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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Ricky Charlesworth

Patrice Evra criticises two Manchester United midfielders as he lauds 'amazing' Casemiro deal

Former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has claimed Casemiro's arrival will bring plenty of much-needed experience to the side.

United confirmed the arrival of the 30-year-old from Real Madrid earlier this week and the Brazilian comes armed with plenty of big-game experience having won the Champions League a whopping five times with his former employers.

Evra, who spent over eight years at Old Trafford, says the signing of Casemiro reminds him of the club's old approach to transfers. Speaking in association with Betfair, the Frenchman said: "The Casemiro signing came from nowhere and that's what United used to do. When they brought me, when they brought Nemanja Vidic, that's what they used to do, signings out of nowhere, boom.

Read more: United get Casemiro boost ahead of Southampton trip

"Not a player linked in the paper for many months and in the end they don't even sign them. I'm confident as we're talking about a five-times Champions League winner. All that experience coming into the midfield. Of course, he will have to adapt to the Premier League but I've seen him many times and what a player. That's the kind of midfielder we need.

"When we play [Scott] McTominay and Fred, even if they have a great game, after three games they lose that consistency and Casemiro will bring that to United. This is an amazing deal and finally we did it the Man United way: no noise and boom, Casemiro is at home."

Evra also spoke about an incident following Robin van Persie's arrival at United back in 2012. He added: "When Robin came to United, we were doing a warm-up on the bikes and he shook everyone's hand, and when he shook my hand I said 'welcome to a real club' and he started to swear at me, using the F word and he wasn't happy.

"Then after one month he came to me and said 'Patrice, I want to apologise, what you said is so right, I can see that all you guys have won so many titles, but you are all the first in training and last out because you still want to win'.

"That's what I mean about experience, when you have a player and they win so many trophies, young players look up to them, they see the way they train, the way they eat and their lifestyle. Casemiro's experience will help."

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