The Glazer family, who paid Monaco £5.5 million for a man they were assured was one of the best left-backs in Europe, need to be reminded of Jorge Valdano's dictum, made when he was sporting director of Real Madrid, that two out of three transfers don't work.
However, Evra's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, must take some responsibility, first for throwing him in at the deep end, and then placing the wretchedly out-of-form Mikael Silvestre beside him on the grounds that he speaks French. He might as well have stationed Catherine Deneuve at centre-half.
The Manchester United manager accepted his third defeat in four away derbies with customary lack of grace. It says something about Ferguson that he should have asked if Steve Bennett would reconsider the red card given to Cristiano Ronaldo after allegedly accosting the referee in the tunnel at half-time, calling him a cheat and threatening that he would need a police escort out of Eastlands.
Despite this Bennett has not included the incident in his report and there will be no Football Association charge. Although Ronaldo made no contact with Andy Cole, his studs were up and he looks no more capable of tackling than either of his predecessors in the No 7 shirt, David Beckham or Eric Cantona.