Ritchie De Laet is set to make his second consecutive
league start for United at Fulham on Saturday, following praise
from his manager.
At his pre-match press conference, Sir Alex Ferguson spoke of
his delight for De Laet's upturn in fortune since arriving in M16,
and said he had no qualms about fielding the Belgian at centre-half
(his natural position) if Nemanja Vidic isn't fit.
The United boss said: “Ritchie's been fantastic. We gave him a
new contract about six weeks ago because we see there is good
potential there.
“He’s developed in training, he’s only 20, he’s very quick and
powerful, and he’s now in the Belgian squad, so it’s been a
remarkable turnaround for him.”
Ritchie arrived at Old Trafford in January as a virtual unknown
from Stoke City. Sir Alex explained his journey to United from the
Reds’ former feeder club, Royal Antwerp.
“We sent players over there for a few years like John O’Shea,
Craig Cathcart, Jonny Evans, Danny Simpson, quite a lot of
players.
"Ritchie was a young player there at the time and we sent Warren
Joyce (now Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's reserve-team assistant) over
there when they were struggling for a coach.
“Antwerp sold Ritchie to a Turkish team but they had financial
problems and couldn’t pay his wages. So he had to go on a free
transfer and Stoke City brought him to England. “We were having
problems with young centre-halves in our reserves when Warren Joyce
remembered Ritchie from his Antwerp days.
"We spoke to Stoke about him, and that’s how he came to be here. He
never played a first-team game for Stoke, he probably wasn’t there
long enough.”
Nemanja Vidic is a doubt for
Saturday, but Sir Alex is hopeful that he might
overcome a calf injury picked up in the win over Wolves in
midweek.
If the Serbian centre-half is fit, then De Laet is likely to start
at right-back again.