Vidic praises ‘amazing’ manager Sir Alex

Old Trafford legend is approaching 25 years at the club and the Serbian defender says his passion is unrivalled and he rarely uses the ‘hairdryer’ treatment with the players.Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic has praised his ‘amazing’ manager Sir Alex Ferguson as the Scot approaches 25 years at the helm at Old Trafford.Ferguson has a reputation as a hard taskmaster but Vidic says his experiences with the 69-year-old have often been very different.“It’s amazing,” Vidic said to The Sunday Times.“The passion he still has is an example for anyone, whether in football or anything. But no matter what you say about him, all the trophies he’s won and 25 years as Manchester United manager — those two things say more than words.“When I arrived [in January 2006] I had a difficult adaptation. I needed at least two months to get used to everything and I went to have a word with him.“He said he believed in me, he knew what I was capable of and just to enjoy football and everything would come — and that’s what happened. It was really then that I had first contact with the type of work he does, his type of management, and I have to say it impressed me.“I have seen that side of him much more than ‘the hairdryer’. I think he knows with different players how he needs to treat each individual. When you have a group of 25 players you cannot shout at every one.”Vidic and Manchester United have suffered from few heartbreaks in recent years and the 30-year-old defender says the manager would never allow his players to dwell on past failures – highlighting the Champions League final last season when they were beaten 3-1 by Barcelona.“We don’t speak about that game. I don’t think we speak about any old game. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone at this club talk about what we did five years ago,” Vidic says.“One thing about playing for Man United is you don’t have any time to enjoy. There’s always the next game to think about. After the Champions League final, yes, we lost, but we didn’t sit and think about it and it was the same [in 2008] against Chelsea. We won but we were thinking about the next year.“If you want to play for this club, you have to perform, you have to improve, you have to win trophies. Even the manager knows the stability in this club [depends on] trophies.”With Vidic able to call on his own experiences regarding settling in to English football, the former Spartak Moscow man has backed young goalkeeper David De Gea to prove his quality after the teenager's summer move from Atletico Madrid.“When I came to United I was 24 and wasn’t good straight away. For players coming from other leagues it’s harder but [De Gea] is definitely strong enough to deal with it,” Vidic says.“He looks like he was born with confidence. He’s been very good in the past few games but I think it’s in January we’ll see the best of him; by then he will have played all the teams and know all the [opposing] players."