At the time we had Mikael Silvestre and Wes Brown as our other centre-halves, and Mikael was probably playing a little bit more than Wes. I think the manager wanted competition for places, Wes had had a few injuries and Vida was a punt to bring that extra competition. Liverpool were interested as well, Aston Villa and a few others, and then he signed for us.
I had no idea what to expect from him, no preconceptions. When someone joins the club, you’re quickly sussing them out and forming opinions and, from what I was seeing in his early training sessions, Vida was struggling, especially physically.