We have a very important game to worry about tonight against Wigan where we can get to within 2 points of the leaders (which is what I was hoping for last week) but I want to first address the Njemja Vidic stories that have been quietly doing the rounds for the last 6 months and are starting to pick up some steam recently with stories like this one in the Times today. I remember the whole Ronaldo situation and this is exactly how it started and I have to say that it sounds like there is a good bit of truth in these stories especially as it is a well known fact that Vidic’s family have not settled well here. Nothing in the article quotes Sir Alex directly but I have to say that if the £30 million they are talking about is true then that is some pretty good business for a player who would be nearly 29 by the time he was to be sold and with his contract running out in 2012 the lat thing we want to do is let him run that down and lose him for free. The question is can we afford to lose Vidic? It all really depends on Rio Ferdinand to be honest because if you have him back playing week in week out with Johny Evans as a long term partner and Wes Brown stepping in as a replacement then £30 Million looks like very good business and you would expect Sir Alex to jump back in to the market and snap another gem up in the £15 million region. The problem, and it is a very big and real problem is that if Rio doesn’t get back to his best any time soon there is no way we could afford to lose both our first choice center halves and expect to win trophies in the short term. A defence is not built in a short period of time and the relationships and foundations that are needed can take years to bed down. It will all boil down to Rio but at the end of the day £30 million for a defender is a lot of money and nobody is irreplaceable and much as I would hate to see Vidic go (I’d love him to finish his career at United) Sir Alex is no fool and trying to keep somebody against their wishes (or worse their wife’s wishes) is foolish and he will probably pocket the cash if it does get to tat stage next summer.
Wigan At Old Trafford
Giggs, Vidic and Brown will all be looked at after returning at the weekend and I would expect them all to play except Giggs who will probably get a rest and be replaced by Park who looked good and full or energy when he came on at the weekend. With Leeds at home at the weekend where I would expect to see more of the squad used I think we will see the same sort of team as we did against Hull which apart form a couple of injuries would be pretty much our strongest.
I am really looking forward to see if we have our full confidence and swagger back because we have really been missing that for large parts of the last month but there is nothing like a home midweek evening game to create a cracking atmosphere inside Old Trafford and we should be able to trun over Wigan especially given the fact that we have beaten them in 10/10 of our last meetings. Sir Alex has been making a lot out of the fact that we are at the start of what needs to be a long unbeaten run if we are to win the league and a victory here would leave us just 2 points behind Chelsea heading in to the new year.
Wigan are winless in four matches and have only managed one point from their last four away fixtures and only Hull have conceded more goals this season so you can probably expect them to come and try and shut up shop which should suit us perfectly and I would expect us to win by a couple with Rooney getting at least one if he starts because he really is a man on top of his game at the moment and this one is nicely set up for him.
