Since the end of last season, Vidic has been strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid with new manager Jose Mourinho claiming he was extremely interested in the player, and had reportedly made him one of his priorities.
Vidic was quick to come out and say that he had no intention of leaving United, as long as a new contract was in the works. This was an intentional "wink-wink" at United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to draft a new, perhaps better contract for the Serbian central defender.
So, United fans and Vidic waited and waited and waited, but no new contract came. And the issue sort of died away, but then new speculation arose when a reporter asked Sir Alex after Man U's friendly against the Philadelphia Union what the history of Vidic was. Fergie sort of murmured that he couldn't confirm.
However, today, the news came out that a new contract has been penned for Vidic for 90k a week, an upgrade from his 70k a week contract that would expire in two years' time.
Now, there was no indication of an actual offer from Real Madrid, but perhaps this was a situation where the two clubs were staring each other down, waiting for the other to tip their hand. And it may be that headlines which read "Vidic open for sale, Fergie says" after Sir Alex's comment on Thursday tipped Man U's hand.
The issue with penning a new contract for Vidic is that the American Glazer family who owns the team has a strict policy about waiting until the final year of a player's contract to renew it. However, it seems they have made an exception in the case of Vidic. And with good reason.
Vidic could be the single most important player to this United team next year. The other desired first team center defender Rio Ferdinand, has once again shown how injury prone he is and could be unavailable for large portions of the season at a time. Vidic should be the rock of a back four that, other than Frenchman Patrice Evra on the left side, is very much in question. Back-ups Chris Smalling and Johnny Evans have shown that they are relatively capable of a starting position, but having an experienced leader like Vidic who is quite capable of both clearing his lines and making a stand in the final third would go an extremely long way. It will be important for a United team, that could have trouble scoring this season with Rooney out of form and Berbatov's ability to score still in question, to keep a clean sheet.
The battle of wallets between Sir Alex and Mourinho must be won for the good of Manchester United's well being in the Premier League and in international tournaments. Hopefully Vidic will stay at Old Trafford next season.
