Tuesday, 19th November, 2013
Former France midfielder Patrick Vieira feels his compatriot Patrice Evra could have timed his "tramps" outburst better but blamed the pundits for crossing limits.
Manchester United defender Evra was reprimanded by the French Football Federation – but spared a suspension – after he hit out at former-footballers-turned television-pundits for criticising his half-time team talk to the French team in October.
"People have a good impression of me, it won't be these tramps who dirty my image", Evra had said.
Vieira, who played alongside Evra with France for many years, has backed Evra but told L'Equipe: "We can actually raise the question of timing. Why did he not wait until the end of the qualifiers to speak?"
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However, Vieira did question why pundits who had themselves faced a lot of media flak would choose to turn on a fellow professional footballer in the manner they did.
"On the merits, I agree with [Evra]", Viera added. "A frequent criticism of footballers is that they do not say what they think. For once one of them does, but we should not beat him for it, should we?
"Everyone does his job, but there are limits. Some pundits are former football players who did not like it at the time when they were criticised.
"Now they are on the other side, and may have forgotten the effect it can have when you're a player. This is what bothers me.
"Here in England, Pat Evra is a player respected by everyone. I also think he said aloud what other players were thinking. He did it because he has red blood and it had to come out."
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