Soccer:Alex Ferguson says Nemanja Vidic's decision to commit himself to Manchester United "strengthens our hand". The Old Trafford manager revealed that the Serbian defender's contract extension runs to four years.
Vidic's decision is a welcome boost for United given Rio Ferdinand's on-going fitness problems.
He had been linked with a move away from the club only for chief executive David Gill to reveal on Friday that the player had agreed a new long-term deal.
Ferguson said: "In the modern day game it is not easy renewing players contracts when they do well, particularly those from other countries.
"Over the last year or so there has been speculation about Nemanja time and time again, sometimes by the press, sometimes fuelled by other sources.
"But we never had a strong feeling he really wanted to leave. There is always concern if they do well they want better contracts.
"At the end of the day we have managed to achieve the task of getting him to agree a four-year contract.
"We are delighted, he is fantastic centre-half, a great competitor with a marvellous attitude to winning games. It strengthens our hand."
Ferguson revealed that Ferdinand was making slow progress from a knee injury. The England defender is recovering from a problem that caused him to miss the World Cup in South Africa.
Ferguson said: "Rio should be six weeks, I think. It was a ligament injury after all."
However Gary Neville returned to training on Friday after a calf injury while Antonio Valencia will be back at Carrington on Monday.
On Michael Owen, Ferguson said: "He is behind Gary at the moment and I am not sure he will make the start of the season."
Ferguson believes he did the right thing by drafting in young Fulham defender Chris Smalling despite his lack of top-flight experience.
He felt he had to "stock up " his backline options given Ferdinand's problems and the uncertainty over Vidic's future.
Ferguson said: "We did not know that Rio was going to get the injury. But we were still working with the complete conviction that he [Vidic] was going to sign anyway long before the World Cup started.
"Negotiations can be prolonged and dragged out a little bit.
"We prepared some months ago by signing Smalling if eventually should we have injuries in the department.
"Last season we did not do our chances in the league a lot of good by the number of injuries we had to defenders.
"So we felt we should stock up in that department. It has turned out to be pretty important."