Berbatov : Spurs Made Him Rot in the Reserve...

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 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.