David Moyes: Robin van Persie will not follow Vidic out of Manchester United

David Moyes has laughed off any suggestion that his players are unhappy at the club and his management. The Scot also insisted that Robin van Persie is settled at the club despite Ronald de Boer’s claims that his compatriot wants out.

United visit West Brom in today’s lunchtime kick-off as United prepare a crucial spell of games which could very well salvage their season. With Nemanja Vidic confirming that he is on his way to Internazionale in the summer, Moyes said that he plans to begin easing Nemanja Vidic out of the team.

Whilst the timing of his statement has upset a few, Moyes made it clear that Van Persie isn’t going to follow Vidic, out of the club. His statement comes on the back of former Dutch international Ronald de Boer’s claims that the striker was “not enjoying the football Manchester United play” and is considering his future.

In a statement, Moyes said, “I couldn’t reply to that and I wouldn’t know how Ronald de Boer would know that. I travelled back from the [Holland] game with Robin the other night. I went to the game, watched them play and travelled back with him. I hardly feel I need to answer the question.”

After much was made about Van Persie’s comments about the team’s tactics after the 2-0 defeat to Olympiakos, the manager said that he had no problems whatsoever with the striker. On the subject, Moyes said “none whatsoever, if you actually read the full transcript I understand totally where he was coming from”. Moyes also denied the claims of a rift between Van Persie and Wayne Rooney. Against Olympiakos, Van Persie played just one pass to Rooney, direct from the kick-off and that has been a recurring theme over the past few games.

“The statistics before they both came back [from injury] proved that we had lost one game with them in the team up until the previous three or four games,” Moyes said. “The record with the two of them in the team was fantastic, so I was talking up how good they were together a month ago. It’s only in the last couple of games that has gone. We didn’t play well at Olympiakos but prior to that we won at Palace and drew at Arsenal. It was that one game that has dragged this up.”

Regarding Vidic, Moyes said that the Serbian center half will continue with the captaincy but that he will be used sparingly now that his departure is confirmed. “Undoubtedly I am going to try to give the younger center-halves opportunities to show what they are capable of. Going into this period of the season we will look to see how Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Jonny Evans, when fit, are able to handle this part.”

When questioned about the timing of the announcement, Moyes said: “I don’t think we like it in this country. I don’t think it’s something that’s done here. I can think of [Robert] Lewandowski going to Bayern Munich. I can think of [Mario] Götze, who went last year between two of the biggest clubs in Germany. It’s not something we like in this country, it’s done more often elsewhere. But it’s happened and we’ll get on with it. Vida has been a brilliant servant for the club and we’ll treat him with all the respect he deserves. I knew about January time that this would probably be his choice.”

Manchester United travel to West Brom in a seemingly must-win situation if they are to harbour any hopes of making it to the Top 4 and getting some momentum ahead of the remaining games in the league.