The Patrice Evra Appreciation Thread


:lol: Paddy brings the best out of us, drunk or sober.

One of my favourite ever United players and absolutely typifies the personality and talent needed to succeed at United.
 
Wasn't a fan during United's 06-11 era, but Prime Evra for me was the best full back of his time, including Lahm and Alves.

Anyway, is there any significance to why Evra types his Ts in caps?
 
Wasn't a fan during United's 06-11 era, but Prime Evra for me was the best full back of his time, including Lahm and Alves.

Anyway, is there any significance to why Evra types his Ts in caps?
Cole was arguably better, but not by much. Deffo better defensively.
 
Cole was arguably better, but not by much. Deffo better defensively.
No he wasn't, by far the laziest opinion on here was that Cole was the best LB in the league for a couple of seasons when he arguably wasn't and he declined pretty quickly after 2010. I remember how both Nani and Valencia took him to the cleaners and people on the caf still oddly held that opinion. From 2006-2009 Evra had no rivals for the FB position in Europe he was that good the way he owned the entire left wing.
 
Seeing him play for France again reminded me that we let him go too early imo. While he isn't at the level he used to be he still would have been a great asset to the team personality wise and a quality backup option and mentor for Shaw.
 
He was the best in the world for three seasons, and even after that when he started falling away a bit he was still right up there amongst the best for quite a few more seasons. Combined with his attitude, a definite legend.

Other than Alves, I don't think I've ever seen a fullback so consistently dominate his entire side of the field from goal line to goal line. At his peak he owned the entire left side of the field almost every match.

I think the problems started when we expected him to be the entire left hand side. At his peak he had a quality winger in front of him.
 
Cole was arguably better, but not by much. Deffo better defensively.

No he wasn't, by far the laziest opinion on here was that Cole was the best LB in the league for a couple of seasons when he arguably wasn't and he declined pretty quickly after 2010. I remember how both Nani and Valencia took him to the cleaners and people on the caf still oddly held that opinion. From 2006-2009 Evra had no rivals for the FB position in Europe he was that good the way he owned the entire left wing.

Cole at his very best was arguably better than Evra at his best. He was better defensively, and while he wasn't as good as Evra at getting forward or driving the team forward, his final ball when he did get in position was more consistent. It's tough to choose between them.

However, his best was before Evra came along. Back around 02-05. Once the injuries started in his last season at Arsenal he never got back to that level again, so over the course of their careers I would say Evra was certainly the better player.
 
Seeing him play for France again reminded me that we let him go too early imo. While he isn't at the level he used to be he still would have been a great asset to the team personality wise and a quality backup option and mentor for Shaw.
My understanding is that we would have preferred him to do that, but he didn't want to stay just as backup and asked to be allowed to leave. It would have been a dick move on our part to decline that request after everything he'd done for us.
 
That derby game when United lost 3-1 to City in January 2006, I'm sure nearly all the United fans that can recall the game will have looked at Evra and Vidic getting taken to the cleaners, PE being subbed to avoid embarrassment, how did anyone know that both would find their feet at OT and go on to give years of great service in great United teams. In their defence, that was a fairly poor United team that produced some bad performances and results in that season, before getting back on track in the next one.
What i liked most about Evra, he was a game little guy, probably from, by his own admission, having grown up in a rough area of Paris, he said football most likely kept him out of jail or worse.
 
Owh how I love the man. Still remember when he left some here said it is a good decision for both parties, but to me he left a bit too early. Too many old guards left that season.
 
Let this man be a sign to everyone to not right Darmian and others off after one season.
 
Cole at his very best was arguably better than Evra at his best. He was better defensively, and while he wasn't as good as Evra at getting forward or driving the team forward, his final ball when he did get in position was more consistent. It's tough to choose between them.

However, his best was before Evra came along. Back around 02-05. Once the injuries started in his last season at Arsenal he never got back to that level again, so over the course of their careers I would say Evra was certainly the better player.
Yea I'd agree that Cole's best was before Evra moved to United and since then Evra has been better than him consistently. Over the course of their careers I do think Evra contributed more defensively than Cole did going forward and is still a good player at this age.
 
I remember wondering why Evra was effectively replacing Heinze ( I thought Heinze was the bees knees) but as time went on it was harder and harder to stick to that point of view as Evra was fantastic. The defence of Van der Saar,Evra, Rio, Vidic and a constantly rotating right back from 2006-2007 onwards was just immense.

Randomly became a threat from corners one season and was vindicated against Liverpool with the Suarez fiasco. And that celebration in front of Suarez :)

Always thought that losing Rio/Vidic/Evra all at once was too much-even with Jones/Smalling/Evans as back up they were never good enough to gradually displace the defence. Evans in particular as he played the most games out of the 3 if memory serves.
 
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Owh how I love the man. Still remember when he left some here said it is a good decision for both parties, but to me he left a bit too early. Too many old guards left that season.
He was truly awful in his last season. Kept losing his man and his positioning was dire. Love him to bits but it was definitely the right time for him to go.
 
Paddy is such a lovable human. He clearly enjoyed his time here and developed an affection for us. Played his heart out too. Legend.
 
Gone off Evra since he left us when I wanted him to stay and we needed him to hang around another season. Favourite FB was Irwin. But thanks for the memories Evra.
 
He was and is a quality player. Good on him for leaving, he didn't want to be a bit-part player and with Shaw's arrival it meant his game time would have been reduced.

He has won more things in the 2 years than we have, so it shows it was a good decision.

I would have loved him to stay, but that is the selfish part of me thinking this.

His 8 years at the club were great... I still remember his first game against City when he struggled against Sinclair and Mark Hughes targeted him because of his lack of height.
Hard work paid off and he became one of the best in the world.

Great servant to the club. Thank you Patrice :)
 
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He was and is a quality player. Good on him for leaving, he didn't want to be a bit-part player and with Shaw's arrival it meant his game time would have been reduced.

He has won more things in the 2 years than we have, so it shows it was a good decision.

I would have loved him to stay, but that is the selfish part of me thinking this.

His 8 years at the club were great... I still remember his first game against City when he struggled against Sinclair and Mark Hughes targeted him because of his lack of height.
Hard work paid off and he became one of the best in the world.

Great servant to the club. Thank you Patrice :)

Having arrived from Spartak Moscow and Monaco respectively during the January transfer window in 2006, both Vidic and Evra struggled to impress during the first six months, with Vidic admitting that the pair feared they had made huge mistakes signing for United.

“We talked about it together,” Vidic said. “We spoke many times about this.

“Sometimes I like to remember how hard it was for us in the beginning. You remember what you have done here and now I am playing every week.

“For us, the league was much quicker, the players were much stronger and in the first few weeks I found that really hard.

“I remember Patrice saying ‘can we succeed here? Maybe it is better for us to go back to the places we were at before.’

“But afterwards, we start training harder and we got used to it.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...d-but-club-will-always-be-special-to-him.html
 
So he has reached another final of a major tournament. I love the man and he shows no signs of stopping after people have written him off so many times. Wish our Pat was still at our club.
 
I didn't realise he was in the French squad until the match last night. He looks younger and leaner now than when he played for us.
 
I didn't think I could Love Patrice any more than I did, but then I saw him on Running Man with Ji-Sung and my man crush for both entered new levels :drool:
 
He was such a liability his last seasons; defensively. But man, do I miss him. He's so charismatic - I really hope he will go into management and do well. Imagine him managing us in the future sometime. :drool:

I know it goes against what's commonly being told, and it is probably not true, but a friend of mine had a story where someone was in the same hotel Evra was staying at, and was at the gym very early/late, so there were little people. Supposedly Evra had come in, and instructed the only other person there that he had to go elsewhere because he was going to use the gym. It's probably not true, maybe it was a joke that just didn't go over well. :lol:
 
I seriously hope he returns to our coaching staff when he retires, a true leader by nature & never stopped loving the club he played for.
I remember an article written about him which quoted SAF saying he's got all the makings of a great manager, or something along the lines of..

Patrice, two people are going to be great managers in this team," Ferguson is reported as saying. "You and Ryan Giggs.

"You understand football, you know how to talk to people, you've got the leadership. Forget tactics and everything; you know how to pass on your passion. You can easily pass on your inspiration, your leadership. Trust me - do your badges."

Link: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/patrice-evra-sir-alex-ferguson-6746450
 
No he wasn't, by far the laziest opinion on here was that Cole was the best LB in the league for a couple of seasons when he arguably wasn't and he declined pretty quickly after 2010. I remember how both Nani and Valencia took him to the cleaners and people on the caf still oddly held that opinion. From 2006-2009 Evra had no rivals for the FB position in Europe he was that good the way he owned the entire left wing.

during that period the Ferdinand-Vidic partnership is mentioned alot , and evra get's somewhat overlooked, as if his defensive contributions were not just as sound