SILVETRE DEFIANT

Last updated : 19 January 2006 By Editor
From the Independent:

The Manchester United defender Mikaël Silvestre has insisted his future remains at Old Trafford despite widespread criticism of his recent performances but he did point to a lack of "collective spirit" within the club when they play the "smaller" teams.

"I am not on the transfer list and I am not going to leave Manchester during the winter break," he said.

"I don't care what people say. I feel I am efficient. I play almost all the matches. My future is at Manchester United and that is where I am planning to stay."

Silvestre admits that overall performances this season have been no better than average, a situation which is not good enough at a club of United's size. "Bowing out of the Champions' League before the last 16 was a huge failure," he said.

"We display good performances against big sides and we lack collective spirit against smaller teams. But we have two competitions to win [the FA Cup and the League Cup] on top of doing well in the League. We can still save our season.

"Ferguson wants to keep me. He has no need to tell me that. If he thought the opposite, he would tell me straight away. I have no reason to think any other way. Why would I want to hold talks with Ferguson? I imagine he is happy with me. In any case, if he wasn't, he wouldn't wait long to let me know.”