Ex-Manchester United man Patrice Evra has revealed the intense meeting he had with Sir Alex Ferguson that convinced him to join Manchester United and, as it turns out, reject Liverpool.
The former French fullback recently appeared on fellow teammate Rio Ferdinand‘s FIVE podcast to discuss all things football, United and plenty more, so it was no surprise that talk eventually turned to Sir Alex Ferguson and the impact he had on his career.
Rolling back the years to 2006 when Evra first joined United, the 41-year-old shone some light on the rather full-on first meeting he had with Sir Alex and then chief executive David Gill in Paris, which involved lots of translation and the usual no-nonsense approach from his soon-to-be manager.
As he remembers it, the conversation was “like an interview with the FBI”.
We’re sure Evra isn’t the only one Sir Alex had this effect on.
Evra detailed how he, Sir Alex, Gill and his agent all met in a special room at Charles de Gaulle Airport and the Scots’ first questions were straight to the point: “Do you drink?… Do you like to go out?; Are you ready to not lose a game? Are you ready to not even draw one game?” etc.
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He went on to explain that from the moment he shook Sir Alex’s hand, he felt as though if he let the team and him down, in particular, “this man would kill me—but it was really impressive.” Crazy to think the kind of impact he could have in such a short space of time.
To make the story even more high-stakes, Patrice also revealed that before he signed on the dotted line for United, he could have very well joined their rivals further down the River Mersey.
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Yes, Patrice said that “before United came, [me and] my agent, we had Liverpool and Inter Milan”, adding that his agent was so excited to get the call from Old Trafford.
He insisted that the move was always leaning in United’s favour as he had grown up watching club legend Eric Cantona, who had a “big influence” on his decision.
However, the move materialised mainly down to SAF himself: “When I met Ferguson, I felt like something special — you feel like his aura. If you do well for this man you feel, you are going to win and achieve lot of things”.
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Cut to a few years later and he was right, he won pretty much everything there is to win a club level barring the FA Cup. Go figure.
You can watch the full interview, including Patrice Evra’s story of the time he chose to confront Sir Alex Ferguson down below:
Featured Image — FIVE (via YouTube)/Manchester United/Patrice Evra (via IG)
Sport
New Amazon Prime Video docuseries to show Pep Guardiola’s final seasons at Manchester City
Emily Sergeant
A new all-access docuseries featuring Pep Guardiola’s final few seasons at Manchester City is set to air this summer.
Coming exclusively to Prime Video in the UK and Ireland, the four-part documentary is set to take Manchester City fans and neutral viewers alike inside the club as the players and manager – who delivered an era of dominance -make way for a new generation.
Filmed over the past two seasons, this is the ultimate account of an emotional farewell that marks the end of an era in English football, and will offer unfiltered access to Guardiola, his squad, and the City boardroom.
After 10 trophy-filled years – which included six Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League, three FA Cups, and five EFL Cups – Pep Guardiola called time on his tenure in Manchester last month, alongside fan favourite players Bernardo Silva and John Stones, as well as Kevin De Bruyne the season prior.
This new docuseries was there to follow them every step of the process.
Fans can follow City from a disappointing 2024/25 campaign right through to a domestic double the following season, charting the raw emotion of a squad in transition.
The series is directed by Academy and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald, alongside City Studios’ John De Caux, and is produced by Kevin Macdonald for Plan B/KM Films and Gavin Johnson and Ged Doherty for City Studios.
“This is the ultimate account of an emotional farewell that marks the end of an era in English football,” Amazon Prime Video said in a statement.
Joining Prime Video’s wide selection of sports programming, the series will be available to watch at no additional cost to Prime members this summer.
It’ll be ready to stream on 19 August.
Featured Image – Prime Video
Sport
Here’s our petition for ‘Wonderwall’ to become England’s new football anthem
Danny Jones
All things considered, England have made a great start to the 2026 World Cup, pitching themselves as one of the great entertainers this tournament, and the scenes of the supporters and players alike serenading an entire stadium with ‘Wonderwall’ after the full-time whistle gave us chills.
So why not time for a change?
After all, that feels a lot like what this World Cup squad is about: a new manager, new teammates, not clinging to the previous ways of playing – and perhaps it’s time to put ‘Sweet Caroline’ to one side.
Now, we’re by no means saying that we’re ‘done’ with the Neil Diamond anthem that has been reborn as a Three Lions anthem, but look at how good it was watching England belting out Oasis with the fans.
“Today is gonna be the day that England beat Croatia 4-2”, as BBC’s Match of the Day cleverly quipped.
Obviously, we’re biased as Mancs, but we also think there’s something special about having that particular track feel so good to hear again.
As much as we love Oasis, for a long time, it felt like we couldn’t enjoy arguably their biggest-ever single anywhere near as much as we once did.
We assume it’s something akin to hearing ‘Mr Brightside’ non-stop for what felt like millennia, and in truth, hearing those repetitions of “ba, ba, ba… SO GOOD, SO GOOD!” over and over again at sporting fixtures beyond just national team games has taken the magic out of it at times.
Perhaps it’s just a case of saturation in certain settings and songs simply being overplayed – FIFA’s co-hosts over in the US certainly helped see to that when it came to ‘Wonderwall’ for a long time.
On the other hand, it feels like we’ve now come full circle; singing those famous lyrics at the top of our lungs in a sea of Mancs and fans travelling from all over to Heaton Park for Live ’25 last year felt better than ever, and like we’d all remembered how great a tune it’s always been. So did this…
In fact, this felt so emotional that you’ve got people who aren’t even English praising both those on the pitch and up in the stands for the moment online.
Even the admittedly rather American Man vs Food himself, Adam Richman (though he does have British ancestry), felt compelled to write a moving response on social media: “Shut up. You’re the one that’s crying. Bravo, England.”
He’s far from the only one who was left bowled over by the atmosphere – us included.
What do you think? Is it time for a new go-to tournament anthem for the Three Lions moving forward?
Danny Jones -
21st March 2023 
