Was the Berbatov signing a mistake?Shouldnt we have just signed Tevez?

MikeeMike

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Oct 7, 2017
Messages
592
Berbatov was nowhere near in contention for starting that CL final. Not a chance. Owen was a better argument to start hence why Berbatov didn’t even make the squad. Berbatov was also not in Tevez’s league in 2010/11 even despite the goal figures most of them came in 3 games against Blackburn, Liverpool and Birmingham.
I disagree. No idea why he didn’t even make the bench. Owen started ? I thought he was on bench the whole game?
 

Offside

Euro 2016 sweepstake winner
Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
26,627
Location
London
I disagree. No idea why he didn’t even make the bench. Owen started ? I thought he was on bench the whole game?
I’m saying Owen was a better argument to start a game against Barcelona. Hernandez and Rooney started.
 

TwoSheds

More sheds (and tiles) than you, probably
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Messages
12,739
Yeah we should have signed Tevez but feck it, the bloke's a cnut and his agent even moreso. Berbatov did ok for us, certainly wasn't the reason City overtook us even though Tevez clearly helped them become serious. We would have still had his golfing exploits and the other bullshit that City put up with at some point and had to get rid anyway.
 

Maticmaker

Full Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2018
Messages
4,617
Never thought about it being one or the other, Berbatov wanted to sign, Tevez didn't, was the way I read it.

I would have preferred Tevez to have stayed, because he was definitely a big match player, where as Berbatov for all his silky skills, just didn't turn up in big games, the Man City FA Cup semi for one, two glorious chances both squandered, don't think SAF ever forgave him after that.
Although in all honesty, one Berba 'miss' was really down to a stupendous save from Joe Hart.
 

MrSingh2002

New Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2013
Messages
4,408
Huge mistake. Have a was the one and Berba was a flop.

The Berba at Spurs was incredible.
 

davidmichael

Full Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Messages
3,373
It wasn’t a mistake to sign Berbatov, the mistake was to prioritise Berbatov starting ahead of Tevez as Rooney and Tevez gave us that non stop work ethic on the pitch and had a good partnership which was needed in our post Ronaldo team.

I think Berbatov gave us a different option up top which is always needed for the varied style of other teams but Rooney and Tevez together as the two main men withour having to play second fiddle to Ronaldo should have been the way we went.

In a different thread I said we should have told Real that we’d give them Ronaldo but we wanted £80 million plus Robben as they wanted rid of Robben (I think they took €20-€25 million for him from Bayern) and an interchangeable attacking trio of Rooney, Robben and Tevez would have only been bettered in Europe by Barca (Messi, Eto’o and Pedro) and Real (Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema) in my opinion but not by much.
 

NotoriousISSY

$10mil and I fecked it up!
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
16,277
Location
up north
Should've sold Ronaldo in 2008, signed Tevez on a permanent deal, Berba and another winger (given £30m or so still bought you fantastic players).

Holding onto Ronaldo for 12 months had no real fairytale ending, and whilst he was still playing at a high level, it was far from 07/08.
 

dmode

Full Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2002
Messages
5,083
Location
vega
Berbatov was my favorite player... return on benefits when he destroyed Liverpool... was so happy when all my lfc friends said respect. He was classy as well as his play.
 

MancunianAngels

Full Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
2,415
Location
Manchester
Supports
FC United
Should've sold Ronaldo in 2008, signed Tevez on a permanent deal, Berba and another winger (given £30m or so still bought you fantastic players).

Holding onto Ronaldo for 12 months had no real fairytale ending, and whilst he was still playing at a high level, it was far from 07/08.
That’s a fair shout actually

Though you could argue that financial problems were just starting to hit in 2008.
 

NotoriousISSY

$10mil and I fecked it up!
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
16,277
Location
up north
That’s a fair shout actually

Though you could argue that financial problems were just starting to hit in 2008.
Agreed.

Just kind of going by what Tevez's agent said regarding the money used to sign Berba would've been used to sign Tevez had we not bought him.

Maybe the extra winger would have been unachievable, though we had Nani and Rooney often played on the left at that point to accommodate Ronaldo.

Whatever the scenario, once Ronaldo's head was in Madrid and we didn't tie down arguably our second best attacker in the 08 season, it was always an uphill battle.
 

simplyared

Full Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Messages
4,349
Location
somewhere ouside the UK
Tevez never produced for us what he did at City. Looking at his history he obviously needs to be handled in a certain way otherwise the toys get thrown out of the pram. Remember Fergy heaping praise on him calling him a lion for his commitment on the field. Nevertheless he was a different player at city. Their main striker and key man. Why we couldn't get the same out of him? God knows! With hindsight we missed out and should never have let him go and signed him up. Berbatov's tenure with us wasn't great. So imv the whole episode was a mistake. It would be interesting to hear how SAF reflects on that today.
 
Last edited:

Ainu

Full Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2008
Messages
10,130
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
Should've sold Ronaldo in 2008, signed Tevez on a permanent deal, Berba and another winger (given £30m or so still bought you fantastic players).

Holding onto Ronaldo for 12 months had no real fairytale ending, and whilst he was still playing at a high level, it was far from 07/08.
Ronaldo contributed massively to another league title and reaching another CL final. His wonder goal against Porto, his counter attacking performance against Arsenal, he had so many moments of brilliance that holding on to him for another year was easily justified.
 

Welbeckham

Full Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2013
Messages
1,552
I think it was a big mistake, made us much more static and predictable, we should have tried to build around players with lots of energy and skill like Tevez because that was a real strenght for us. Our signing policy in the last few years of Sir Alex was far from great actually. We got a bit too stuck on signing PL proven players and total punta, missing out on likes of Aguero, Silva, maybe even Robben who were totally realistic and logical signings for us at the time. We got a bit too comfortable back then, not strenghtening the squad properly, but Fergie was good enough to get away with it most of the time.
 

padzilla

Hipster
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
3,329
As much as I loved Berbatov he struck me as a vanity signing simply because we could. Tevez's behaviour however was pretty lousy though. When he held up the RIP Fergie sign it kind of summed up what a cnut he was. Not someone I am especially disappointed about not signing.
 

Jeppers7

Pogfamily Mafia
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
7,287
Ronaldo contributed massively to another league title and reaching another CL final. His wonder goal against Porto, his counter attacking performance against Arsenal, he had so many moments of brilliance that holding on to him for another year was easily justified.
The longer you hold on to a player like Ronaldo the better, to argue the opposite is plain stupid.
 

Jeppers7

Pogfamily Mafia
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
7,287
Feel Tevez was overrated for us. He held the ball too long. Ran into cul de sacs, shot from places he should’ve been passing in regularly. He ran a lot though and we love that. He wasn’t the player for us he was at city, but he wouldn’t have got a game for the current city team as he needed to be built around and be allowed to be extremely individual.

Berbatov was a good, not great signing. He looked like he’d be perfect for us, he had the ability perhaps not the mindset.
 

PeteManic

Full Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2012
Messages
2,152
A lot (if not all!) of Fergie's forward signings were him sitting in his office on his computer GASing* for another striker.

He would have signed all of them if he could.

And once he has finished with one he was on to the next one.

* GAS = Gear Acquisition Syndrome.Typical problem for musicians.
 

El Jefe

Full Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
4,855
How is this still a debate? It should've ended on the first page with everyone agreeing. At the time I was happy to let Tevez go as I wanted Berba desperately but I was clearly wrong.

It's true that Tevez at United wasn't the same as the one at City and Juve but he was getting there. The preseason before we signed Berba, Tevez was amazing and looking like the version he became but Berba coming in affected him.

In 2008/09 our team would've have been far better without Berbatov, he had a similar impact on our attack that Sanchez did when he joined in 2018.
 

Amir

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2000
Messages
24,831
Location
Rehovot, Israel
Berbatov was my favorite player... return on benefits when he destroyed Liverpool... was so happy when all my lfc friends said respect. He was classy as well as his play.
For me it's the same as people saying Owen was worth it just for the goal against City.

Yes, they had their moments, and Berbatov especially was a classy player, but there were faults in both deals and they may well have cost us trophies. For me, no win against City or Liverpool are worth that.
 

jeff_goldblum

Full Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
3,917
I think Berbatov was Fergie trying to diversify his forward line and revert back to a previously successful formula. Fergie probably saw Berbatov as offering something different (akin to Cantona/Sheringham), whilst Tevez was quite similar stylistically to Rooney but, at the time, far less productive.

I think ultimately the issue with Berbatov was that he wasn't good enough to build a game plan around (like Ronaldo was), wasn't versatile or hardworking enough to do a job in a team where he wasn't the focal point (like Rooney did when Ronaldo was here) and didn't have the sort of mentality where he'd be happy being back-up (which, to be fair, is rare in strikers of that quality).

As a signing to improve the squad and diversify our options he was a solid choice, but at that time we needed a signing to immediately improve the starting XI and Berbatov wasn't that guy. Tevez probably would have been more useful, but keeping him still would have been standing still when he needed to move forward.
 

manutddjw

Full Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
3,695
Location
Canada
With regards to Tevez, I can of look at it as a dodged bullet in hindsight. He's a moody prick who can't seem to find happiness anywhere. He left his beloved Boca Juniors twice, disrespected City even after they allowed him to make them look small time, complained about being homesick at Juventus and was a complete unprofessional at that Chinese club who was paying him a fortune. Had he stayed longer at Corinthians and West Ham, I'm sure he'd have a problem with them too. While he was here he openly tried to get the fans to see Sir Alex as the enemy with regards to his signing. Even if we did sign him and Berbatov didn't arrive, history shows we would've had issues down the line any way.

Where we made a mistake was not taking advantage of our status as the top club in the world at the time and gotten someone better. Zlatan, Villa or even exercising our first refusal option on Forlan before he went to Atletico would've been a better options than what we did.
 

SadlerMUFC

Thinks for himself
Joined
Dec 7, 2017
Messages
5,746
Location
Niagara Falls, Canada
He was pretty awful in the second half of the season, and more than half of his goals that season came in three matches (Blackburn x5, Liverpool x3, and I believe Newcastle x3). For many many games, he was quite unproductive, and Chicharito deservedly replaced him in the lineup (also Berbatov did feck all in Europe). He wasn't even being considered to start the final, in fact, despite him being our top scorer that season (though with only one more goal than rookie Chicharito who played less than him), he didn't even make the squad for the final.

He was a great player to watch and had his moments (especially against Liverpool), but his sexy first touch make people forget that he was a very inconsistent and ineffective player, who was a non-factor in most of our big matches.
I remember getting into arguments back then about Berbatov and bringing up the stats at the time. While I don't remember them exactly or feel like going through it again, it was something like we were scoring 3+ goals per game in matches that Berbatov started (regardless of whether or not he scored) but scoring less than 2 when he didn't start. The biggest problem with Berbatov wasn't Berbatov. It was United supporters who had trouble getting behind a player who doesn't run all over the place. United supporters were the same way with Carrick. They wanted a pitbull in holding midfield and never truly appreciated him until after he retired...
 

georgipep

Full Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2015
Messages
2,471
Location
Not far enough
I remember getting into arguments back then about Berbatov and bringing up the stats at the time. While I don't remember them exactly or feel like going through it again, it was something like we were scoring 3+ goals per game in matches that Berbatov started (regardless of whether or not he scored) but scoring less than 2 when he didn't start. The biggest problem with Berbatov wasn't Berbatov. It was United supporters who had trouble getting behind a player who doesn't run all over the place. United supporters were the same way with Carrick. They wanted a pitbull in holding midfield and never truly appreciated him until after he retired...
The sad realization is that if fans (in their majority) knew anything about football, at least some % of them would make successful careers in a football-related profession (coaching, management, scouting, analysis, even journalism) but I hope I don't have to be the one to tell people that is simply not true :)

I imagine my job also looks stupid-easy for an outsider but would love to grab a bucket of popcorn, sit back and just watch somebody else sweat bullets trying to do what I do. It's very easy being an armchair pundit and expert.
 

berbatrick

Renaissance Man
Scout
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
21,539
He was pretty awful in the second half of the season, and more than half of his goals that season came in three matches (Blackburn x5, Liverpool x3, and I believe Newcastle x3). For many many games, he was quite unproductive, and Chicharito deservedly replaced him in the lineup (also Berbatov did feck all in Europe). He wasn't even being considered to start the final, in fact, despite him being our top scorer that season (though with only one more goal than rookie Chicharito who played less than him), he didn't even make the squad for the final.

He was a great player to watch and had his moments (especially against Liverpool), but his sexy first touch make people forget that he was a very inconsistent and ineffective player, who was a non-factor in most of our big matches.
since this or similar has been said 100 times, i'm just repeating too:

He scored 19 in the 24 starts he got which is a genuine golden boot ratio, even if it was uneven (spread over 11 games; 11 scoring games in 24 is a much better-looking ratio than 11 in 38).

And he improved the team as a whole. In those 24 starts we scored 53 (2.2gpg)and in the remaining 14 games, including with Rooney-Hernandez played consistently at the end of the season, there were only 11 goals scored (0.8 gpg). I'm not counting the 3 goals scored when Berba was subbed off for the games he started or the 8 scored after he was subbed on when he didn't start.
Put another way, when he was on the pitch we scored 61 goals, and without him, only 17 the whole season.
stats taken from here and the goal times taken from wiki.
 
Last edited:

RedDevilCanuck

Quite dreamy - blue eyes, blond hair, tanned skin
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
8,396
Location
The GTA
It was a horrible mistake not at least giving him 20 mins in the CL final.

He was a master of keeping the ball. We could have used that hold up play to unleash Valencia or Nani. Fergie got that wrong. We just couldn't get the ball and when we did we lost it right away. Barbatov doesn't lose the ball cheaply ever.

But then again Fergie was let down by Berbatov as when Rooney got injured in 2010 the stage was set for Berbatov to really rescue the title and the FA Cup but was terrible against City in the Cup and he missed a few chances against Bolton (I think it was Bolton, maybe Blackburn? Valencia also missed a 1 on 1 in the match).

I think Fergie wanted Berbatov out after the City game.
 

Scarecrow

Having a week off
Joined
Feb 6, 2012
Messages
12,293
I don't think it should've been one or the other. I loved the first half of 08/09 when we had both and the two of them had some good chemistry early on. They both had some issues in the second half of the season.

I believe we wanted to keep Tevez and I don't know what his problem was. He was already a pretty big part of our attack and would've only gotten more chances as Ronaldo was leaving and Giggs was getting less and less time on the wing.

I think we would'vé won another title in 09/10 if Tevez had stayed.
 
Last edited: