Rooney issued a statement on Wednesday - just two hours before United’s Champions League game against Turkish side Bursaspor - in which he stated that he wanted to leave the Premier League outfit due to a lack of ambition on the part of the club, before going on to sign a new five year contract with the Red Devils on Friday.
GEAR:Save 10% on your new Manchester United shirt here, courtesy of Kitbag
But former France captain Evra, who moved to Old Trafford in 2006 after a four-year stint with French side AS Monaco, has assured fans that all Manchester United players are focused on winning silverware and he is still adamant that Manchester United can continue to compete at the highest level.
After their 1-0 win over the Turkish Champions, the 29-year-old spoke of his disappointment that United failed to secure a fourth-successive title.
“I've been here for four years and every time until last year I have won the league,” he said.
“It hurt – this is Manchester United and we must win trophies. That is the pressure of playing here.
“No team is better than us at the moment – you may think I'm crazy but I say it because it's true. Manchester belong at the top and I'm confident we can do that.
“We need to be professional. We need to perform – I don't like excuses about what's going on around the club. Everyone needs to focus on themselves.”
After a sluggish start to the season and another poor performance last Saturday against newly-promoted West Brom, Sir Alex Ferguson’s side are already five points behind leaders Chelsea and sit fourth in the Premier League.
But Evra insists United have made avoidable individual mistakes, and is determined to focus on picking up points rather than the recent headlines surrounding the club.
“It's about doing the basics. Everyone talks about Manchester United but nobody has beaten us. The problem has been us – we have made some silly mistakes but teams have not been better than us. We have not been playing badly.
“The target for us is to win back the title and we are focused on doing that. I trust everyone so let's keep going.”
Manchester United travel to Stoke on Sunday, looking to get their title push back on track.
By Matt Maltby
