Patrice Evra has revealed that his first training session at Manchester United was stopped by Sir Alex Ferguson because of a fight between Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Evra arrived at United in January 2006, while Van Nistelrooy was sold just a few months later after falling out with Ferguson.
The Dutch striker has also been accused of berating Ronaldo during their training sessions together at Carrington.
And Evra has revealed that Ferguson was even forced to end one session early after a bust-up between the two players.
‘The first training session [I had at United] ended up with Ferguson having to stop the training session because Ronaldo was fighting with Van Nistelrooy,’ Evra said on United’s UTD Podcast.
‘That was my first training session, I think we ended after only 30 minutes!
‘I was feeling so good, I even scored a great goal, the boss was like, ‘wow, Patrice is ready’. But I don’t think I was ready.’
Evra also revealed that he was on the receiving end of a dressing down from Ferguson after he was hauled off at half-time during his debut for United against rivals Manchester City.
‘I will be honest, the first time Sir Alex Ferguson spoke with me was at half-time, the derby against Manchester City, my first game. He shouted at me, so many words,’ said Evra.
‘The only thing I understood was, ‘you’re not coming back on the pitch, now you stay here and watch and learn English football’.
‘I met him in Paris with David Gill [United’s chief executive] before I signed but my English wasn’t [good] it was with Carlos Queiroz [Ferguson’s assistant], who was talking French and he was translating.
‘The boss didn’t speak with me, the first time he spoke to me was at half-time, that’s when I knew who was Sir Alex Ferguson.
‘The was he was shouting and giving the hairdryer, it wasn’t a nice thing for me.’
Evra also revealed that his agent told him he would never make it at United following his woeful performance against City.
But Evra also admits his poor display was due to his pre-match preparations.
‘It was the first in my life I played at 12 o’clock, at nine o’clock it was breakfast and I remember seeing Mikael Silvestre and Louis Saha eating pasta, eating beans, eggs,’ said Evra.
‘For the first time I was like, ‘okay, I’ll try the same’. I’m not a big fan of breakfast, I’ll have a cup of tea and that’s it.
‘I start eating like them, because I thought I needed some energy, I went to my room and I felt sick, I started vomiting, sweating. And I was like, ‘wow, if I call the manager now and say I can’t play, he will say this player doesn’t have the… you know what I mean’.
‘And I was like, you know what, I won’t say anything and I’ll play. That was my worst mistakes. It came, the warm-up, it was sunny, I was feeling heavy, tired.
‘I remember in the first five minutes I played against [Trevor] Sinclair, I was bleeding in my eyes, I remember he elbowed me, it was a corner kick, I was against the post and you know when you have a bubble in your head and you start thinking, I was like, ‘what the hell am I doing here?’. I was in Monte Carlo chilling. The football is so fast, oh my god, you’re so dumb Patrice, you should go back to Monte Carlo. I remember thinking that.
‘The worst part was when the game was finished. We went back to my flat with my agent and his wife. And my agent looked at me and said, ‘Patrice, I’m sorry’. I was like, ‘why?’. And he said, ‘I’m sorry to bring you here. You will never make it, it’s going to be too hard, you should’ve stayed in Monte Carlo’.
‘That day I was hurt so bad, I felt so embarrassed, my agent actually telling me he should’ve never brought me to Manchester United. I was like, ‘okay guys’. So, I have all these tough moments but they helped me become who I am.’
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