How Spurs Got it All Wrong With Dimitar Berbatov
By: Daryl | August 26th, 2008
Think it’s safe to say that the Dimitar Berbatov situation has gone from “annoying” to “ridiculous”, with Spurs threatening to let the player rot in the reserves unless Man Utd meet their £30 million valuation. So basically, Dimitar Berbatov would be the new Winston Bogarde. Not good. And not very realistic either.
Spurs have come so close to playing this thing right, but have gotten it so very wrong. The blueprint for not selling a player has been laid out clearly by Martin O’Neill with the Gareth Barry saga. You put a massive transfer fee on the players head and you say “this is how much we want and not a penny less.”
Then either the buying club pays the massive fee, or they don’t. If they do, then you get an obscene amount of money. If they don’t, then the club clearly don’t want the player that badly and you get to keep him.
But that whole approach goes out the window if you start treating the player like he has a contagious disease.
First Ramos left Berbatov on the bench for Spurs’ opening game against Middlesbrough. They lost. Then Ramos left Berbatov out of the squad entirely for the game against Sunderland. They lost. Now Spurs are threatening to let him rot in the reserves, in which case everybody loses.
Now Spurs have gone nuclear by ostracizing the striker completely there’s a good chance they’ll have to accept a reduced bid from Old Trafford. Maybe around £25 million or so. Tottenham have essentially forced their own hand because now Berbatov is useless to them as a footballer.
Had Spurs played Berbatov from the start of the season, things wouldn’t be so bad. The Bulgarian would be an unsettled Spurs player who Man Utd wanted to buy instead of what he is now: a player who’s already finished at Spurs who Man Utd want to buy. Clearly the former is going to cost more than the latter.
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Category: English Premier League
Tags: Aston Villa, Dimitar Berbatov, English Premier League, Gareth Barry, Juande Ramos, Man Utd, Manchester United, Spurs, Tottenham HotspurSubscribe
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Comments | Add your comment
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This is another piece of lazy journalism obviously written by someone who doesn’t have the first understanding of what has gone on with spurs. The berbatov situation is totally different to the Barry saga as Barry was still willing to play for villa and when told he would not move accepted it. Berba on the other hand has done nothing but thry to unsettle the dressing room and the bench ever since. And when he has played he has looked like he would rather not be there at all.
Posted from
United Kingdom
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Rubbish!
The difference here is that Barry was professional enough to continue playing AND produce performances to demonstrate that. Berbatov has been useless in a Spurs shirt from the pre-season and the straw that broke was he told Ramos he wasn’t in the “right frame of mind” to play.Do you really think it’s the same as Barry?
Posted from
United Kingdom -
This is an absolutely awful article as Barry is a different player to Berbatov and has a very different personality. Berbatov was never going to put 100% into the Spurs cause once his head was turned. The journalist who wrote this should find a new day job I believe.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Ballacks let the sulk rot, we dont need the dirty mancs money.
Posted from
United States -
THIS IS NOT ABOUT BERBATOV IT GOES DEEPER THAN THE SALE OF THE SULK ITS ABOUT FRGUSON USING DOUBLE STANDARDS IN TRANSFERS REMEBER WHAT HE SAID TO LIVERPOOL NO WAY WILL I LET HEINZE SIGN FOR A RIVAL CLUB REMEBER WHAT HE SAID ABOUT REAL MADRID THEY ARE OUT OF ORDER TAPPING UP MY PLAYER THEN HE BLAMES THE SUN FOR BERBATOV INSULTING AND HE IS GRINNING WHEN HE IS ASK WHO HE IS SIGNING CHILDISH THIS IS ABOUT A MAN WITH A BIG EGO WHO CANT BE BOTHERED TAKING A GAMBLE ON PLAYERS AND WOULD BE THE SECOND TIME HE HAS DAMAGED SPURS TOP 4 AMBITIONS REMEMBER WHO CAME OF THE PITCH FIRST WHEN WE WERE GOING FOR 4 SPOT MR CARRICK THE HE WENT TO UTD WOULD SPURS HAVE LET HIM GO IF WE HAD WON THE ANSWER IS NO SO DONT JUDGE SPURS LOOK DEEPER INTO FERGIES MIND NEXT YEAR IT COULD BE GOMES WOODGATE MODERICK WE HAVE TO MAKE A STANT TO THE AROGANT ONE WHO HAS AHD 2 PLAYERS SHROUDED IN DRUG SCANDELS FERDINAND AND STAM MMM ?
Posted from
United States -
The difference is between Berbatov and Barry. Spurs are following a similar line to Villa but the character of Barry is a lot different.
Posted from
United States -
Oh. The one thing Spurs should have done is clearly indicated what the price is - like what Villa did.
Posted from
United States -
haha great story, did you write something similar about Wayne Rooney? ManUre supporter by chance
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Utter rubbish, Barry was fined and also banished from the first team squad at Villa. Spurs are playing this just right. At the end if they sign the strikers they say want to and still have Berbatov on sale come January, even if goes for 15mil, it will be the best thing for the game, after all in England Spurs are often the trend setters for anything new, the 1st to win the double, the first to bring foreign stars to England etc etc etc.I trust in our management, they will make their point that it is 30mil and no less, ManU supporters will always try to sway matters their way by claiming the upper hand, sorry not on this one, if you want him dig in deeper!The way i see it Saha might be part of the deal.
Posted from
United States -
This is an absolutely pile of crap story where do you make this stuff up I suggest the hack sorry i mean journalist read this article which is from a football fan albeit a manc
http://www.footballfancast.com/blog/tottenham/hope-spurs-succeed-where-others-continually-fail/4956Posted from
United Kingdom -
Y’know what? Spurs should ship Berbatov to Barcelona at a discount. That would pretty much guarantee that he’ll never darken the doors at White Hart Lane again.
Posted from
United States -
Excellent article ~ I agree completely. While Berba remains a Spurs player, you play him and keep him involved, every game. That keeps both morale AND his value up. I wish they’d just sell him so Ramos can get on with rebuilding the squad. Levy is doing a great job but I feel he can be a bit overzealous. He’s putting principle over Spurs, in my opinion.
Posted from
Ireland -
Hey Daryl dont quit ur day job, this is a terrible article!
Only people who would agree with you are Arsenal, Manure and Chelski supporters!
Posted from
United States -
Tottenham should play Berbatov at Chelsea, and remind him before he goes out that if he intentionally plays awful and sulks around the field that he’s torpedoing his own reputation as well as Spurs’.
Posted from
United States -
Lot of Irish on here. Anyone doing any work in this country?
Posted from
Ireland -
I love the personal attacks this kind of story calls up. It’s never “I disagree and here’s why.” It’s “You, personally, are such an effing idiot.”
What I love about this site, normally, is that people offer up reasoned and intelligent debate. But I guess every once in awhile we need comments like those on this post to make us appreciate the fact that the majority of our readers are thoughtful and intelligent.
Posted from
United States -
Take it easy on Daryl you fucking bastards. On the surface, at least, there are many similarities and the point still stands: “Tottenham have essentially forced their own hand because now Berbatov is useless to them as a footballer.”
Posted from
United States -
I think that there is a big problem in the football of today, players think that they are greater then the club, big misstake, now and in the future…they have massive contracts and earning alot of money..and wait what is that signature on the bottom line.. do the clubs force the players and their agents with a gun to sign the contracts??… simply seems like a contracts is worth nothing, sulk your way out of it!!!
Posted from
Sweden -
Laurie, I don’t understand the slight against our readers. Most of the people — six I count — have presented evidence for their argument against this piece, to which I must say I agree.
For me, it was Berbatov that forced Tottenham’s hand, not the opposite.Posted from
United States -
did someone import a bunch of angry tottenham supporters or is it just the same person 8 times?
Posted from
United States -
You guys need to chill out. This article isn’t rubbish, Daryl clearly outlined the differences between the Barry and Berbatov case.
Posted from
United States -
As a spurs fan i would love to see him rot in the reserves hes total trash and signing a man u shirt he def deserves it!! spurs didn’t get it wrong at all.
Posted from
United States -
Anyone note the fact that those first three comments all have the following time stamps: 1st - 5:34 AM / 2nd - 5:37 AM / 3rd - 5:46 AM. Also figure in the fact that the comments are all punctuated, capitalized, and formatted relatively the same. Ya THINK that might be the same dude?
Besides, we’re only the 35th most powerful blog in the world. There are 34 others above us that the kiddie flaming would be more powerful on.
I mean, I know I’m clearly the best writer on the site, but I don’t need to bring Daryl down to prove that.
Posted from
United States
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