Jonny Evans was in two minds about staying at Manchester United last summer when a £10 million bid came in for him from Sunderland.

He went on to play in 32 games for United, including our league matches against Arsenal and Chelsea, as well as the European Cup semi-final.

Rio Ferdinand has revealed he spoke to Evans last summer but concluded that having the opportunity to win so many trophies at United makes it hard to leave.

“I spoke to him in pre-season last year in South Africa,” said Rio. “He asked me about it. He was at a stage where he wanted to play every week. He had that the season before on loan at Sunderland and he didn’t want to come back and play reserve-team football again. But it’s the same argument for any young player. Do you want to go and play for a team in mid-table or do you want to be in a squad where you’re going to get chances to play in a title-winning team or European Cup-winning team? When you look at it like that, it’s a bit of a no-brainer.”




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