Manchester United sold Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan this summer after months of negotiations with the Italian side.
The 26-year-old was eventually granted his move away from Old Trafford after the two clubs agreed on a fee of £74million for the Belgian.
However, United legend Scholes thinks his former club made a big error in not bringing in a replacement for the Belgium international, when the clearly had the time to do so.
Lukaku scored 42 goals in 96 games for United during his two-year spell with the club, but after falling behind Marcus Rashford in the pecking order up front under boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the striker made it clear he wanted to leave.
“That’s the one thing that disappoints me,” Scholes told talkSPORT.
“He [Ole Gunnar Solskjaer] obviously knew they were going to sell Lukaku at some point, but not to have a centre-forward lined up seems like a mistake to me.
“Whether they did, whether it dragged on too long from the club’s point of view, I don’t know.
And Lukaku wasn’t the only striker to leave United during the previous transfer window, as the club also decided to let Alexis Sanchez go out on loan to Inter as well.
Although the 30-year-old had only managed to score five goals in 45 appearances for the Red Devils since he joined the club back in January 2018, Sanchez was another attacking option for Solskjaer.
And the fact that the deal had been agreed after the English transfer window had closed, it gave United no opportunity to bring in another player to take his place.
During his time at Old Trafford, the Chilean had failed to hit the heights he demonstrated while at Arsenal, when he scored 30 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions, however, due to his huge wages United have also ended up paying Sanchez to play for another team.
Inter cannot afford to pay all of his wages, which is understood to be £400,000-a-week, and as a result United are still paying Sanchez a reported £175,000-a-week to play the Italian team this season.
As a result of United’s transfer dealings Solskjaer is left with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial as his two main attacking options this season, as well as the untested youngster Mason Greenwood.
Rashford scored 13 goals in 47 appearances last season, while Martial only managed to find the back of the net 12 times in 38 games in their previous campaign.
And while Scholes is still unsure about what the best position is for both of those players, he has some optimism that his former club will eventually get the situation resolved.
“They’re going into a season without a centre-forward when it’s a club that is known for its attacking style and had probably four centre-forwards in its heyday,” he added.
“So to go in there with Rashford and Martial, who you’re not quite sure if they’re left wingers or centre-forwards, we don’t know. But I’m sure it’ll get sorted.”