Berbatov
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 2:57PM Would you take him back? Discussed at length here. He looks to be another player who's head isn't quite right at the moment. Was meant to be the next Cantona at United. At least that's how some billed him. Instead, he is the epitome of apologeticist football (I've copyrighted that one). Seems to have lost the swagger. Still shows signs of quality, yet it's all very much understated. Sometimes, these types of players should be give the freedom of expression rather than instructed to play with a different type of work ethic. Which is why he was probably better off at Spurs. Perhaps because he's been forced into 'defending' and working for the team on a completely different level to how it played out at the Lane where he was king-pin.
The smile in this photograph is a representation of a smile created in photoshop for creative effect
Utd did sell Veron within a couple of seasons having signed him for a small fortune. Doubt very much we'd ever be interested in bringing him back, but it makes for good banter/opinion.
Considering we have Modric and Niko and Lennon, adding another forward in the mould of a Berbatov would have us pushing forwards faster than a locomotive been shagged from behind by a Euro-Star.
Obviously, there's endless connotations here. Would Berba awaken a comatose Keane? Would he be able to work with Defoe? Who knows. We won't be finding out. He made his choice. Not looking the right one at the moment. Unless his understated performances masks his overall work rate and assists.
I do miss the old Berba.
Reader Comments (86)
fact 1. berbatov and keane was awesome
fact2,berbatov goals were mostly fantastic
fact 3, a top class player and still is
fact 4,not the same at a man u for variuos reasons
fact 5, appeared to to get pssied off at delay in joining man u on the pitch at the end of tottenham days
for me spurs at the top of the tree next year would benefit in our style set up rather than man u .....
redknapp would see to his inclusion in a way better than ramos did......
like a divorce which has hurt the fans ..........we could have a second honeymoon...........
forgive and play......?
why not? but the club is bigger than one player
no room for attitudes affecting the team spirit........period
to see berba back to his best with modric ,niko and the rest would be great though....
If ManU decides to offload but not to us, how will fans feel if he signs for the ARSEs?
Nah, fuck him. He made his choice. I loved that man as much as I could love any Spurs player and he's eventual lackadaisical attitude to playing for our great club was like being kicked in the face while floored...by your own mum.
Why not take him back, when we took Keane back?? I mean that if Keane should be forgiven, than Berba should too...
Defoe93, then you might as well asked for Campbell to be forgiven and return to us since he is looking for a new club.
lier lier your pants are on fire when we lost to UTD in the League cup he was the stand out player that makes the other feel they can win . He has that skill just by keeping the ball and then causing panic with is flicks.The problem is he use to get me mad when he passed the ball and stayed where he was and lennon would fire the ball across the penalty and it would fall where he should have bean on the other side of the coin he could hold the ball up till not just Lennon but even Jenas would be in the box and the pick a runner mainly Robbie to score and is flick on for keano the hit on the volley high in to the net .It would not surprise me if Old red nose comes calling for Keano. and where I live Widnes the Manure fans want Lennon ad moderic you can guess what I said to that.starts with F and ends with F.COYS
the question of whether we should take berbatov back is really quite simple, i.e. how much do they want? if the answer is what they paid for him £35,000,000 then the little bulgarian traitor can rot in hell (or manchester or whatever). If on the other hand its what we paid for him £11,000,000 then we will roll out the red (or lillywhite) carpet!
No Way dano! let him rot slowly at Man Yoo ! he totally disrespected the club with his temper tantrum and subsequent strike to get his taxi north. keano and himself had one of europes best pairings in the last decade .
Keano is a bit lost without him .Crouch being a good player in my opinion is no Niall Quinn who was another to link up superbly .We all heard the one about a player should never come back to an old club when he goes ,but he left 'cause he saw Ramos was all smoke and mirrors, and then returned cause Rafa never really wanted him in the first place. berba is Carlos Kickaball Personified .let him Rot !!!
Let me start with I absolutely hate the twat for the way he departed but for the right price and a champions league spot I'll take him back. He turned out to Cuntona at UTD rather than the real thing but he's probably gonna end up in italy or Spain next year when they buy a better player
Modric won't leave us the way we're playing we're going to be able to match his dreams of playing Champions League football. Getting their lies with him and his team mates
This argument of whether Liverpool or Celtic was Keane's boyhood club is besides the point (nevermind they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive if you are a young boy in Dublin). I've met tons of Irish who support Celtic in the SPL and Liveprool in the EPL. When in a Spurs shirt, Keane gives his all every game and acted in good faith in both this transfer and contract negotiations he had with the club and that is all he owes the club and the fans. Liverpool approached Spurs. Spurs didn't want to sell but Keane asked for the offer to be accepted, his reasons for doing so aren't really important. The club agreed a fee and that was that. Berbatov refused to play. To be clear, we the fans buy tickets that pay for his 60k a week salary and he refused his side of the bargain, forget the accusation that some of his performances late on were lack luster, he actually refused to play. There is nothing worse a player can do, in my eyes. it cost the club leverage in their negotiations and split the dressing room and coaching staff. Great player but he burned the bridge when he left. I wish it was different, I forgive him but I can't have him back.
Tim if Berbatof was our only missing part for the champions league you won't take him back?
Tim, I have to disagree with you on the Keane point - he is just being a hypocrite. When he won the league cup and even a few weeks before his transfer he was going on about how he wants to stay in spurs for life and all the lovey commitment crap, only to ask for a divorce once the liverpool (a team outside the top four now, hahaha) came in, what was that for? Imagine your wife does that to you! What we can do is to accept the fact that these are two players who thought spurs weren't good enough, full stop. we're better off without them.
SpursLA, to answer your question, we should NOT take him back. Unless he apologizes officially to Tottenham Hotspur FC for being a shithead. But what makes him a shithead in the first place means he most probably wont apologize. Now he can say his sorries to a certain suralex old fart, and he better watch out for a sublime kung foo boot kick from the old one.
laG, I will feel NOTHING if he signs for the ARSEs. He will just be playing in his true ARSE colors, does that surprise anyone anymore?
Lets hope it gets to the point that he gets a chance to apologize to his team mates and the fans, like most of you I can't still fathom the way he left.I've been a fan for almost 40 years and want to see success in my lifetime !!
Never seen Berbatof celebrate any goal like he did after his cup final penalty, the vains in his head almost burst.
Every single player will state that they love their club, but in reality they will follow their careers, and I can't begrudge them that if they give their all on the pitch when they play in our shirt. Maybe they do care about us, but their own careers will come first. Most people think the same way about their own professions - I do care about my customers or my patients, but that doesn't mean I will refuse a better job if offered. Keane went to Liverpool not because they were his boyhood club (and they are, I have heard this from a good source and many Celtic fans are Liverpool fans too) and he loved us less, but because he wasn't getting any younger and he needed to play at the very top. That means CL football and challenging for the title. We did not exactly resist when we heard what Liverpool were offering. That doesn't mean he or Berbatov never liked or cared for us and our support, but that they valued their career more. Fans may be sentimental, but few players feel the same (let's face it, do you love your workplace enough to refuse a more glamorous and lucrative career elsewhere, one that actually gives you the chance to fulfill your dreams?).
Berba's case was a little different because he actively undermined our dressing room with his attitude and refusal to play. I do not begrudge him the move to a title challenging club, because that is what his talents deserve, not playing with the likes of Jenas and Zokora. He was 28 and his best years were coming to a close, and rather correctly realized that we were going nowhere under Ramos. Let's not forget that even Man Utd are a selling club when the right offer comes in. I simply question his professionalism when he undermines our team for his own goals. I don't consider him a "Judas" because he has no reason to think of us as anything other than an employer, but I do consider him a grossly unprofessional prick.
I would not take him back, because even though he has not genuinely been underperforming by much in Utd, he would not fit into our team ethic now, his best years are behind him, and he would receive abuse from the crowd that would ruin his confidence further. We are a new team now, let's look to the future rather than the past.
My theory regarding Berbatov is this. Man Utd are just too dominant in terms of territory and this compresses play to such an extend that Berbatov has little room to operate. Play is so compressed tha he constantly finds himself by the penalty spot waiting for delivery.....Ronaldo often failed to pass last season and Rooney is also greedy. When Berbatov was with us teams would attack us more often and Berbatov benefitted from the space as we counterattacked. Would love him back at Spurs he would be a class addition. BTW where was the evidence that he refused to play for us?
"Would he be able to work with Defoe? Who knows.".....we know...he use to play with him on and off..sometimes they gelled other times not...The Judas did work very well with Keano,but we dont want a guy at WHL who was told 3 times by the coach to warm up and looked peed off when he was waiting for his Manchester train.Totally unprofessional for a guy on 60+K a week....mind you there are vacancies at London Zoo in the Squirrel House
He's a great player, no doubt. I can't help think he's being a tad suffocated at United because he's not the considered talisman there.
What goes around come around comes around I'm afraid, the way he sulked on the subs bench refusing to come on. I personally hope he rots in hell, no one player is bigger than the club and berbatoss felt he was bigger than spurs. Personal arrogance, the way he swaggered through old trafford on deadline day with fergie was disgraceful. I've nothing against a player wanting to move on and win things. But his disrespect to the fans and the club as a whole was beyond sickening, like a kick in the nuts to everyone that paid good money to watch him week in week out.
Only good thing that came out of it, is that we made an absolute killing on the deal, best bit of business Mr Levy apart from getting rid of oneday R@mos and getting in arry to replace him.
COYS!!!
Berbatov behaved like a complete cunt. One season is all we got out of him where he was content and playing with a smile. Second season he wanted away and played and scored but all the internal politics didn't help much, probably influenced the whole Jol v Comolli/Kemsley problems too. Glad we got rid of him. We looked too him far too often and we are a far better team now even with so many individual flair players in the side.
Well spooks, no pullitzer this time, but it's done the trick.
I think that of all the argements for and against, it woud send out the wrong message from the club to take a player back under the circumstances.
And even though it's all academic, it makes for decent banter.
Berbatoss peaked with us, now it's downhill all the way and he can't do as he likes as Rednose is no Jol.
Hmm. Response to 'Postiga', Judas genes do not run in my blood. All I am saying (quite correctly) that to a football player it is just another job. Let's NOT be hypocrites here. If you had a chance to leave your job for a more successfully company, in a more senior role, with superior salary YOU ALL would go. Football is a very short career - 15 years for most. Player movements are more condensed. I have shown great loyalty to the companies that I work for - I stayed for 6 years with no pay rise - because I liked the company and was getting great experience. But eventually I had to move on. Keane had this chance and took it. As for him declaring love for Spurs, then leaving - well, you all should know by now NOT to believe what football players and managers say. The microphone is shoved in their face more and more, and they just end up saying what they are 'supposed to say' rather than what they really feel. We should show Keane some respect - he doesn't celebrate goals against his old teams. Look at Adebayor vs Arsenal! In short, I agree with you Postiga anyway - Berba no - not because I have grudge, but it won't be the same.
Before he left I predicted to a few Yid mates that he'd never amount to much at ManU in the same way as Henry would struggle to shine at Barca. At Spurs he was THE man; the big fish in a small pond. Exactly the same as Henry at Arsenal. At Spurs it was simple; one tactic: give the ball to Berbatov. He was the centre of the world (on the pitch). Everytime we got the ball, just give it to him. The same as Henry at Arsenal; get the ball give it to Henry. Then Henry left to go to Barca to play CL but when he got there they had Messi, Eto'o Xavi, Ronaldinho etc. He was just another player, another fish in a very big pond. He was not THE man. Exactly the same as Berbatov at United. He was never going to be THE man, not when they already had Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez etc. He was always going to be just another player and they certainly weren't going change the way they play just to make him look good.
Fergie has a habit of buying players purely because they do well against United - Berbatov always pulled out all the stops against them, clearly auditoning himself. Fergie also has a habit of buying players who competing teams want (Man City for example) regardless of whether they actually suit United's needs. For Berbatov to not realise that he wasn't going to be the big star there suggests that he's either very naive, very badly advised or is just happy to pick up his pay packet and have some medals and trophies to his name, if so, good luck to him.
Anyway, I digress. Would I have him back? Berbs from the first season; the style, the swagger, the skill? Hell yes! He would be the difference between a godo team and a great team. But ultimately it would depend whether the player wants to play for us or not. Clearly he saw us as a stepping stone in his career and at the time he was a better player than those around him and it was no real shock that United wanted him (and for £30m don't forget). If he came back now would he commit the rest of his career to us? Would he see us as matching his ambition and ability? Or would it be just another shop window for a "bigger" European team? It seems a bit pointless getting a player in who is gonna jump ship the moment a better offer comes along.
Personally I can't see 'arry going for it - he likes a settled dressing room with all players pulling in the same direction. What I don't know however and what is probably of most importantance is how the current squad feel about him? Did they get on with him? Did he leave on good terms? Did the players have sympathy with him over the way that Levy dicked him about? Or did they feel let down and betrayed by his historionics and glad to see the back of him?
I fully expect to see him shipped out by United in the summer, most probably to a Spanish or Italian where he'll see out the rest of his career very comfortably thank you very much but achieving very little.
Let him rot. i deteste this twat. he can burn in hell for me
I for one was gutted when Berba left, his first season great, but by the second (as many have said) his head had been turned. Call it karma, but not many ex spurs go onto greater things, yes playing at Man Utd, but playing better? Has Carrick turned into a better player? I would not take Berba back, and i had my doubts about Keane's return, who it seems cant get a game now.
No. Berbatov is utter scum.
I"VE SUPPORTED TOTTENHAM FOR 36 YEARS AND I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT I CAN NOW SEE WHY OTHER
SUPPORTERS SLAG SOME OF OUR FANS OFF. BERBATOV USED US TO GET TO UTD AS NO ONE ELSE WOULD
GIVE HIM A CHANCE. THE WAGES HE WAS ON,BUT COULDNT BE BOTHERED PLAYING AS WE WERE NOT GIVING INTO HIS DEMANDS FOR HIS MOVE TO UTD.I PERSONALLY HOPE HE ROTS IN UNITEDS RESERVES.THAT WOULD BE TO GOOD FOR HIM.HE SHOWED NO RESPECT FOR US COMING TO WATCH HIM PLAY IN THE TEAM,EVEN THOUGH WE WERE PAYING HIS WAGES.I CAN STILL SEE HIS SMUG LOOK AT OLD TRAFFORD ON THAT TRANSFER DAY. YEP! DEF ROT IN THERE RESERVES.SHOWED US NO RESPECT.I CAN SEE THE SAME WITH PAV, CANT GET A GAME,SO SAYS HE THINKS ARRY IS TAKING THE MICK OUT OF HIM.THIS IS COMING FROM A BLOKE ON GOOD WAGES WHO CANT EVEN BLOODY LEARN THE LINGO.ARRY
THEN CALLED HIS BLUFF ,TELLING EVERYONE THAT PAV COULDNT PLAY WHEN ASKED TO AT CUP GAME AGAINST MAN U, AS HE SAID HIS HEAD WASNT RIGHT TO PLAY.I KNOW WHAT I WOULD DO WITH HIM IF I WAS ARRY.ID BUY HIM THE ONE WAY TICKET TO RUSSIA MYSELF. CAN YOU IMAGINE KEITHY BURKINSHAWS FACE IF GRAHAM ROBERTS TURNED AROUND TO HIM AND SAID,I CANT PLAY TODAY KEITH,MY HEADS NOT RIGHT.IF YOU MOAN THAT YOUR ON THE BENCH AND NOT GETTING A GAME,THEN COME OUT WITH THAT.THEN I HOPE YOU NEVER EVER PULL ON THE LILYWHITE SHIRT AGAIN.I STILL CANT BELIEVE HE GOT A STANDING OVATION ON SATURDAY EVEN THOUGH HE SULKS LIKE BERBATOV DID.BY MAKING STORIES UP,BUT REALLY HE COULDNT BE BOTHERED PLAYING 4 US AT MAN U.WHILST IM HERE,THERES ONE THING THAT IS REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF.THE TREATMENT OF KEANE FROM SOME OF OUR SUPPOSED FANS.I KNOW HE IS GOING THREW A BAD PATCH AT THE MOMENT, BUT GETTING ON HIS BACK WONT HELP HIM REDISCOVER HIS FORM.WE HAVE TO GET BEHIND ALL THE BOYS WHO PULL ON THE FAMOUS LILYWHITE
SHIRT ON MATCH DAYS,EITHER ON THE PITCH OR ON THE BENCH.WE ARE 4TH,AND THESE IDIOT FEW ARE GOING TO HELP FUCK UP OUR CHANCES OF GETTING A C/L SPOT,COS YOU ARE ONLY HELPING THE OTHER TEAM BY SLAGGING OFF OUR OWN PLAYERS,AND DISRUPTING OUR TEAM SPIRIT.I WOULD LIKE TO SHOUT
OUT AT JENAS THAT I THINK HES CRAP.HE HAS 1 GOOD GAME IN 5,BUT I DONT,COS AT THAT TIME HE IS OUT THERE TRYING? HIS BEST TO HELP MY BELOVED TOTTENHAM TO WIN THE GAME.ALL IM SAYING IS TO ALL GET BEHIND THE BOYS FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON,AND GET THIS C/L SPOT.AND THE SPURS GO MARCHING ON,
I think Keane was 1 million times worse than Berba, he CRIED when we won the CCF. CRIED. Then left. FFS. That is a hypocrite if you are looking for one.
I'd have him back tomorrow.
Nayim: ''Fergie has a habit of buying players other teams (Man City) want????''
What rubbish! United were tracking Berba for 2 seasons. City weren't linked with him once during that time. Suddenly, when their new owners took over they decided they would scupper our bid for him. On the LAST DAY of the transfer window. So, if anything, City have a habit of trying to sign players that other teams want. Liverpool - Tevez - another example. Now they want Di Maria, who we are interested in!
United fan here - in peace. Very good blog. Would like to make a couple of additional points -
- Ronaldo didn't leave us like Berba left you. He never refused to play. Still maintains good relations with fans. Did lie through his teeth about wanting to stay though - which doesn't make me want to put him on the same pedestal as Keano/Giggsy/Scholesy...but we would take him back if he so wished. No doubt about it!
- Someone referred to the tactics. More space on the counter for Berba at Spurs you say? The man refuses to be part of any counter attack at United. Too slow on the break!
- Finally. Less of the 'United fans aren't from Manchester' and ManURE tripe please. You are a decent club and nowhere near our direct rivals. Leave the hating to the Leeds retards will you?
Good luck for 4th place. Hope you beat City and Liverpool to it. Also, must admit, you've played very good football this season. Cheers. Now could we strike a deal of Modric please?
YOU CAN HAVE HIM. WE DON'T WANT HIM OR CARRICK. THEY'RE BOTH TOO CRAP FOR UNITED.
Now that's a good idea. We could swap Modric for Carrick, (as you rate him so much) and Keane for Berbatov. What do you think?
You can keep Keane and all the other wannabe scousers, thank you very much. Berba for Modric could be feasible, although I wouldn't part with Carrick just yet, not until we sign a better replacement at least. He along with Fletcher forms our first choice central midfield pairing at the moment.