I just give him the ball in Sunday’s game? Well, I might keep it myself if I have it. When I played at United, sometimes if I went over the halfway line with the ball as a centre-back, Sir Alex [Ferguson] would shout at me: ‘Jaap, don’t do that. Get the ball to the midfield players. We’ve got them to do that!’
“That’s how it goes. I think everybody needs to know their role, their part. I was brought in as a defender and you need to do your defensive job. Sometimes you can bring something extra to the game, but eventually you’ve got the other players in front of you for that, so I was always glad to have Scholesy to give the ball to.
“Sometimes I was a bit sneaky and kept the ball, took it forward and hopefully you’re going to get something out of it. It gives something extra to the fans as well, when they see you run with the ball.
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“Of course, you need to do something good with it, but it was great to do it. You could feel the atmosphere, hear the crowd growing louder and that gives you a great feeling as a player. It’ll be great to sample that at Old Trafford again on Sunday.”