The Beautiful Game

     Amidst all the furore over a certain contract extension at Manchester United, lost in all the lines devoted to money exchanging hands has been the news that the rock on which Sir Alex Ferguson built his most recent successes is all set to leave the club. And for someone so committed to the side of football we so rarely appreciate, it seems only fitting that Nemanja Vidic leaves the Red Devils sans any fuss whatsoever, just a man who feels his incredible work at Old Trafford has well and truly come to an end. Football has two very different sides to it, the pleasing spectacle that the likes of Lionel Messi typify, and the hard-fought, battle-like approach that truly great defenders like Vidic bring to their game. If there was ever a man who epitomised the ugly side of football, the determination necessary to restore a certain order to the sheer chaos of defending, it has been the tall Serbian. Fundamental to United’s success for the better part of the last decade, Vidi