I said when he left us I thought he'd fit in at Arsenal. 2m is a steal.
Berbatov | Fulham player
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The problem is Berbatov's not that great at winning headers. Great at holding the ball up but he's regularly beaten in the air and poses little to no threat aerially in the box.
He almost cost you the game by missing a sitter of a header.
He'll score shit loads for Arsenal against the weaker teams, I thought they should have signed him when he went to Fulham.
Yeh, that confirms my memory of him at United really. Aerial ability is so crucial for the striker in our system because otherwise we have no way of winning the ball from a goal kick. See the first 70 mins of yesterday's game. Also, we use Giroud as the first man at corners. I'm not sure how effective Berbatov would be, but another body could never hurt.
It strikes me that Arsenal have forgotten how to play without a target man. The way to fix that is either to buy another one or to teach the team how to play differently. One seems easier than the other.
That was Mertesacker, wasn't it?
Bendner missed an equally easy chance about 5 mins before he scored.
Oh. I must have been mistaken - I was at the game and haven't seen it all back.
Not sure I agree with that, he won plenty of headers for us at corners in defence.
Thought i'd share this video from Berba. You can see the frustration like he's reliving the whole thing.
Very good business by Arsenal if it happens.
I can certainly understand why Berbatov felt he was treated unfairly. He took his chances and scored goals, but was benched for the next match. I don't think he slowed down our game either, not more than our other attackers really. I liked him as a player, and he comes across as an intelligent character as well.
Arsenal can revive his career. He may be getting on a bit in terms of age, but he's never been dependent on pace in his game - although he is deceptively fast, much like RVP actually - which may give him a few more good years.
Arsenal can revive his career. He may be getting on a bit in terms of age, but he's never been dependent on pace in his game - although he is deceptively fast, much like RVP actually - which may give him a few more good years.
He's not going to score more than Giroud though, Berba is not a prolific scorer. He'll hold it up the same as Giroud has been doing. The one thing he'll give them is plenty of assists and clever passing around the box and his touch is of course still exquisite. At £2m or whatever he's still a steal for anyone in the Prem.
Thanks for sharing, great interview.
Berba is such a likeable character, it's unbeliveable. I feel sorry for him, I never understood Fergie in some situations also, and probably never will, but I am sure Berba didn't deserve this. I can't understand why was it so hard to explain to Berba why he didn't want him in the team, there is nothing more I hate when someone doesn't want to tell me something I need or want to know, or that I deserve to know. I guess those are the things that make Fergie one of the greatest, but I will probably never understood them.
To be honest, I don't think SAF handled Berbatov that unreasonably in the CL final. He rationalised his decision afterwards, and I feel it was very logical: he said that he favoured Owen over Berba because he was more capable of making an impact from the bench. I don't think anyone could dispute that.
I loved Berbatov when he was here, but you can't really judge him as a success. SAF shelled out a lot of money for him and he flattered to deceive. Very self indulgent interview by the player, IMO.
If this happens it would be a fantastic bit of buisness for Arsenal and Berba would fit the mould there perfectly IMO.
Wasn't this completely ruled out by Wenger?
I understand his decision about the CL final too, and I agree with it, but I was talking about the season after (2011/2012), where he barely played even when our strikers were injured, or were far from their best form. He was dropped for Hernandez who was in really poor form that season, it was actually his worst season for us so far, and still Berbatov barely got any game time even though he scored just 3 goals less then Hernandez, with lot less apps.
And interview isn't bad at all, if anything, once again he showed lot of respect for United and for Fergie. I know I would probably be lot more pissed in his situation.
Berbatov's stats at United are very misleading though - 156 games, 56 goals. To be honest, it's a fairly average record for a £30m striker, but a lot of those goals were plundered during streaky spells. He had some really long, barren runs.
Even in his Golden Boot season, he got 8 of his 20 goals in two games!
We are hearing one side if the story from that interview. But even though I never liked berbatov I was always surprised he was dropped completely for the final.
I always assumed relationship was beyond repair and he would leave that summer. Personally I think we tried to offload him but he dug his heals in and stayed that extra season. It was similar to Yorkes final season.
If Fergie has had enough of you, there is no way back and you need to leave ASAP
I always assumed relationship was beyond repair and he would leave that summer. Personally I think we tried to offload him but he dug his heals in and stayed that extra season. It was similar to Yorkes final season.
If Fergie has had enough of you, there is no way back and you need to leave ASAP
As I said, I was talking about his last season, where he was much better than Hernandez, and yet played much less minutes. It's not just the stats, even though the difference between him and Hernandez in that season statisticaly were too big, he scored goal every 74 minutes that season(but played just around 500 minutes in premierleague), and Hernandez scored goal every 149 minutes. It was the season where Hernandez was struggling with his touch, his all-around game was awfull, and yet he played whole the time. No matter how poor distribution of his goals was, he was much better player than Hernandez in that season.
I read that as 'his drug deals'....
I see where you are coming from, but just think that the Berba-boat had sailed by that point. He'd had his chances and had fluffed his lines. SAF was clearly looking to ship him out, as he didn't fit in with our style.
I know, that's why I said in my initial post that I didn't see point of lying it to him that he is still valuable member of the squad, when he clearly wasn't.
That was SAF's prerogative though. Harsh as it may seem, SAF needed to keep Berbatov around as back up, so he paid lip service.
Yeah, I agree with that too, but I still think that's unfair on Berbatov, or any other player, that's my whole point. You can't expect players in those situations to speak highly of Fergie after all that, and Berbatov still has a lot of respect for Fergie, probably more than anyone else would have in same situation.
I think for some players paying that bit of lip service would be enough and they'd just get on with it. For Berba, it wasnt
Always struck me as a panic buy despite interest all summer. I felt Anelka would have suited the tactics more than Berbatov but the club seemingly wasn't interested in the cost to sign Anelka in the Jan 2008, then went after Berbatov that summer. Also pissed off Tevez although I don't care how that merc cnut felt, he was only after a big payday with United.
Often wonder what if SAF had convinced Torres to join following the 2006 World Cup. Imagine a spearhead attack of Giggs-Rooney-Ronaldo with Saha/Torres up top. Mouthwatering.
He remains the coolest cat in world football! So nonchalantly done!
Such a disappointment it didn't work out for him at United . I thought he was going to be another Cantona
It was stuff like that which made him great sometimes. Cool guy.
His celebration and finish combined sum him up in two words: ice cool. Thread title should be changed to Monaco player though.
Did he do a Cantona celebration there?
Still my favourite player to watch. If it was up to me I'd have kept him over RvP. He would be fantastic linking up with Mata and Kagawa.
Don't be silly
As much as I loved him and he'll always be a bit of a cult hero player to me, keeping him over RVP would have been silly. Unfortunately he just didn't really fit in here, although we managed to make the most out of him despite that.
Shades of Best