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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
James Gould & Ciaran Wiseman

Man Utd WhatsApp group with 2008 champions is "banter" and has messages flying in every two minutes

A Manchester United WhatsApp group chat made up of members of their 2008 Champions League winning side is "banter" and has messages flying in to it every two minutes.

This is all according to former France full-back Patrice Evra, who won 14 major trophies during eight years at Old Trafford between 2006 and 2014 and became a fan favourite.

United dominated the Premier League during the late 2000s as they won three straight league titles in 2006/07, 2007/08 and 2008/09 with a side that included Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic.

Sir Alex Ferguson's team also won the League Cup and the Club World Cup in 2009 after their European triumph, as Daily Star reports.

Speaking at Amazon Prime Video's winter sports schedule launch, Evra revealed the existence of a WhatsApp group chat containing members of that famous side.

Man United squad of 2008 (Getty Images)

“For many players, when they retire, what we miss the most is the dressing room. All the banter, all the stories. Everything happens inside," he said.

“I spoke with [Edwin] van der Sar when he retired and I said, ‘how are you doing?’ And he said, ‘Patrice I just miss you guys’.

“We are lucky, the United group we still have a WhatsApp group. We are everyone, so every morning we just laugh off each other. We have still got that.

“It is most of the players from 2008 when we won the Champions League. It is really active. Every two minutes. Rio created it. We just keep connected and have a laugh. It was not just a team, it was like a family.”

Patrice Evra (Getty Images)

For many football fans, the United side that Ferguson had at his disposal between 2006 and 2009 is the greatest of the Premier League era.

Having also reached the Champions League final in 2009 before losing to Barcelona, Gary Neville believes that the 'Class of 2008' is amongst the very best.

He has stated that: “Without that great Barcelona team, I think that this would’ve been the greatest.

“There were eight players, I would say at the time Edwin Van der Sar, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, you could put them in any team in the world, they were world class.

“I don’t think Manchester United have ever had a team that had so many world-class players, and I look back at all the teams in history.

“Of course, there has been world-class players at Manchester United but to have eight almost nine best in position almost in the world at that time, it was an unbelievable team.”

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