United offer Vidic new £90k-a-week deal to see off Real Madrid
Published 23:00 22/07/10 By David McDonnell
Manchester United are ready to hand Nemanja Vidic a new £90,000-a-week deal to ensure Real Madrid do not succeed in luring him away from Old Trafford.
Vidic, who is wanted by Real, has been agitating for an improved deal for the past 12 months but it is only now that United are willing to sit down and open talks over a two-year extension to his current deal.
With Real willing to pay £25million for the central defender and Vidic wanting parity with United's top earners like Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, the Old Trafford hierarchy accept the 28-year-old must be handed a fresh deal to reflect his new-found worth.
Vidic has two years left on the four-and-a-half year deal he signed when he joined United from Spartak Moscow for £7.2m in January 2006 and the new agreement on the table would tie him to Old Trafford until July 2014.
With doubts over Rio Ferdinand's long-term fitness, the England defender having missed most of last season with an ongoing back problem from which he will never be fully free, United could not afford to lose Vidic this summer.
That would leave Sir Alex Ferguson vulnerable at the back with only Jonny Evans, who is still finding his feet as a Premier League player, injury-prone Wes Brown - who has not played at centre-back for two seasons - and new signing Chris Smalling as his only central defensive options.
Fergie is not prepared to entertain such a scenario and is determined to hold on to Vidic, despite his obvious displeasure at the player's agent, Paolo Fabbri, publicly questioning whether his client would stay at United, in a bid to force their hand over a new contract.
After United's 1-0 pre-season friendly win over Philadelphia Union on Wednesday, Fergie was evasive when pushed on Vidic's future. Asked to clarify the player's future, given all the uncertainty surrounding it, Fergie said: "I can't clarify it at all."
And when asked whether he thought Vidic would be a United player next season, Fergie was again vague. "Yeah, I believe so," said the United boss.
