Manchester United have been heavily linked with Dimitar Berbatov for over two years, following the striker’s decision to join Tottenham Hotspur rather than waiting for a bid from United in 2006.
Since then, he has made his position very clear on where his desired future is, leading to him being left out of the Spurs’ squad that lost to Sunderland at the weekend.
With time running out, Sir Alex Ferguson has confessed that the chances of us signing anyone are pretty slim.
However, Wayne Rooney doesn’t think this is a problem, claiming we have a team of players willing and able to step up to the plate.
“There’s been a lot of talk about bringing another forward in, and hopefully we can do that to strengthen the team, to help us spread it out,” he said. “But, if a forward doesn’t come in, then I’m sure we can deal with that. I’d probably have to stay up more then, and I’ve no problem with that. Over the last two years we’ve spread the goals out amongst the team, so as long as we’re doing that then I don’t see a problem.”
Wayne Rooney has also responded to criticism which says he’s not scoring enough goals.
“I’ve said many times that I’m an unselfish player,” he added. “Don’t judge my game purely on my goals – judge it on goals, assists and how I help the team play. That’s the way my game is. I’m a team player. Everyone’s talking about how I should score more goals, but we won the Premier League and the Champions League last season, so if that happened again then I’d be delighted, so I’ve got no problem at the minute.”
Do we need Berbatov to replicate last season’s success?
Man Utd News 24/7
I didn’t read where he say “We Don’t Need Berbatov”.
We really need him. That’s the kind of player that i love to see in Manchester United.
Others teams have improved. We have slightly with the Da Silva twins and Possebon and even then they’re likely be squad players for this year at least.
I think getting Berbatov will put ourselves ahead. I still think though that we need another central defender for cover. Big question marks remain over Evans head as to whether he can do the job.
We don’t need Berbatov. Sure it would be nice to have the option but we are not lacking in quality up front. We have Tevez, Rooney, Manucho, Ronaldo, Saha and Campbell as well as many permutations of players who can play ‘in the hole’ including Giggs, Scholes, Anderson and Nani. We have more quality players available to us than the squad which won the double last year and though Berbatov would give us options, I feel that his purchase would be a luxury as opposed to a necessity. I still think that anything above £20M for a guy who turns 28 in January is throwing money away
We Urgently need him to avoid a slow start of the season now that Ronaldo is sidelined for some weeks and others.We surely nid a goal scorer as soon as possible to keep toe to toe with chelsea.
…Plus I would love to see Daniel Levy flop in his quest to bleed us dry – …. If we don’t spend now then we will be in even more of a position to get the wallet out when the next world class striker becomes available
Even with all of the arguments you’ve made about not needing an out and out striker, I still think it would be a boost if we did have one. Two seasons ago when we had Saha playing a good share of the games we looked like a really polished side with so many different threats. This last season we were obviously still effective, which speaks loads of the quality of our midfield and ability to build in the attacking third. But I must admit, after watching our performances so far this season, signing Berbatov would make me feel much more confident.
Also, as much as I love Wazza’s heart and work ethic, I still miss that stunning goal scorer from 2005 and 2006. He can rediscover that form with Berbatov.
This is becoming a very old topic. It would be stupid if we did not bring in another striker. Our goal scoring machine is not a centre foraward but a winger…how long is that bit of fortune gonna last for us. We create wave and wave of chances but it all counts for nothing if they aren’t being converted into goals. We didn’t make the final of the FA Cup last season because our biggest weakness showed us up on the night– we miss FAR TOO MANY Chances. We need Van Nistelrooy but that is an old story….We need a natural out-and out striker…a finisher. Our enemies have strenthened their attack and so must we. Our opponents have step up a gear and therefore we face a much different and difficult challenge. Wasting chances will cost us big this time around. Get Berbatov in and lest start scaring the hell out of Europe’s defences…
I dont know why fergie is so sbsessed with Berba. There are a lot of good strikers out there.Why not clinch one of them and get over this stuff
Rooney said….
“I’ve said many times that I’m an unselfish player… Don’t judge my game purely on my goals – judge it on goals, assists and how I help the team play. That’s the way my game is.”….
It’s quite easy and understandable for a player to say thinks like that, especially when you play as a striker and not scoring goals. Rooney’s form has been dipping and dipping. In every matches, he always has chances, but the problem is he seem doesn’t know how to made it counted. He seems doesn’t know how to score. Lack of confidence,… lack of sharpness. The only plus thing for Rooney, in fairness to him, is he knows dams well how to kill the time. If United are in front, just put the ball to Rooney, then he will use his strength, power and pace to bring the ball forward, then United will be safe.
If we look purely on his performance, not look at his face to realize that this guy is Wayne Rooney, I don’t think that SAF will pay that huge amount of money to sign him. I don’t think that SAF or Capello are happy enough with his present performance either. However, he’s still young, so, there will always time for him to improve and get back to what he was with us in the first season, especially as he is always a great fighter.
Phew! For a moment, from the title, I actually thought Rooney said we don’t need Berbatov. How did I fall for that!
i don’t think we desperately need him. if we get him, great, if not, so what?
the fact that we finally have a work permit for manucho may well be turning the wizards hand. i’ve heard all the talk about him being unproven blah, blah, blah, but from what i’ve seen of him, he looks a raw striker, with an eye for goal.
if we persist with balsa boy, and he remains fit, quality. there’s no denying that when saha is fit (and i know it’s a novelty), the guy is mint.
someone mentioned that we haven’t looked too great at the begining of the season, but with half the team missing what does everyone expect?
besides, the goal machine that is the fletch is fit and available!!
Berbatov would be a nice addition but hardly a necessary one. This team already has three GENUINE world-class forwards in Ronaldo, Tevez, and Rooney; a couple of “sure things” in Nani and Anderson plus the potential of Danny Welbeck and Frazier Campbell, the unknown commodity that is Manucho, and the constant question-mark that is LouisLouisHaHa. That seems like enough firepower to me.
Really, if these guys are all healthy and match-ready then where does Berbatov fit in – the answer is difficult to present because like the earlier thread on the “best four midfielders”, there is a plethora of choice. Someone – Tevez/Berbatov – is going to have to sit on the bench and you can bet your bottom dollar that it won’t be either Rooney or Ronaldo. It’s an embarrassment of riches that would be even more embarrassing IF Berbatov were to be signed.
And – guess what ? – the “problem” would be even more difficult if the whole Berbatov kerfuffle is a smokescreen to distract attention from ongoing negotiations for Karim Benzema.
davey – do you know something we don’t on the benzema front?
after seeing ole’s testemonial, i’d be more than happy putting the legend on the bench and bring him on for the last 15-20mins. looked like he still had it to me!!
I’ve just read that Dong has had his contract terminated by mutual consent and that he’s left us. There is only one thing better than having Dong up front…..NOT having Dong up front! Result!
I’m not bothered if we dont sign berba as he is a moody git. yes hes got great technique and an eye for goal but we have a really got atmosphere at the club and i think he could balls it up.
With Rooney Ronaldo Tevez saha nani anderson giggs campbell welbeck manucho and park i think we’ve got plenty of attacking options to call on and i much rather us save our money and get benzema or augero etc the year after.
WE DO NOT NEED BERBATOV. That is final!!!
“theboy” – I wish I did know something about TheComingOfBenzema; but, alas, I am only expressing my hope.
I did see that there is a later squib by Scott about Teary Henry, who I would much prefer to Berbatov for a number of reasons – economy is obvious but also the fact that a chastened Henry would be a much better “fit” with the whirligig of Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo and Nani/Giggs.
@ Gazzaro
NowNow. I really start to grow tired of this. Every time Rooneys name comes up you are on here slagging him off. I as always feel the need to defend him.
Are you really so blind that you can’t see his contribution? Or do you just buy into all the bullshit the papers write?
I belive Scott have on several occations shown that Rooneys has steadilty improved on the amount of goals he is involved in each season he has been with us. With last season being the only season that he scored less than he did the season before. Rooney is not a point man, and that is also why I do not judge him on his goals alone. If he didn’t score a single goal, but assisted 35-40 goals a season I would still be very happy with his contribution because that would mean that we have scored a lot more goals than we would without him.
If you look at the stats from last season, you will see that Rooney was involved in over 30 goals last season, which is not bad all in all. And that is not counting the goals where Rooney started the attack, where he was the 3rd last player to touch the ball before we scored, or the times where his running alone created openings for others to score even tho Rooney was not directly involved.
I think you know as well as I. That if it werent for the endless running of Rooney and Tevez, Ronaldo wouldn’t have had anywere near the season he did last season. They were tying down defenders and midfielders, chasing down ball and tugging defences all over the place, creating the space Ronaldo needed to perform. In short Tevez and Rooney ensured that we could afford to have a luxury player like Ronaldo in our team.
Countless times last season you could see them tracking back to cover space that should have been covered by Ronaldo, but he on the other hand was down on the ground whining to the air about players taking the ball of him.
And a last comment. I seem to remember a certain United legend that wasn’t all that prolific in front of goal either. Do you know who that man was? I’ll give you a few hints. He’s french and his initials are EC.
Correct me if I am wrong, (I might be.) but I don’t seem to remember a single season where the king scored over 20 goals for us. You would probably slagg him of as well would you? Cantona wasn’t all about the goals he scored. His presens alone freed up others to score, and the same can be said about Rooney. He is our single most important player. Forget about Ronaldo, we will manage without him because he is a luxury player (Tho a very good one at that) but I seriously doubt that we would manage as well without wazza!
“we miss FAR TOO MANY Chances. We need Van Nistelrooy but that is an old story….We need a natural out-and out striker…a finisher”. Im sure your right Chabby, the fact that we only brought back the premiership and the champions league last season speaks volumes about our attacking weakness. Reminds me of 99 come to think of it. People just listen to the media too much, if we dont sign anyone that doesnt mean well fall behind because our teams young enough to go on and improve next season, and to say tht were lucky our winger scores a lot is rediculous, he plays further up the pitch then rooney in all honesty and we wont be lucky if he carries on because he will carry on, hes the best player in the world. At the end of the day signing Berbatov would give us another option and it cant be a bad thing for the club but imo we don’t need him to have another successful season. Rooney will shine this year. Also everyone thought we needed Van when he moved to Real Madrid and look where SAF has took us without an out and out striker. The media play by the rules, Fergie doesn’t.