Patrice Evra explains why Ferguson threatened to rip up his contract after Carlos Tevez incident | OneFootball

Throughout his career, Sir Alex Ferguson was known as a man who took no prisoners. The Scotsman was ruthless in his approach to football and was never afraid to make enemies, whether they were opponents or his own players.

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The likes of David Beckham and Roy Keane felt the wrath of Fergie while playing under him at Manchester United, with pretty huge consequences, and it seems Patrice Evra got a brief taste of that too when the former Red Devils boss threatened to tear his contract up.

That's right, the Frenchman came under scrutiny from Ferguson and his future at Old Trafford came under question, despite the fact he was one of the best left-backs in the world at the time. Even more bizarrely, the reason he came under fire was due to his friendship with Carlos Tevez.

Why did Fergie threaten to tear Patrice Evra's contract up?

In the age of social media and at a time when footballers all seem to have great relationships with one another, it seems almost mad to think that less than 20 years ago, Ferguson was willing to end Evra's United career over his friendship with another player, but that was the case.

During an appearance on Rio Ferdinand's YouTube channel, the Frenchman revealed that his former manager was incensed after he was captured by the media out spending time with Tevez. Now, normally this wouldn't have been a major deal, but the Argentine had previously left the Red Devils for their local rivals, Manchester City and his relationship with United fans wasn't particularly great.

As a result, the striker had a big falling out with Fergie, so seeing his defender publicly out and about with Tevez really ticked the manager off.

During the appearance, Evra said: "Tevez is my brother, so when he joined City, I remember we went to a place called San Carlo and the paparazzi take a picture. So, the next morning Ferguson like called me into his office and he said 'If I see you again outside with Tevez, I'm going to rip your contract.'"

Ferguson clearly thought Evra spending time with Tevez in public sent the wrong message to United fans after the striker ditched the club for their rivals, but apparently had no problem with them being friends, as long as it was in private.

Evra revealed as much, saying: "He said 'you do whatever you want. You invite him into your house, or you go to his house, but I don't want to see you outside with him again.'"

It appears the defender listened to his boss, though, as he remained a United player until 2014, five years after Tevez joined City and even outlasted Fergie himself, who retired in 2013.

Having signed Tevez on a two-year loan from West Ham United in 2007, Ferguson initially had a good relationship with the striker and their time together was quite successful.

The Argentine hit the ground running at Old Trafford and contributed with some vital goals as the Red Devils successfully defended their Premier League crown twice, as well as winning the Champions League. Tevez quickly became frustrated at United, though, due to the club taking too long to offer him a permanent deal, and when they finally decided to make a move for him, he decided he wanted to leave.

Leaving is bad enough, but Tevez chose to join United's closest rivals, City, who had been slowly gaining ground on the Red Devils after years of dominance for the red side of Manchester and Fergie was furious about that.

The club's fans also turned on Tevez, and the relationship between the two parties was irreversibly damaged, so it makes sense the manager didn't want to see his players publicly associating with the now 39-year-old.