“Vidic is still out with a cruciate ligament injury,” Silvano Martina told tuttomercatoweb.com. “A future in Italy? You have to consider that he has a non-EU passport and that would make it difficult for him to arrive in Serie A. I can assure you that I have never spoken with Juventus about Nemanja.”

Rio has gone from strength to strength this season, having already played in more games than he has in the past two seasons, and Nemanja Vidic has claimed his top performances shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

“At the beginning of the season there were a lot of people questioning Rio, asking whether he could do what he did in the past, can he play, is he finished?” Vidic said. “This was nonsense. Rio has hunger and now he has proved people they are wrong. He is a very important player, not just this year but over the past years and he has done very well over the last few months.”

“I always believed we would challenge for the title,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who is out. Manchester United never depend on one player. If you look at the past, players have left and fans have said how are we going to cope? But the manager is the best at replacing players and the team still win titles and trophies. That is why Manchester United are so special. We didn’t expect the young players would play so many games and have such influence on the team. This is a great plus for the club. Obviously we have had some injuries over the past year, which is another difficult thing we have gone through, but we have coped and been very competitive with Manchester City. Now we are at the top of the league and have a big chance to win it.”

Iker Casillas
Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique, Nemanja Vidic, Dani Alves
Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Xabi Alonso
Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi.

“Vidic for Manchester United is like Messi for Barcelona. How could you take him?” he said. “He’s the United captain and a key player for Sir Alex Ferguson. A move next summer is absolutely not an option. The player is only thinking of recovering as soon as possible from his ugly knee injury.”

This is absolutely devastating news for the club, given the massive difference he makes to our defensive performances.

“We thought it was a bad one,” said Ferguson. “He’s out for the season. It’s not unexpected but it’s still bad news. He’ll see a specialist on Monday to work out the progress of when he has the operation. It won’t be immediate as we have to let the swelling come down.”

“It seems inappropriate to talk about that, because unfortunately he has suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament.”

In response to a follow-up question asking if the player would be out for several months, the agent said: “Unfortunately so, yes.”

“I am not a number 10, I know that,” said Vidic. “I am defender and I have to stop the other team from scoring the goal. If I play well but make one mistake, than all anyone remembers is the goal I conceded. So I have to be fully focused. I am a defender. I like to defend, it’s what I do and what I’m best at. I tackle, I tackle, I tackle. This is what a defender does – this is how I developed my whole career, and this is what the manager wants from me. I play strong, yes. I am not a dirty player and I’m not a killer, as the fans sing. I don’t want to hurt or injure anyone. I just want to win. I have to win, so I do what I have to do.”

Midway through November last season Chelsea were 4 points clear of United but we still went on to finish 9 points ahead of them. Vidic reckons that we will continue to focus on ourselves and come good like we did last year.

“There is a long way to go,” said Vidic. “We have not reached the stage where there are six games left and they are five points in front and we have to think about what we have to do. It is a long season, we still have to play them again and they have to play the top four or five teams. There is a long way to go. Last year at the start Chelsea were playing unbelievable football. But in 10 months you are not going to play great football all that time. There will be good days and bad days. It is important to think game by game. That is the great thing about the players at this club, we are always looking to improve ourselves and never think so much about other teams and I think this is the key to improve, it is the key to playing well.”

There were strong rumours that Vidic was going to leave in the summer of 2010, which his agent repeatedly denied, before the player went on to sign a new four year deal.

The Daily Mail claimed that Vidic wasn’t looking for a move, rather the manager was prepared to sell the player to Real Madrid next summer if the price was right.

It was rumoured that Vidic and Sir Alex Ferguson had fallen out over the player’s decision to play for Serbia against the club’s wishes. However, now Vidic has retired from International football, there is the suggestion that the two have made peace.

“There is no news. The move is not possible,” Paolo Fabbri told The International Business Times. “Vidic has no will and has made no request to leave Manchester United.”