Former Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic said today that “everyone lost belief in the team” during their disappointing season (more on that here). The premiere season of David Moyes was a total flop and led to Man United finishing 22 points below the final season of Sir Alex Ferguson, in which they won the league by 11 points. It led to the sacking of Moyesie, as he didn’t even last one year of his six year deal.
Vidic insists the Man United players are as much to blame as Moyes, and that there was no revolt or mutiny against the Scotsman. But the “Serbian Murderer” also insists there was a lot of heated argument and conflict between Man United players this past season.
Vidic insisted there was no attempt to undermine Moyes – they did what they were told – but admitted there were serious arguments between the players.
“Sometimes you have bad times and you question yourself, of course, but we never did question the manager. We questioned ourselves more,” he said.
“It has been hard. We thought it might be difficult to win the title this year but we still thought we would challenge for the trophies. We ended up losing the chance to win the title very early though, and then we lost the chance to win the cups as well.
“We are used to fighting until the last day of the season for the title. That has happened for the last seven years and this year was the first year we have not done that, so it is hard to cope.
“We argued amongst ourselves. This year more than any other, because when you have bad times people show they care. We were arguing to get better. We wanted to improve.
“If you didn’t argue it wouldn’t be right. We had some hard moments in the dressing room between ourselves.”
Wayne Rooney, who signed a notable contract extension this past winter is showing some leadership with Manchester United Football Club.
Rooney may land the MUFC captaincy next season, and the way he’s publicly showing accountability now for United’s massive struggles, makes him the ideal candidate. With Nemanja Vidic out, and relocated to Inter Milan, the position is open. Although now it’s thought the Man United Captain position could go to Robin van Persie as Louis van Gaal takes over. Earlier this year, Rooney made a lot of choice quotes:
“There’s a lot of anger and hurt inside our dressing room. We all hate seeing Manchester United so far away from the top.”
“It’s been a disappointing season for us so far, there’s no getting away from that, but anyone who thinks that this is the start of a decline couldn’t be more wrong. This is a one-off.”
“It was the end of an era when Sir Alex Ferguson left, but it wasn’t the end of Manchester United.”
Rooney’s comments about life at Man United made in midseason kind of reflect the comments made by Vidic today, don’t they?
The contract extension gave Wayne Rooney the richest contract in English football history. Wayne Rooney signed for £300k a week, and extend his deal four years. He’s now on the books for five and a half years– signed until 2019 with the Red Devils. It will be a very interesting time for Man United going forward.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured both in Forbes and on the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)