“I just wanted to play more”- Mikael Silvestre admitted that he was unaware that he was replacing Dennis Irwin at Manchester United

Former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre has told Footy Fair in an interview that he was unaware that he was Dennis Irwin’s replacement at Old Trafford.

The Frenchman, who arrived at United from Inter Milan in 1999, was very successful during his time at Old Trafford. Silvestre won five Premier League titles, one Champions League, one FA Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one League cup.

Silvestre said: “But when I signed for United in the summer after watching them winning the treble and watching the Champions League final against Munich, which was a crazy crazy game, I had no idea that I was going to be there to replace Dennis Irwin, I just wanted to play more”.


The experienced French defender went on to say that he wanted to start playing regularly having not been a regular starter at his previous club Inter Milan and was just happy to play under Sir Alex Ferguson:

“I wanted to play regularly every weekend because at Inter I was not going to be a starter. So when Sir Alex came he said
“you’re gonna start on the left, but I know you prefer to play in the central position where you play with the U21 (France National Team), but I’ll be using you in both positions.” So I said “great, I’m up for it, never mind where you play me I’ll be happy anyway”, and that was it.

Silvestre stated that he didn’t feel the pressure of the move to Old Trafford and that being thrown into the deep-end allowed him to perform better:

“But I didn’t have any pressure because I traveled on Thursday, signed on Friday morning and played Saturday morning against Liverpool, so no time to build any pressure on my shoulders, just jump into the mix and play and try to perform as best as I could”.

Silvestre went on to play for nine seasons at United, before being released in 2008. The Frenchman moved on to Arsenal, Werder Bremen and Portland Timbers in the MLS.

The former United defender only made eight appearances for Portland Timbers last season, and had a pass success rate of 81%, the joint-highest amongst the club’s defenders.