Paul Scholes’s eyes light up. The co-owner of Salford City is discussing what he describes as the “biggest game” in the club’s history, the FA Cup third-round tie away at Manchester City on Saturday tea-time, when the subject of Littleton Road comes up.

“I love the place. That’s where it all started. So many memories. It was there where you stepped up through the ranks,” Scholes says, wistfully. It was at Littleton Road in Salford – not the more famous training ground, The Cliff, a couple of miles away – that Scholes and the rest of the Class of ’92 made their way into the Manchester United first-team. And it is at Littleton Road, United’s training academy, that the Class of ’92-owned Salford now train after Ryan Giggs organised a deal last summer.

“There is a little bit of paint on the walls but the building is exactly the same, the pitches are exactly the same and every time I go there I can just picture us all jogging round – Peter Schmeichel who was always at the front with Bryan Robson, Dion Dublin, Andrei Kanchelskis,” Scholes, now 50, says.

Mention of Kanchelskis makes him laugh.

“One of my first training sessions there I came out and I was maybe 17 and was asked to play left-back and the club had just signed him,” Scholes says. “The first-team didn’t have a game so he came over. I’m no left-back. We didn’t know much about him then. We just knew he was a flying winger. He destroyed me! I couldn’t live with him!

“We’d be on one pitch, the reserves would be on another pitch and the first-team on another and you’d always have a sneaky look when you were with the Under-18s and think: ‘That’s where I want to be, I want to be in Jim Ryan’s team, I want to be in the reserves.’

“And then you’d make it there and think: ‘Right, I want to be with the first-team.’ First training session I was doing shooting practice against Jim Leighton! Mark Hughes was there. Bryan Robson. All of a sudden you are rubbing shoulders with your heroes. They were firm but fair. It was like with us when Paul Pogba or Jesse Lingard came over. You welcomed them but if their attitude was not right… it was about setting the standards.”

By now Scholes is in full flow.

“Brian Kidd would make us run around the big field. The memories,” he says, chuckling. “We had to do 200-metre runs. But there was always, in the far corner, a little dip. I always remember running behind David May and his legs just went in this dip! That dip just killed you and you had another 50 metres to go but you couldn’t do it for laughing. It’s still there. I can just see everyone. I love going there. It’s all I knew for 20-25 years of my life. Same with Ryan, Nicky [Butt] Gary and Phil [Neville].”

‘For a club like us to get this far is like winning the Cup’

There will be more of the ‘dip’ and Littleton Road later, when Salford manager Karl Robinson and first-team coach Alex Bruce – son of Steve – talk. But first we are at Salford’s Peninsula Stadium. It is 9am. Scholes, as the club’s head of recruitment, as well as co-owner, has just finished a meeting with Robinson and others to discuss business during the January window.

As well as being in the FA Cup’s third round for the first time – “I love the FA Cup, always have done. So, for a club like us to get this far is like winning it,” Scholes explains – Salford are third in League Two and in the automatic promotion places under Robinson, who has re-energised them. They were third from bottom when he took over last January.

Following Salford’s meteoric rise there have been four seasons of what Scholes describes as “stagnating a little” and even being “a bit boring”. Now they are back on the up with the long-term goal of getting into League One in their sights.

“Because we want to be successful,” Scholes says. “Whatever we do, we want it to work. It will cost us money but we have fans who come and want to see us succeed and that’s what we want. It’s what we wanted in our 20-year playing careers. Winning is just what we try and do.”

Winning is certainly what they did as players. And so talking to any member of the Class of ’92 there is an obvious question – how can such high-achieving, big-name former players relate to ones who, without being unkind, will never reach their levels?

“What we did as players we never, ever think about,” Scholes argues. “It’s about what we are doing now, where we are now and what the future brings. We can’t change the past. Yes, we were successful and we want that to continue. We don’t want to be mid-table or fight relegation. We want it to work. We are desperate to see a team entertain, play football, bring in fans, bring players through the academy.”

It is remarkable that the Class of ’92 have maintained their bond and have all been involved with Salford, who they acquired in 2014, when the club were in the eighth tier – in the Northern Premier League Division One North – along with Peter Lim. The Singaporean businessman has since sold his stake to Gary Neville, who had the original idea for the project.

“I think that’s why Gary did it at the start. We did it so we could just stay together because if we didn’t have this I’m not sure how much time we would spend together, if I’m honest,” Scholes says. “We just hope we have created the right environment for everybody. We are all involved in different ways, although Nicky has stepped away for a bit.” Butt was chief executive until last October, when he stood down saying he wanted to return to coaching.

“It’s been a learning curve,” Scholes says of his own role. “Maybe before we threw quite a bit of money at it but now we have to manage it with more care. Peter Lim is not involved with us any more.”

Scholes is not just a United legend but Salford-born. “My mum and dad lived just around the corner from The Cliff when I was a baby. But I don’t think there would have been a link if we hadn’t done this 10 years ago,” he says. “Am I a romantic? I am romantic for this. I am romantic for Saturday’s game. I’ve never been as excited for a game I am not playing in.

“We’ve had success in the FA Cup as players – we’ve been to finals, played big semi-finals. But this is something that is unprecedented for a club like this and I’m excited for everyone to watch a team that we’ve put together with a fantastic manager who we’ve brought in and see how we cope.

“We are in League Two for a reason but just to see the Salford badge in that arena, a big TV game, some of the young lads who have been through our academy, the ones we’ve signed for not a lot, of Karl against Pep [Guardiola].”

‘A moment of brilliance or human error is going to happen’

It has happened before. Robinson’s League One Oxford United twice faced Guardiola’s City in League Cup ties. Both times they acquitted themselves superbly, losing 3-1 in a quarter-final in 2019, after holding City 1-1. At that time no side had ever managed as many shots at goal (18) against Guardiola’s City.

“Stop worrying about them doing something magical!” Robinson shouts as he works hard on his team shape with preparations for the tie taking place on the indoor pitch inside The Cliff, below two huge Manchester United badges on the far wall. “A moment of brilliance or human error is going to happen. It is how you deal with it!” he bellows.

Salford are at The Cliff because it is minus five outside and the pitches at Littleton Road are frozen. “It brings back memories of when we played against Pep’s teams,” Giggs says ruefully as he watches on. “It’s giving me a headache!”

Giggs is Salford’s director of football but sits alongside Robinson and Bruce on the bench. “You know something if you take away the bulls--- of people saying how’s Karl going to be with that? How is Alex? ... then if anything it helps us get towards our end goal because the opposition look over and see him in the dugout and think: ‘Not a bad dugout that! There’s Karl with 700-odd games [as a manager] and Ryan Giggs and… that other fella who’s done f--- all!’ Bruce says, laughing loudly with Robinson.

“That is somebody dropping an ego for the benefit of success,” Robinson says of 51-year-old Giggs. “It’s testament to him as a person. We needed help and he loved it and stayed.”

By now Robinson and Bruce are back at Littleton Road where the players have headed for lunch once training finished.

On the staircase there are photographs: Scholes, Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. All in their prime. In the modest first-floor canteen there are more images – of Cristiano Ronaldo reeling away in celebration, of Giggs pulling off his shirt after scoring that goal in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final win over Arsenal, of United winning the Champions League in 2008 in the Moscow rain and the Premier League in 2011.

“It’s not the most modern or scientific of training grounds but you can smell the history of the place as soon as you walk in,” Bruce says with Robinson, a Liverpudlian, nodding in agreement adding: “It’s funny because when we first came here he was on the phone to his dad and there’s an iconic picture of Steve, Eric [Cantona], Bryan [Robson], Paul [Scholes] running.

“For me, for anyone growing up loving football, you can’t argue that Manchester United were an incredible force. Even the staunchest of Liverpool fans would say we had the 70s and 80s and then the 90s and 2000s were Manchester United. And then more recently Manchester City. The other day someone was moaning saying ‘the pitch isn’t great’ and Ryan just said: ‘It was good enough for Eric Cantona.’ That shuts anyone right up.”

Bruce, a former defender with Ipswich Town and Hull City, was at United’s academy from 10 to 16. Last week he attended the funeral of United’s much-loved receptionist Kath Phipps at Manchester Cathedral. “We talk about the history of the club and they were all there,” Bruce says. “Afterwards everyone is sat round – Bryan Robson, my dad, Gary Pallister, Peter Schmeichel. And then it was Wes Brown, John O’Shea, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes. Generations. And Sir Alex Ferguson was sat among them and they said: ‘Are you training at Littleton Road now?’ And as soon as it was mentioned all their eyes lit up.

“I remember Sir Alex would be in here with Brian Kidd, with Eric Harrison. They would all be at this window watching all the games going on. Every pitch has a meaning to it.”

Robinson nods. “I came here as a kid with Everton at 14 [when he was a striker] and I came here as a [youth-team] coach with Liverpool. I brought Trent [Alexander-Arnold] here and it’s not changed,” he says. “When you talk to anyone who has been here there are two things they ask – is that dip still in the pitch and are the shallow baths still there? And they are!”

Bruce laughs, adding: “They’ve not been touched. As youth team players we’d be put in one bath and the opposition were put in the one next to it. I remember it as clear as day there would always be bars of Imperial Leather soap around the outside and if you were playing Liverpool or Everton or someone like that it would just take one bar of soap to be thrown and that was it! It was normally Phil who threw the first one!”

Phil is in reference to Phil Bardsley, another former United defender who, as a kid, once fell off the balcony they are facing, breaking his arm as he tried to retrieve a ball. Bruce points to his left and to a modest row of terraced houses in Stamford Road where the Lower Kersal Social Club is located.

“I used to stay in Phil Bardsley’s club over there,” he says. “His family had it, mum and dad, Jan and Tony, and my dad used to play on a Saturday, drop me off there on a Saturday night. I stayed over and Phil and I would walk over and train on a Sunday. My dad would come over and I would meet him in the club – hair of the dog for him! – and watch the early kick-off game. That was my childhood.”

The memories are flooding back.

“I remember standing behind the goal over there,” Bruce says. “Me and Kasper [Schmeichel, Peter’s son and now Celtic goalkeeper] and the lads would be shooting and we’d be the ones diving and fetching the balls. Then I came through the youth team. I trained here Tuesday, Thursday nights during the summer months and then in winter at The Cliff. So, it’s surreal for me to be back. It’s where I learnt my trade; where I was brought up.”

‘It shows you don’t need to give players everything’

Robinson has always been a charismatic manager who embraces a club’s past and, in Salford’s case, the rich historic links of a relatively new club. He tells the story of why the third kit has a sash – in tribute to Emmeline Pankhurst, the Manchester-born leader of the suffragettes – and why the team run out to the song Dirty Old Town, written by Ewan MacColl from Salford about his home city.

“It’s not all-singing and all-dancing but it’s real football,” he says. “Things have changed. Everything now has to be perfect, sterile. I don’t think there is any training ground in the world that has won more football than here. What it shows you is that you don’t need to give players everything and sometimes they have to find things for themselves.

“We are so lucky that along the M62 we have Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United and City. It’s unique. So, when you think about creating a football club in one of the biggest sporting cities in the world, from nothing, it’s incredibly brave as well. It’s so new but we are trying to compete with world-wide institutions.

“We are trying to create a club in the shadows of football royalty so when you get games like this it’s an opportunity for the world to say: ‘Oh, Salford City. I thought their story had gone away.’ It allows us to showcase how far we have come.”

It is a serious point but there is also one last chance to rib Bruce affectionately.

“Alex’s claim to fame is he missed a sitter in an FA Cup final which would have seen Hull go 3-0 up!” Robinson says, laughing, in reference to the 2014 final when Hull – managed by Alex’s father – went 2-0 up against Arsenal only to lose 3-2 in extra-time. James Chester, now a Salford defender, scored Hull’s first goal. “It wasn’t a sitter! Kieran Gibbs…” Bruce protests as his header was cleared off the line by the Arsenal full-back. (Hull’s second goal came as another of his headers struck the post with Curtis Davies claiming the rebound).

“You know I never talk about it. I was so disappointed to throw it away,” Bruce says. “I wouldn’t watch it. I wouldn’t talk about it. But when you retire and look back they are special days. The one thing I can say is we took on Arsenal in the final and had a good go at it and that’s what our lads have got to do on Saturday. We might not win, maybe we will have that bit of luck, but give it a right good go.”

Robinson nods enthusiastically in agreement. “There are two types of winning,” he says in reference to Hull, his Oxford side against City and – now he hopes – Salford. “There’s the result and there’s not letting yourself down; the performance. I just want to make sure on Saturday that the players are free to embrace the challenge. We will do our best.”

If they succeed it will be another slice of history for the work done at Littleton Road.