Paul Scholes: I just don't get phenomenon of posting dressing-room pictures

Arsenal have been prolific in their posting of dressing room selfies

Arsenal players celebrate their win over Manchester City with a dressing room selfie

I don’t go looking for the post-match team pictures posted by players on Instagram but usually someone ends up showing them to me, or I notice them when they get printed in the newspapers. Where to start with this latest phenomenon? It’s all wrong.

It was Aaron Ramsey doing it on Sunday after Arsenal beat Manchester City 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium, although I am told he is by no means the only offender. In my world the dressing room was sacrosanct. The only time anyone was permitted to take pictures in there was when we had won a trophy. Unless I am wrong, Arsenal only got three points for beating City. It wasn’t the European Cup final.

If you want a measure of how private a place the dressing room was when I was growing up at Manchester United, consider this: even Sir Alex Ferguson would knock before coming into the dressing room at the Cliff, the old training ground. The dressing room is for the players, and the players only. It was a rule respected by all the staff at Old Trafford.

In my final couple of years at United we had one player, new to the team and young, who posted a picture from the dressing room on Instagram or Twitter. I won’t embarrass him by naming him because that too would contradict the rules about what stays private. Safe to say, the manager went ballistic and the player never did it again.

When you are playing for a top club, when the pressure is on, when scrutiny is everywhere, you need some privacy. You need a place away from public view, where people can be open and, at times, difficult conversations need to be had. That is what a team should always try to maintain. Taking pictures in there, opening it up to the rest of the world, does not help that.

And if you haven’t won a trophy to show off, what exactly is it about these pictures that people are expected to be interested in?