Fergie wants and needs Vidic to stay

Nemanja Vidic was one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s best pieces of business in his whole time at Manchester United. He moved to United from Spartak Moscow in January 2006 for a fee believed to be around £7 million. He quickly established himself as one of the best defenders in the Premier League.

Torrid

On two occasions, Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has given him a torrid time and those two games seem to have somehow overshadowed what has been a brilliant few seasons for the Serbian international.

This season has been plagued by injury and constant rumours that Vidic wants to leave Old Trafford. The twenty-eight year old defender still has an awful lot to offer and Sir Alex is keen to keep him at the club. He told the BBC,

“Of course we want him to stay. He is a great player; one of the world’s best centre-backs.”

In relation to the injury that has kept Vidic out for the past nine games Fergie added,

“It’s a difficult one. He feels he needs to do a lot of training and has been training for the past ten days but he doesn’t feel ready to take part in games. It is something we have to be patient with and that is what we are doing at the moment.”

With Rio Ferdinand also missing a huge chunk of the season I think it is fair to say that Fergie’s patience probably is being tested by Vidic. Having said that, the player will know when he is fit to play and the manager will fully understand that. He would rather have a fit Vidic for the run-in than a semi-fit Vidic now.

Success

He has been a huge success at Old Trafford, becoming a key player in the side that won three successive Premier League titles and the Champions League in 2008. He has made over one hundred and seventy appearances for the club, scoring thirteen goals.

During his time at United he has been selected in the PFA team of the year three times, and was the Sir Matt Busby player of the season, the Barclays player of the season and selected in the FIFPro world XI in 2008-09.

Rumours

Despite his success, his public statements that he wants to remain at the club and his cult following at Manchester United the rumours of his departure just won’t go away. The reason usually given is that his wife Ana is unhappy living in the north west of England.

Vidic has forty-four caps for Serbia and he played a big part in helping his country to qualify for the 2010 world cup ahead of teams of the stature of France and Romania. Last season he helped United achieve a record of fourteen consecutive clean sheets and he was voted as both the fans’ and the players’ player of the season at the club.

Loss

I think people may have underestimated just what a loss Vidic is to the United team and I feel sure that Fergie will continue to show patience with the big man and welcome him back into the side just as soon as he feels fit enough.

I am also sure that Fergie will be doing all he can to persuade Vidic to stay on at the end of the season.