The two of them ended up going into a 50-50 slide tackle and they’ve both ended up with big, massive gashes down their shins, right up to their knees. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it started a fight, but it definitely kicked off a little bit. The first-team lads were trying to say to the Reserve lads coming over: ‘that’s enough of that’.

That was just the way it was, it was great, there was always aggression in training, but as soon as the session was finished, it was over and done with. That was just the culture at the time and it was great to be a part of.



During my time at United, there weren’t many people who came to the club and didn’t appear to be enjoying themselves. When you’re winning trophies, feeling like you’re the best team in the Premier League, getting to Champions League finals and so on, it doesn’t really get much better as a footballer. You’re playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, it’s a fantastic club, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t love it. It was an easy time to be happy and enjoy what you were doing.



But nobody smiled more than the twins. I remember when Rafa nearly killed Fabio (or maybe the other way around) and they just fell about laughing. At the time, they were both saying that they really wanted to get into golf and they were having a lot of lessons, so they were really excited when we had a players’ golf day.

Once we got out there on the course, they had absolutely no idea what they were doing. They were genuinely horrendous (watch the video below for proof). One of them shanked a shot just past the other one’s head, but they could only see the funny side of it. Everything was the same.

Anderson was like that as well, actually. He had a really infectious personality too. Maybe it was a Brazilian thing and they’ve just got a different outlook on life to us; a different culture to what we’re used to.