Wasteful in what sense? What is it not being spent on instead? Is it stopping us from buying someone?
What cost do you put on his contribution last season?
What cost do you put on his contribution last season?
Berbatov | Fulham player
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Yes, thank Christ for that half a season - not that I'm worried about whether he is remembered as our worst ever signing, but because it was invaluable in us getting number 19. I don't really care if he goes down in history as being a bit of a flop - seems almost inevitable he will as he hasn't performed for us the way we would have hoped - but we needed him then and he delivered.
An expensive and arguably ineffective sub, but at least he's here at the club and fighting for his place rather than AWOL back home in Bulgaria with depression.
Actually my brother, I was 10/11 at the time and didn't have a clue what a froum was, never mind how to register for one. Because that money could be getting paid to someone who could have an effect on our season. I just don't think Berbatov will play any big part in our team this year, and it looks like Sir Alex thinks the same.
I would like an exciting youngster to be brought in to the squad, some one who looks like they have an ambition to break into the first team.
Fergie is using the early part of the season to blood Welbeck in my opinion.
Berbatov will get more game time as the season progresses.
Berbatov will get more game time as the season progresses.
Of course winning the title was the main thing dont get me wrong.
But I dont want to see any players go out as a flop.
No Tevez references, Randy gets upset over them.
Havent mentioned him in a long while
I started the thread in the football forum about him refusing to play and stated he was a nutjob
His form will need to improve a lot if he is to get more game time.
We do have a good run of games coming up in all competitions and I do expect him to receive ample opportunities. He simply has to take them
Exactly my thoughts. I don't believe we have a set third or fourth striker at all, it's just rotation of strikers and at the moment it's more important to bring Welbeck upto the level of the other three, so we have four top quality strikers. It's been at the expense of Berbatov, which is understandable considering the form of Rooney and Hernandez, but his ability doesn't just melt away, he will get his chances and a run of games later.
Fair enough, we'd all have loved to seen him do well and produce the magic he is capable of on a regular basis, but unfortunately it hasn't happened. He has been overall a bit disappointing, but he played an important part last season and is still here wanting to get his place back, so fair play to him. Hopefully Rooney, Hernandez and Welbeck will have amazing seasons and be available for every game, but if not we might need Berbatov and so as long as his attitude is right I'm glad he's here.
It is not set in stone obviously. But currently he is 4th choice. All he has to do is perform very well and he will no longer be 4th
Agreed.
I've said it already, I don't believe we have such a thing as 3rd and 4th choice.
Dont be silly. Every side has an order of a managers preference. Berbatov right now is very much not in favour and is 4th choice.
Look at my post above - as that does not mean he cannot do soemthing about it by being effective and forcing himself into the side
I think he'll be off in January.
It's not silly at all.
As has already been pointed out Fergie is blooding Welbeck at the moment at the expense of Berbatov.
In my opinion Fergie is using the early part of the season to get Welbeck up to speed, when we reach the business end of the season we'll see more of Berbatov because he has the experience.
The fact that Fergie has gone on record and stated that Berbatov will get more games as the season wears on bears this out.
To be fair Fergie has said that 2-3 times about Owen.
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"Michael needs games and we are going to try to solve that problem as his training form has been good." Jan 2010.
I didn't mean that he said the exact same thing word for word, but he has essentially said Owen would feature more before and that hasn't really happened.
He isn't going to play Berbatov a lot more just because he has said "he will get game time", it will be his form that dictates his game time.
At the moment the way I see it we currently have:
Rooney as the main striker and overall best player at the club.
Welbeck and Hernandez fighting out to partner him up front.
Then Berbatov, followed by Owen and then Diouf and Macheda.
That's the status quo at the moment, be deluded to say otherwise. However I do think things can change quite easily. The way I see it if we had a Champions League final to play tomorrow Berbatov would be lucky to make the bench.
Bryan is half right in that Berbatov will play a lot more but it depends on how we perform in the FA Cup and the Champions League, if we get further along in those competitions we will have to rotate players and the main 3 strikers we have won't be enough especially as two of them are fairly young.
Of course our squad players are bound to get more games when we are playing 2-3 times a week, that is pretty obvious. The point still stands though that Fergie is only going to play him in (at least important) games unless he is performing to a decent level.
There is also the issue that toward the latter stages of the Champions League we usually begin to play 4-5-1, particularly away from home. It's going to be very difficult for him to be the "1" in that situation, unless his form dramatically improves.
You must have misread, what is a "myth" is that Berbatov rescued the first half of last season, see Erica below:
Berbatov was one of a few players that did very well at the start of the season, Nani did even more. Did Berba "rescue" us, no, did he do very well, yes!
Well spoted.It's pathetic to see that a player will be criticized no matter the situation and from every available angle.
And repeatedly. This debate never seems to cease.
I'm telling you, the man just cannot win. He could even score the game winner in the CL final and it wouldn't be good enough for some.
What a crock of shit.
People would love him to make his mark at the most important moments, THAT'S the fecking problem!
Exactly. Most people acknowledge that he had a great first half and a decent season overall last year and that's because he was popping and scoring important goals. This year the excuse seems to be he isn't starting because Welbeck needs to be blooded in - just doesn't make any sense. He's not starting because Fergie trusts other strikers over him.
He scored a hat-trick against Liverpool! In the very same game he scored the best goal of the season (in my opinion). At the very least it was a fantastic goal. Yet he still gets very little patience from some on here. I mean Forlan scored two goals against Liverpool (both pretty uninspiring goals) and was a massive disappointment for the rest of his time here yet fans still sing his name!
That's all down to personality though. People took to Diego's "trying so hard I'm tackling without a shirt on, and look how I smile ruefully when I miss an open goal" thing, whereas Dimi is the kind of anti-Forlan.
2 goals at Anfield I might add
Scoring a hat trick at home to the shittest, most out of sorts Liverpool team in years isn't comparable to scoring a CL winner like numpty above made out, that's my point, and it certainly doesn't deserve ever-lasting affection and blind faith in him.
Forlan was still heavily critiqued even after those 2 goals, don't forget that!
2 goals at Anfield I might add
Scoring a hat trick at home to the shittest, most out of sorts Liverpool team in years isn't comparable to scoring a CL winner like numpty above made out, that's my point, and it certainly doesn't deserve ever-lasting affection and blind faith in him.
Forlan was still heavily critiqued even after those 2 goals, don't forget that!
The bold bit is certainly true - Diego was a cult figure essentially.
Also his late winner at home to Chelsea was superb. Fantastic moment.
He's into his 4th season. But I agree lets assess him at the end of the season - as thats what I assumed you meant as he's had 3 years to settle in.
He's into his 4th season. But I agree lets assess him at the end of the season - as thats what I assumed you meant as he's had 3 years to settle in.
You really have a knack for deliberately misunderstanding points. I obviously meant that certain players are given patience game to game because of past achievements and some are given none even though they have achieved significant things. Forlan was always given support by the fans, every single one of us stuck up for him when our abu mates were calling him a flop. Yet for some reason otherwise normal fans have this completely illogical hatred toward Berba and seemingly enjoy it when he has a bad game.
For the record, Berbatov scored 7 league goals in the second half of last season. It's far from true that he contributed significantly only in the fist half of the season. And he managed to score more league goals in open play (for the record league title) than the other strikers put together, despite starting in only 24 games.
I think it was only 2 goals in the last 15 games though
It wasn't obvious unless I can read minds.
He started only 4 league games after January. United didn't won more points per game without Berbatov though. Actually, there was no improvement in our results in the league after Chicharito displaced Berbatov. Strictly speaking, we won the title because we were the most consistent team over the whole season, and not because we won more points in the second half than in the first half of the season. No doubt Berbatov played a big role for our record title. His goals against Blackpool (3:2) and Bolton (1:0).
...were decisive.
I agree, I was just pointing out that in the majority of the 2nd half of the season he really did not feature much.
That Blackpool game was the last time he shined for us
That Blackpool game was the last time he shined for us
Depends on who we played but wasnt one of the reasons SAF picked Hernandez over Berba was due to Hernandez being more effective away from home.