Daniel Levy has attacked Dimitar Berbatov for treating
Tottenham Hotspur with disrespect, telling the striker that the
club put him on the footballing map.
Levy: Blaming Berbatov for Spurs woeful start
Tottenham chairman Levy is still bitter over Berbatov's
summer transfer saga to Manchester United after the Bulgaria
international refused to play in the Barclays Premier League
matches against Sunderland and Chelsea.
"We had a player who had refused to play two games for us,
having a detrimental affect on the dressing-room," said Levy. "We'd
known for a year that the player had wanted out of this club."
Levy revealed that Berbatov wanted to move to Old Trafford one
year after arriving from Bayer Leverkusen. "We were very
disappointed," Levy said.
"Dimitar Berbatov was a player who we brought to this club at a
time when Man Utd were interested in him. He made a conscious
decision to come to this club, we invested a lot of money, nobody
had ever heard of Dimitar Berbatov when we bought him.
"A year later with 10 days to go to the end of the window he
tells us he wants to leave to go to Manchester United." Levy feels
Berbatov's conduct then - and a year later when he eventually moved
for £30million - amounted to treating Tottenham with contempt.
"I don't think he treated this club with the respect that we
honestly deserved," he added. "We put him on the map, I think he's
an outstanding player, but he signed a long-term contract with this
club and I think he should have stayed.
"I had so many conversations with him. He kept saying it was
about his ambition to play for Manchester United. It wasn't a money
issue. We offered him a new contract and he wasn't even interested
in discussing it."