Mongay said: "Eric is on a different planet. He simply has no notion of money. At one point, he had 30 different bank accounts. He was juggling between credits.

"There was a time when he owned 10 4x4-drive cars — 10! I kept telling him all the time to watch out. When he arrived at Manchester United, I decided to take over the running of his accounts. It used to take me four hours a day! At United he was earning about £75,000 basic per month. But every penny was going straight to loan repayments. He was having to live on bonuses and extras. He started to ask United for advances and, at a club like that, something like that doesn't go down well."

Djemba-Djemba made his name first with Nantes, where he emerged as a hard-tackling midfielder. He was identified by United boss Sir Alex Ferguson as a potential replacement for Roy Keane and signed for £2.5million in 2003.

An unequivocal failure during one-and-a-half seasons with United, Ferguson has subsequently hinted at problems off the field but has never expanded on them. Here, it appears, is the remarkable truth.

French sources have revealed that Djemba-Djemba's troubles with money began when he began to earn decent wages at Nantes. As the player himself admitted: "African footballers tend to give all their money to their compatriots. I even helped complete unknowns. I was young, I was cocky, I took no account of anything. Nowadays, I say no."

When he arrived at Manchester United, I decided to take over the running of his accounts. It used to take me four hours a day! At United he was earning about £75,000 basic per month.

"But every penny was going straight to loan repayments. He was having to live on bonuses and extras. He started to ask United for advances and, at a club like that, something like that doesn't go down well