Red Rants |
- Vidic’s departure is the end of an era
- Giggs set to stay on
- It’s out with the old, in with the young for United
| Vidic’s departure is the end of an era Posted: 06 May 2014 03:30 AM PDT
After eight years, five Premier League titles, one European Cup and three League Cups Nemanja Vidic will make his final appearance at Old Trafford, before leaving United at the end of the season and moving onto Inter Milan on a free transfer. Patrice Evra too could be appearing at Old Trafford in a red shirt for the last time and that’s without even mentioning Ryan Giggs, who could be about to bring the curtain down on the most extraordinary career British football has seen.
However, while Evra and Giggs could still be at United next season, it’s time for Vidic to wave goodbye. “I have great memories. To win five titles and the Champions League, I couldn’t dream of winning that many titles and of playing with so many great players. I have learned a lot, not just on the pitch but off the pitch as well,” said Vidic, who joined from Spartak Moscow in a £7m transfer in the 2006 January transfer window. “I have been playing for the greatest manager ever, I believe. “It was a great experience and this is going to be the best part of my career, these years with United. “Manchester United make you feel part of the family. I have developed as a man at this club, it has been a great experience for me and my family. I have nothing to regret, I have given 100 per cent.” Vidic was the last captain Sir Alex Ferguson appointed and he admitted that despite winning five league titles, the highlight of his United career was winning the Champions League in 2008: “You don’t win the Champions League every year. “The club has won it three times and I was lucky to be part of a team who won it once. And we won it in Moscow, where I played for Spartak for one and a half years. I came back to the stadium to lift the trophy and that’s the greatest memory I have.” Ryan Giggs could also be playing at Old Trafford for the last time tonight and he said of Vidic: “It’s always the same when great players leave the club. The club carries on but it’s always difficult when they do leave because they give such service and you do need to replace these sort of players. Not like for like sometimes but obviously with quality.” Evra, who signed from Monaco for £5.5m in the same transfer window as Vidic, said: “I am really sad because when you speak about Nemanja it’s like you are speaking about myself because we joined the club together. I remember our first game it was so hard – we played in the reserves. We were so poor and René Meulensteen, the manager, took us both out. “We were talking together in the dressing room and saying: ‘Oh my god, why have we come to Manchester United? We should go quickly back to our clubs.’ It was a difficult moment but we stuck together. We have [stayed] in the same hotel, we go into training together, we win the same trophies.” If it feels like the end of an era, is because it is. |
| Posted: 06 May 2014 01:02 AM PDT
While the clamour for Giggs to be given the job on a permanent basis had grown after the 4-0 win against Norwich during his first game in charge, United seem determined to avoid another romantic appointment and Van Gaal is widely expected to become David Moyes’ successor before focusing on Holland’s World Cup campaign.
The Dutchman arrival could have spelt the end of Giggs as part of the coaching staff, given former Barcelona, Ajax and AC Milan striker Patrick Kluivert was expected to become Van Gaal’s assistant manager, but the 62-year-old now looks set to offer Giggs the job, the Guardian reports. Giggs had been told to decline a junior role on Van Gaal’s coaching staff, but with the club determined to ensure continuity and desperate to have a player like him on the coaching staff, Giggsy is set to accept the offer, particularly as he’d give him the chance to work with one of Europe’s best managers. Van Gaal, on the other hand, is obviously fully aware of the need to ensure fans and players don’t see his tenure as completely detached from everything United stand for and the decision to appoint Giggs as his assistant manager should benefit both parties involved. While he’s obviously not yet ready to manage a club like United, Giggs knows the club inside out having spent 23 seasons at Old Trafford and has shown promising signs as far as his managerial career is concerned. His playing career, however, could have just two games left in it and tonight’s match could mark Giggs’ last ever appearance at Old Trafford, with Giggsy set to select himself: “I want to do what’s best to win the game and not just make room for me in the starting line-up or on the bench, which I won’t do. “Of course, the perfect scenario is me coming on and scoring a goal, the winning goal, and hopefully everyone will be happy but it doesn’t always work like that. We’ll have towait and see what happens on the night.” |
| It’s out with the old, in with the young for United Posted: 05 May 2014 06:29 AM PDT
The defeat against Sunderland underlined that while appointing a world class manager is crucial, so is securing world class players in the upcoming transfer window if United are to challenge for trophies again in the foreseeable future, for most members of the current squad simply aren’t good enough.
If ever a documentary on people stealing a living as footballers were to be released, we can expect Ashley Young and Nani to feature prominently in it, while Michael Carrick has been a shadow of the player he was last season, Darren Fletcher has done even too well to recover but can’t be trusted to play every week and the less said about The Brand and the human bog brush, the better. On Saturday, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic offered a timely reminder that expecting to win trophies with a centre-back who should have called it a day a year ago and one who’s already thinking about life at his future club is absolutely ludicrous. Defeat against Sunderland – the seventh time United lost at home this season and what an utterly shambolic record it is – means that if Spurs pick up a point in their final game of the season, United will miss out on a European spot for the first time since 1990 which, given the sorry state of affairs that has become routine at Old Trafford, might be a blessing in disguise. Not that Spurs should be too concerned about losing their grip on sixth place anyway, given that it’s far from certain that United will pick up six points from their last two games, though one would hope that the players might feel the urge to deliver in their last home game this season, particularly as it could be the final appearance at Old Trafford for some of them. Vidic could lead the team out on last time, while it might be the last occasion we see Patrice Evra in a red shirt at Old Trafford and, more importantly, will Giggsy decide to grace the hollow turf on last time? Wayne Rooney could return from injury and Giggs is expected to give some of the youngsters a chance to impress. Whether on loan or with the U21 the likes of Tom Lawrence, Ben Pearson and James Wilson have been United’s most positive note this season and Giggs has recognised the need to blood fresh faces into a team that badly needs reinvigorating. Hull haven’t secured a point in a league game at Old Trafford since drawing a Second Division fixture in the 1923-24 season and have only won once in Manchester, in the third round of the 1952 FA Cup, but this season United have made a habit of gifting wins to team that hadn’t won at Old Trafford in ages – Sunderland had to wait 46 years, Newcastle 42 and West Brom 36 – therefore don’t rule out Steve Bruce’s men joining the list. Probable starting XI:
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