Evra tackles the 'Team-mates' challenge

When Patrice Evra returned to the Aon Training Complex for a week in September, as part of his coaching education, we sat him down to discuss his former Manchester United team-mates.

The Frenchman played with some of the greatest players in recent history, so we were fascinated to learn who he would select when asked to association names with specific characteristics.

For example, who was the best performer in training? Who had the worst fashion sense? And in perhaps the toughest question, who was Sir Alex Ferguson’s favourite? As you can read below, the permanently-positive Evra does not disappoint with his answers…

Firstly, Patrice, who was the best in training?
“Paul Scholes because he trained the way he played on the pitch – with the same aggression and passion. Definitely either Paul Scholes or Ryan Giggs.”

Who was the hardest working?
“Me? No, I’m joking. The hardest worker. It’s difficult but I remember Mikael Silvestre doing some extra running after training. It’s between Silvestre and Cristiano. He was always first in to training and the last one off the training ground. Cristiano or Mikael Silvestre.”

Who was the most inspirational?
“For me, Ryan Giggs. And Paul Scholes. Those two because I can see their passion in training and even when losing a game in training, they would be going mad.”

Who was the funniest?
“Some team-mates think they’re funny but they’re not at all. So I won’t mention those names. Funny? Wow, let me think. It’s a difficult one as I was the funny one. Even if he was annoying sometimes, I would say Nani. You can put that, it’s okay.”

Who had the worst fashion sense?
“Oh – a tough call between Gary Neville and Louis Saha.”

Who was always late?
“Late was Saha. The French connection and I understand why but I was talking to him and he was always late unfortunately.”

Who do you speak with the most?
“Actually, we have a WhatsApp group and I talk with everyone every day – Wazza, Rio, Fletch, Sheasy, Wes and Ji. It’s why I love that group, that team as we were not just a team but a family. Even up to now, we talk together every day.”

Finally, who was Sir Alex’s favourite?
“Some people would say me. I would say Scholesy because he gave the hairdryer to everyone but never to Scholesy. No matter what. I remember, even one game against Roma, Scholesy gets a yellow card in the first 10 minutes and, at half-time, the boss says: ‘Come on, Scholesy. No silly tackles or anything’. Ten seconds later, bang. Red card. Finally, he’ll get the hairdryer after the game. He said: ‘Scholesy, why tackle when you can’t tackle’ and he was laughing. It definitely was Scholesy.”