Manchester United have bid more than £20million for
Tottenham's Dimitar Berbatov in their first major move of the
summer. Sir Alex Ferguson has long been an admirer of the
27-year-old Bulgaria striker and wants to add him to his European
and domestic Double-winning attack.
Far from being a signing to ease the possible loss of Cristiano
Ronaldo, the manager is interested only in strengthening his side
and remains determined to keep the Portugal winger at Old Trafford.
It is a view shared by both the club-owning Glazer family and chief
executive David Gill, who have now granted Ferguson's
transfer-spending wish by taking the first serious step in trying
to lure Berbatov from Spurs.
The bid poses an interesting problem for Spurs, with all three
of their leading strikers now the subject of serious interest from
rivals in the Barclays Premier League. Rafa Benitez expressed his
desire this week to take Robbie Keane to Liverpool following Peter
Crouch's departure to Portsmouth, while Sunderland are pursuing
Darren Bent after Kenwyne Jones was ruled out for the rest of the
year with a knee injury.
Tottenham have made no secret of what they consider a fair price
for Berbatov. Daniel Levy, their hard-nosed chairman, has made it
clear he wants at least £30m but United have started the bidding at
a significantly lower level.
In their favour is a desire from the player to move to Old
Trafford. He cleared his locker at the Spurs training ground at the
end of last season and expected to have moved by now. It was
embarrassing for Berbatov to have to return for pre-season training
after no formal bids were lodged and he can be expected to push
hard for a move.
His agent Emil Dantchev claimed the striker wanted a transfer in
the January window and is hungry for Champions League football.
Tottenham appear resigned to his departure, with manager Juande
Ramos having admitted in May that he could not change Berbatov's
mind about his future.
Spurs will drive a hard bargain and are expected to ask for £25m
plus a player but should be willing to negotiate. Ramos is known to
be disappointed that his squad restructuring is not at a more
advanced stage for preseason fitness work, despite the arrivals of
Luca Modric and Giovanni dos Santos.
He also needs to raise more funds, with Espanyol striker Luis
Garcia a £9.5m target. Since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen for
£10.9m in July 2006, Berbatov has scored 46 goals in 91
appearances. He has also scored 28 goals in 47 games for Bulgaria.
If the deal goes through United will have a strikeforce of Wayne
Rooney, Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Berbatov which would be the envy
of world football.