Wedding bells for Evans?

Sir Alex Ferguson, always keen to encourage his players to settle down, today demanded central-defender Jonny Evans’ girlfriend “tie him down” in marriage. After demanding that Wayne Rooney marry – then procreate with – Coleen MCloughlin, Ferguson wants the Northern Irish star to walk the aisle. The Manchester United manager has long held-true that married players are less apt to get into trouble.

“I’ve always been an advocate of players being married and settled down. You know where they are. It’s good for the stability of a footballer to be married,” joked Ferguson at his pre-Champions League press conference today.

Evans, next to Ferguson, claimed to “not want to talk about it” in front of his girlfriend, sat at the press conference.

Ferguson had earlier talked about Evans progression as a footballer. Falsely accused of rape after a drunken Christmas party got out of hand in 2007, the Belfast-born player rode the storm to become a stalwart of the United defence. He has regularly filled in for the injured Rio Ferdinand and made 31 appearances in total last season, including the Carling Cup final.

“Sometimes I don’t know whether I am doing the right thing leaving Jonny out because his performance level has been so high,” said Ferguson.

“At times I have been unfair to him. But he is still young. He has a great future here and time will come when I have to put him in.

“The great thing about footballers and young players in particular is that one summer they come back and they are a different player.

“They have a different physique and they tell you by their performance that it is time for them to go into the team.

“It has happened countless times at this club and I would think it is a great worry for any experienced player that one of their own is going to take their place,” Ferguson noted.

The perennially injured Rio Ferdinand, take note.

As for the proposal, no doubt the bachelors in the United squad will remind Evans that marriage isn’t a word, it’s a sentence.