Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is facing a battle to hold onto defender Nemanja Vidic.

The Daily Mail says it is apparent now that Vidic will leave the club in the near future after becoming frustrated with life off the pitch in Manchester.

Despite the 28-year-old Serbian denying suggestions earlier this year that his wife Ana was unhappy in England, it remains the case that the couple do have an eye on a move to southern Europe - in all likelihood Spain.

Vidic remains grateful to Ferguson looms for giving him the opportunity to move west when he bought him from Spartak Moscow in January 2006 and has not ruled out staying until the end of his current £70,000-a-week contract until 2012.

United will try to tempt him with a new contract in the following six months but he is unlikely to sign one and there is no way, particularly in the current economic climate, that United will allow his current deal simply to run down.

This means the English champions will have to think about selling him next summer or soon after if they are not to lose one of the best central defenders in the Barclays Premier League for a knockdown fee.