Manchester City, Premier League, Tottenham
Berbatov bid ensures Man City are the new challengers to the top four
Manchester City, ambitious and loaded with cash, are the serious challengers to the big four now, argues Matthew Day, especially after Tottenham's dour summer and acceptance of City's bid for Dimitar Berbatov.
Manchester City’s dance amongst the top four is a far more glamorous piece of ballet than Tottenham ever attempted in their challenge to the elite, but in making an audacious bid for Dimitar Berbatov, they helped their north London rivals - for they are just that now - in their unlikely plea for £30m for the wantaway Bulgarian.
On Sunday evening, the situation was poised towards Berbatov remaining at Spurs. Juande Ramos stated the striker would be part of his first-team plans if he stayed and the club, already angry at Manchester United’s behaviour over the summer, didn’t want to accept less than £30m. Yet the general consensus was that Berbatov would probably leave for around £24m, his obvious desire to leave meaning it was a buyer’s market.
But it became a seller’s market once again when Man City, now loaded with more cash than Chelsea (and seemingly more ambition and desire as well), entered the fray. They never stood much of a chance with their bid, which was hastily accepted by Spurs, because Berbatov wanted to play in the Champions League and indeed the 27-year-old never even met with Man City officials.
Tottenham now held all the aces, however, and Man Utd were forced to match their asking price. It was reminiscent of Wayne Rooney’s transfer out of Everton: Rooney’s departure was inevitable, but where exactly was only decided after a bidding war between a pretender and contender. Newcastle, somewhat dubiously, entered the bidding late on and Man Utd were forced to pay far more than they had originally hoped.
Yet there is a deeper meaning to yesterday’s shenanigans. Manchester City have now stepped into Tottenham’s boots, with owners who expect trophies spending money abundantly in a direct challenge to the top four. In accepting the bid for Berbatov, it was almost an admission from Tottenham that Man City will soon usurp them - and that there is little they can do about it.
Man City might have ensured Daniel Levy got the full asking price for Beratov, but this is a short-term gain in a much bigger picture. Long-term, City are best poised. In capturing Robinho, they did something Tottenham never managed: they beat a member of the top four to a player in a one-on-one shoot-out, and with that transfer, offered a clear statement of intent. Tottenham’s monopoly as the only side attempting to break into the top four is at a definite end, and they will now be forced to deal with a fifth party in the race for a lucrative slice of the Champions League money.
While Tottenham have endured what can only be described as a frustrating summer, Man City are readying themselves for a period of boom, optimism rife at Eastlands that, at long last, a sustainable challenge to the elite will soon exist. The moves for Beratov and Robinho, one failed and the other a resounding success, ensure Man City will be a feared proposition, both pitch-side and in the transfer market.
And having already seen off one north London side, Arsenal are hot favourites to be replaced by City in the Champions League spots. If the Blue side of Manchester could pull that off, the everlasting dreams of rivalling the Red half would be a whole lot closer to reality.
Tags: Arsenal, Chelsea, Dimitar Berbatov, Manchester City, Manchester United, Robinho, Tottenham Hotspur, Wayne Rooney
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IN YOUR ‘DREAMS’ YOU “FUCKING HATER”.
GUNNERS 4 PL
GUNners 4 CHAMPIONS LEAGE
Don’t get carried away. The Man City that will take to the field in a couple of weeks will be only marginally different to the one we’ve seen so far this season. Robinho is a coup, no question about it, but I bet he’s woken up this morning thinking “What the… I thought Manchester played in red?” Next season might be pretty interesting for City, but not this one.
I’d also just like to say thanks to City for bidding on Berbatov. We were going to lose him anyway, so accepting City’s offer was our way of saying “Up Yours” to United. Don’t think it was some kind of tacit acceptance of City’s pre-eminence, because I can assure you it was very far from that…
The person I feel most sorry for is Wright-Phillips, leaving the old Chelsea for the new Chelsea. How much must that suck?
Hmmmm - I hardly think this is the case - we accepted the offer knowing full well he wouldn’t go there, but it would force Utd’s hand - and serving my memory correct I’m pretty sure we beat Utd to Berba in the 1st place (as admitted by SAF). Not forgetting Woody (Scum) and Bentley (Liverpool).
spurs beat off utd for berbatov 2 years ago, bale 1 year ago and hutton 1/2 a year ago, and they beat off arsenal for zokora.
This hardly reads like an objective piece of journalism and it is fatally flawed in this transfer round by comparing City who were cash buyers and Spurs who were sellers. The flaw is made worse when the subject, Berbatov, was stating he would only go to United and worse still when the FA apparently sanction the ‘kidnapping’ of a player by United who were denied permission to talk to the player until a fee had been agreed.
Now Spurs might have mismanaged the transaction but supposedly they got £30m out of it for a £10m investment; got rid of a player who didn’t want to play in North London and had already bought it some good quality players sufficient to expect a major improvement in match day performance.
I fear Matthew Day is either star struck or a City fan.
how many times have we seen in the past that one swallow does not make a summer..i can boldly say that only two teams out of the fore will be able to retain the top four slots..and as a matter of fact neither of these two teams would be the champions of Premier League..the team that will be in the top two this year will be the one that was the one between 8th and the 12th spot last year.. the second team in top 4 will be the one that ranked between 4th and 8th position last year…be my guest and guess who these teams are
rubbish
they did not “beat” chesea to the signing of robinho. Real see chelsea as competitors, and simply refused to sell to them. They stated that earlier in the day.
if it was a one on one (as it was with berba) city would have got nowhere near him.
city are just as likely to sack hughes and keep bringing over priced players and managers as they are of being succesful.
Care to explain why Arsenal are hot favourites to be removed from the Champion League spots when Liverpool have shown no sign of improvement at all?
Yeah, lets just see how much boom ManC have between now and January, money ain’t much use if you can’t spend it!
Codswallop - for the record Berbatov could have joined Man Utd 2 years ago but chose instead (albeit mistakenly) to join spurs. As for Robinho £32m r u avin a laff? The guy is technically good but is over rated in my opinion and lacks consistency - time will tell but I think he’ll strugglt in the PL. Apparently he’s a bit of a cry baby too - boo hoo :_(
Are you serious?
“In accepting the bid for Berbatov, it was almost an admission from Tottenham that Man City will soon usurp them - and that there is little they can do about it.”
What, because a truck load of money comes in the morning, and then knee-jerk bids go flying?
where do you honestly think Robinho will be in a years time? Man City… Joker.
How do you people have websites when you are so poor at analysis. Buying expensive players is no assurance of success…players like Berbatov, Robinho and Ronaldo have very little carachter…I have news for you it’s a TEAM game and to play as a team you have to have players who realize it’s not about them it’s about the team.
im a fulham fan
well i must admit i think man city will probably finish above us but…
depends
how good robinho is in the mighty Premier league
and how good pavlyuchenko is with bent.
is there possibly a chance liverpool and arsenal will lose out too tottenham and manchester city..
i think if spurs had have signed veloso. they would be able to match man citys ‘new and improved squad’ but united held on till 10 minutes left to complate deal.
ithink spurs will challenge if they play like they did vs chelsea more consistenty
possibly
Chelsea
Utd.
City
Spurs
Pool
Gunners
Villa
Portsmouth
Boro
Everton/blackburn
Poor article!! Although Robinho was a big coup for us, it was only because Chelsea were taking orders for Robinho shirts way before the deal was completed. This made them mad and gladly accepted our bid and pushed things through!! I would love to be proved wrong but we will finish behind Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool this year
I’ve never read such rubbish in my life. Levy played both City and Utd in getting absolutely top dollar for a player who wanted out anyway. And City didn’t beat anyone in a one-on-one fight… Real refused to sell to Chelsea.
The real Spurs fans would rather see our club run properly and the team built slowly and sustainably. The last laugh may not be on us in the sense of trophies, but we’re the ones that can hold our heads up high.
Liverpool look very poor this season!! they will never win the prem under that fat manager!! chelsea looked average against scum….. its Manyoo or the gunners for the prem! Man city will finnish mid table as always!!
We will just have to wait and see. On paper Spurs should have beaten many teams last year but lost twice to Birmingham. Ultimately you need 11 guys who do the job on the day. Berbatov is a good player but he did not always give 100%
IAM A SPURS FAN AND WOULD LIKE TO WISH BERB THE BEST OF LUCK HIS A CLASS ACT AND HE WILL BE A GREAT PLAYER FOR U AS FOR MAN SHITY BEING TOP 4 IT TAKES MORE THEN ONE GOOD PLAYER TO DO THAT SO WE WILL SEE COYS
I wouldn’t get to excited just yet City fans, Robinho has gone to city purely for money and he’s going to get plenty of that, but I wonder if the football will be good enough for him at city, although I wish city all the best, but top four not for awhile I’m afraid
chelsea will be out for sure with a bunch of so call stars but actually an old men club
Why oh Why will they take 4th spot from the Arse. The Arse arn’t after 4th spot. There’s the problem see. Spurs Man city etc. see themselves as only a top 4 club, i.e finish 4th.
The Arse on the other hand want to finish top of the heap. Any hoo Liverpool finished 4th last season. The Arse finished just 4 points away from the top 2
COYA
To dave winchester who asked “Care to explain why Arsenal are hot favourites to be removed from the Champion League spots when Liverpool have shown no sign of improvement at all?”
Man City are already above you in the table and likely to stay there
Definately either Liverpool or Ar5ena1 are the teams under threat, i hope for the good of football either one or both of these teams dont make the top four.
Berba has not played for Spurs for months so goodbye - again. You say Spurs have never beaten the top 4 in a transfer but we nicked Berba from under the noses of Utd. for far less than they had to pay this time. Modric was another victory. What a bad article!
Great Article. Sure.
Manchester City find a temporary solution to Shinawatra’s 14 months of embarrassment, throw 4 audatious £30m bids at well established european-based talent and at the last minute (23:45?) find someone so greedy that he opts out of the sunny Bernabeau for floodlights and drizzle. In definition, a truly “glamorous piece of ballet”…..
Not “if you throw enough sh*t…” that I was thinking last night as all the drunk mancunians started to conga. Man City bought 4 x £30m raffle tickets yesterday, plain and simple. They did this for publicity. One came in.
Spurs played this whole deadline day very cleverly, accepting Man City’s bid knowing full well that Man Utd would have to up their ‘take it or leave it’ £24m. They also knew that Berbatov would show no interest in City (did he turn up? no) so the already-resigned-to-leaving Bulgarian could only ‘realise his dream’ if Old Red face coughed up the £30m Levy asked back in day one. AND, as the threat of any punishment for ‘tapping up’ issued upon Man Utd by the PL would hold no reward for the victimised Tottenham, the White Hart Lane outfit saw no personal benefit and offered to drop the complaint for a slice of young Fraser Campbell. Wow, I bet Levy feels like a right wally now…..
Follow that with a squad shake-up that saw a net profit at the expense of the departure of two turn-coats and I’m sure you’ll see the population of N17 crowing for the chairman’s head on a stick for such a frustrating summer….
And while I try and shake this bee from my bonnet before it stings me again, I’m not all that sure that Man City won a “one-on-one shoot out with a Top 4 club” either….which transfer are you talking about? They flat out lost to Man Utd over Berbatov (did he even pop into say ‘hi’ to Mark Hughes once the bid was accepted? no) and Chelsea’s REJECTED bid of £22m for Robinho certainly doesn’t compare to the £32.4m that had Calderon asking to be pinched. City took back a player who couldn’t cut it at the top4 table (albeit for half the money they made, well done) do you mean that? Oh, and lost one of their brighter talants, young, versatile Croat defender Corluka to that side now apparently only good enough to lick their boots.
But as I say, great article. Keep up the good work, I enjoyed that.
might i remind you that arsenal finished only 4 points behind manure and 2 points behind chelski and liverpool were miles behind al 3 of us. so shouldn’t liverpool be more worried about loosing their fourth spot that us?.
No one wins from this
Its likets not about building a team its about buying ready made stars. Al-Fahim wants to buy the best players from the best teams in the world - if he does what can any other team do to complete? Its game over… football has no point. Wenger was right when he said its become like financial doping. Even he he doest buy the best team in the world he will completely fu*k up the transfer marker like Abramovich did a few years ago
its a consortium that bought man city so although they do have plenty of money it will take more than 1 r 2 players to take city to the champions league,to transform them in2 chapions league contenders it would cost at least 200mill there is no consortium in the world prepared to spend that,this is more media hype,i remember the very same was said at newcastle last year when ashley took over and look at them now,nowhere and never will be
As a Spurs fan even I can see its Liverpool who are the weakest link in the big four. Obviously the writer of the article doesnt watch many games.
If City break the elite it will be at Liverpools expense.
If Spurs ever do it then we will have to do better then Arsenal which we are currently a long way off due to consistency.
Villa may take Arsenals fourth spot if Wenger continues to refuse to sign big players however even that will not happen anytime soon.
They have more chance of replacing Liverpool than Arsenal.
It will take more than 1 signing to make City a top 4 side. My bet is that he will stay for a season and go somewhere else. Agree with Dave W. If there is to be any change to the top 4, it will be liverpool, not arsenal who will drop out.
Care to explain why Arsenal are hot favourites to be removed from the Champion League spots when Liverpool have shown no sign of improvement at all?
Posted by Dave Winchester | September 2, 2008, 2:19 pm
YOU BEAT ME TOO IT DAVE - ANY EXPLANATION FORTHCOMING YET?