A case of mistranslation or the latest United star wanting to
quit Manchester? An interview with Red Devils' defender Nemanja
Vidic is sure to cause a storm after the Serbian international was
quoted as saying he loathed the climate in England and aimed to
play in Spain.
Russian magazine Football Weekly this month carries an
interview in which Vidic may well have placed his long-term
Manchester United future in doubt.
The 26-year-old defender said he had found it hard to adapt to
life in England, saying: 'I will never stay to live in England,
that's for sure. You get only a brief glimpse of sunlight before
it's all cloudy again. The winters are mild, but in summer the
temperatures seldom go higher than 20C. And it rains, rains,
rains.
And he had harsh words for the quality of life for the country
where he arrived in January 2006 after a spell at Spartak
Moscow.
'It's not only the weather that I'm not happy about here. In
Russia and Serbia the people's way of life is similar. In England
it's totally different. Here they just don't have time to feel the
joy of life.
'Throughout the week they all work so hard. They only talk to
people at lunch break. Then in the evening they come home and watch
the telly, so they can get up early for work the next day.
'The only time to meet friends is at weekends, but for football
players it's the busiest time of all. It was much easier for me to
adapt to Russia than England. In England I had no one to talk to.
The first month was especially hard. I lived alone in a hotel,
which I left only for training. I thought I would go crazy inside
those four walls.'
Following the summer-long tug-of-war over Cristiano Ronaldo,
Vidic's words about his playing future will have a familiar air to
United fans: 'In future, I would like to test myself in another top
league. I'm thinking of Spain. At least there will be no reason to
complain about the weather.
And Mancunian fans of the English and European champions may
well take offence at the comment that 'in England, they say that
Manchester is the city of rain. Its main attraction is considered
to be the timetable at the railway station, where trains leave for
other, less rainy cities.'
United and Vidic's next step will be one to look out for. ..
