Much the most interesting thing Vidic said, though, concerned the pace of modern British life, which he feared tended toward the knackering.
"They just don't have time to feel the joy of life," he lamented. "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."
It isn't often you get a footballer engaging thoughtfully with the lives of the kind of people who - as they're so often keen to point out - pay his wages. Vidic's teammate, Gary Neville, broached the subject when he said: "I do accept that the money can create a distance between the working class and a working-class player." Alas, the impact of this acknowledgement was slightly dulled by the fact that Neville made it in an interview for United Opus, a lavishly-produced, limited edition history of the club that retailed at - and I am not making this up - £3,000 a copy. The working class were certainly being made aware of that distance.
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