Pique reveals what he misses most at Manchester United

The defender, who spent four years at Old Trafford before returning to Barcelona, says the English sense of humour created a “dressing room full of life”

Gerard Pique has revealed he misses the English sense of humour at Manchester United, before describing a prank pulled on Patrice Evra.

The Spain international spent four years as a youngster at United before returning to Barcelona and feels his current team-mates are far easier to offend than those in Sir Alex Ferguson’s dressing room 10 years ago.

Evra arrived two seasons before Pique departed and the latter described how new team-mates once burned the left-back’s new, personalised shoes and saw little retaliation.

“I’m a big fan of British humour, it was what I loved about Manchester,” he told TV3. “They don’t get offended when you play tricks on them. They try to get you back, but they don’t complain.

“Here at Barca, my humour hasn’t always been appreciated by everyone. I deflate team-mates’ tires and other things, but this is nothing compared to what happened at United.

“One day Patrice Evra came in with shoes that he’d been asking Nike for months to make. They had the name of his children on them and all these crazy details.

“He went into the shower and we created a small bonfire and burned them. We recorded it and then sent him the video.”

Pique is yet to experience the same atmosphere at Barcelona, having spent the past eight years at Camp Nou and won everything the game has to offer, but attributes that to the differing cultures.

“In the first few years here [at Barca] I tried similar things but it didn’t work. It’s not the same culture.

“At United they would take an expensive shirt that you have bought and put it on the free-kick mannequins. The shirt would be ruined because of all the mud it would get on it every time the ball hit it.

“It was a dressing room full of life.”