Tottenham Hotspur’s Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov has officially confirmed his desire to move to Manchester United.
He spoke for the first time about his wish to join United, urging Spurs to let him "follow my dream", guardian.co.uk said. Still, Berbatov insisted he wanted to leave the club on good terms.
“I’m still a Tottenham player, but no one can disagree with me wanting to follow my dream,” Berbatov was quoted as saying.
The striker hoped “the drawn-out transfer saga will be concluded this week, with the two clubs haggling over a fee in the region of between 25m pounds sterling and 28m pounds as well as the structure of the payments,” and the player's agent, Emil Danchev, has said he is preparing for the “most important week yet” in Berbatov’s career,” the newspaper said. “I read [Man Utd’s coach] Alex Ferguson’s statement that he wants another striker and I hope that this striker can be Dimitar Berbatov,” Danchev said.
According to media reports last week, United was hoping to attract Berbatov in time for the Premiership opening. Instead, he was a substitute in the Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough on August 16. Asked why he did not start with Berbatov, Tottenham manager Juande Ramos gave a contradictory and somewhat illogical answer, the newspaper said. “We went with Giovani [dos Santos] instead because we thought his speed would worry Middlesbrough […]But as Middlesbrough tired we thought it would be the right moment to substitute him and bring on Berbatov, he was quoted as saying.”
“It's not a hard period for me,” the newspaper quoted Berbatov as saying. “I still have a lot of friends at Tottenham and I'm not angry about Ramos naming me as a substitute. People say I looked unhappy but if I was laughing when I was on the bench, they would say I was an idiot.”
Guardian.co.uk said that United could have the striker for their next Premiership match against Portsmouth on August 25.
According to timesonline.co.uk, on August 15, Berbatov pleaded with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and sporting director Damien Comolli “to grant him his wish to be able to join United, but Levy is determined to make United pay 30 million pounds for the forward and will enjoy the thought that Ferguson’s desperation will have grown with yesterday’s [August 17] result.”
On the other hand, United’s need for attacking reinforcements “was exposed as they began their defence of the Barclays Premier League title with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United,” timesonline.co.uk said. Cristiano Ronaldo’s ankle injury, which will keep him off the field for six weeks and Carlos Tevez missing because of personal reasons, forced Ferguson to give a debut to Fraizer Campbell. He accompanied Wayne Rooney in the attack, who missed much of preseason with a virus, timesonline.co.uk said. Daily Mail quoted Ferguson as saying that “it’s not a disaster as there are 37 games left but we didn’t have any width or penetration.”
United have not made an official bid for Berbatov since the Spurs rejected a ?20.5 million offer in July, “but negotiations continue to take place through intermediaries, with the clubs expected to agree a fee in the region of 28 million pounds his week or, at the very latest, before the transfer window closes on September 1,” timesonline.co.uk said. According to telegraph.co.uk, United have reportedly offered Tottenham 25 million pounds for Berbatov.
