Manchester v Uzice: there can only be one winner

So if Manchester is not to Vidic’s liking, is it because it suffers by comparison to Uzice, his birthplace?

The greater Uzice area is home to around 83,000 people according to the 2002 census, which may appeal to the small-town boy in the United defender, who could find Greater Manchester’s population of 2.5 million a little overwhelming. It may be some consolation that while the textile trade that made Manchester wealthy has declined, Uzice still retains the aluminium and copper industries in which Vidic’s father, Dragoljub, worked.

Vidic claimed that Manchester’s “main attraction is considered to be the timetable at the railway station, where trains leave for other, less rainy cities.” Unfortunately, the railway timetable at Uzice makes somewhat less fascinating reading. According to www.uzice.net, there are eight trains a day to Belgrade, one to Subotica and, er, that’s it. As Vidic admits, from Manchester Piccadilly – engineering works permitting, of course - you can travel direct not only to London, Birmingham and Glasgow but also to Bournemouth or Penzance. If you’ve got all day, that is. Moreover, planes depart from Manchester Airport to all parts of the globe, whereas unfortunately Uzice was heavily bombed by NATO forces in May 1999, which damaged the airport so badly that it was only recently due to re-open.

Culturally, Manchester has been a centre for music and the arts, with The Lowry and the Imperial War Museum North among recent additions to the landscape. Uzice is mainly known as a centre of the “Užičanka kolo”, a mass folk dance that involves dozens of people holding each other round the waist and dancing in a circle, which sounds worryingly like a Balkan version of the Conga. But the skiing resorts in the nearby mountains may beat a day out at the Trafford Centre.

Famous Mancunians include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Norman Foster, William Gladstone, Sir Robert Peel, George Stephenson, Alan Turing and Terry Waite. Apart from Vidic, Uzice also produced Raddy Antic, the former Luton Town midfield player and Real Madrid manager.

Vidic claims that he lived in a hotel for the first month of his stay in England and “thought I would go crazy inside those four walls." Manchester hotels, though, probably have more to offer than Uzice’s three-star Hotel Zlatibor, the c-rated Turist, and the Hotel Palas, which attracted the following review on the Virtual Tourist website: “All was good except that when we were there they didn't have hot water. But luckily [it] was summer.” Probably better to go out and grab a burek (a pastry made with meat and cheese).

But Vidic’s main gripe was the rainy weather, and the forecast for Manchester today is not likely to improve his mood: foggy then cloudy, with a high of 19 degrees, and a low of 14. What about Uzice? I thought you’d never ask: a high of 20 degrees, a low of 13 – and afternoon showers.

Nick Szczepanik

Vidic not the first player to feel under the weather

Comments

[jane]

Ryan - Cape Town, I love a South African slagging us off, glass houses and stones. Read your own newspapers.

[Marko (ex Uzice citizen)]

actually, Vidic left Uzice while he was 14y old, and i don't thing he ment about Uzice when he made that weather comparation.

and, that thing about timetable is wrong.. we have 9 trains for Belgrade, but... your comparation of my and your borntown made me proud :)

if you ever come near uzice, just look at the other side, it's not like Man.

you're pathetic

[Alastair]

Ryan - Cape Town and Punit - I don't see what this has to do with being british (although we can certainly whinge better than most), I think this is the media desperately trying to find a story. They know Utd sells papers, they enjoyed the whole 'Ronaldo's going, Utd's in crisis' angle and they're desperately trying to get it going again.

I haven't heard anybody other than journalists say they thought Vidic was out of order. Look at the other comments.

[Lloyd]

What a silly article, one word of criticism quoted out of context and an article sniping at Vidic, how childish. I think Vidic was on the money, Brits work all day, drink or watch telly each night and go to work the next day. Not his fault he is from a ex communist country but through his talent and hard work he can now make choices that many cannot and he honestly said he was driven nuts sitting in a hotel room as many would. Silly article deserves no further comment

[brian]

you missed the point. vidic claimed we are a nation of sad workoholic antipaths - which we are

[Lloyd]

What a silly article, one word of criticism quoted out of context and an article sniping at Vidic, how childish. I think Vidic was on the money, Brits work all day, drink or watch telly each night and go to work the next day. Not his fault he is from a ex communist country but through his talent and hard work he can now make choices that many cannot and he honestly said he was driven nuts sitting in a hotel room as many would. Silly article deserves no further comment.

[Hugo]

preposterously obnoxious article. no mention to his hometown is made by vidic in his statements. besides, yes, we get it, manchester is probably a better place to live than uzice - that does not mean that its regional customs should be disrespected.
lets not confound the much needed fighting of political correctness with a blank cheque for bad taste.

[Liam]

Vidic has stated on the Man Utd website that he never made any remarks about Manchester or the people of England. This is a very petty article.

[Leunamme]

What a pathetic article, worthy of a little boy at breaktime; "My dad's car is better than your daddy's". Vidic may be an ungrateful little git, but he's probably thinking of Madrid and Barcelona, not his hometown, when he complains about his living conditions in Manchester. And it's difficult not to empathize with him then, is it?

[Sara]

Touchy.
Well at least this got those vital journalistic research skills working.

[Pi]

Oh boy you really are a sad bunch you Poms. It frikkin Manchester you are defending. Ha ha. You do keep the world entertained though in your ability to winge at a world class level. Trying to decide for another man what his favourite city should be? Daft. Defending the comments made my Vidic is ridiculous. Just poke your head out the window ... no windows? Interesting.

Ryan - Cape Town

[Punit]

Typical Brit reaction to criticism - xenophobia. Are you REALLY arguing that Manchester is not wet? That Spain and Italy don't have better climates? Stop being so precious. If Johhny Foreigner hadn't said it, you'd have said it yourself.

[Paul Williams]

Er, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is from Edinburgh...

[davdevalle]

Read the MUFC website rather than the rubbish you get your sources from