Manchester United vs Tottenham & Chelsea – The Truth About Ballack, Berbatov and Zokora
The media (telegraph, daily mail, independent – all the regular trash) have had a lot of fun printing stories about both Berbatov and Zokora saying ‘NO’ to Manchester United. It’s a cute tactic that has endeared the two players to the Spurs fans and has allowed everyone else to put down United while playing up Tottenham’s ‘rise’.
Add to this a revisiting of Ballack’s snub to United and everyone is having a nice lil’ laugh at United’s expense.
In the case of the two Tottenham players, the insinuation, of course, is that both Tottenham and Manchester United had been competing for the signatures of Berbatov and Zokora, and in both cases the players chose the Spurs over the Red Devils.
That, dear readers, is pure BS.
Time for some facts. Let’s look at Dimitir Berbatov‘s statements first:
“What can I say? Spurs stood by me the whole time and sometimes that’s more important,” Berbatov said, reclining in one of the stadium’s executive boxes. “As a matter of fact I spoke with one of the management of Manchester United. They had a problem with Van Nistelrooy. I could not wait so long, so I decided to come here.”
“When I only had six goals in the Bundesliga last season they said we like you and we want to be buy you. But Leverkusen said, ‘No, we don’t want you to go’. Over a period of six months Tottenham kept saying, ‘We like you, we want you to come here’. They were always in contact with the club. Then I scored 21 goals and they settled on a price. It was a long-standing interest. They could have bought anyone but they decided on me. I appreciated that.”
Tottenham got their man because United never bid for him and never showed a serious interest.
Our interest was more speculative – Tottenham on the other hand were ready to splash 10 mil or so, and had been after him for months. But don’t let that get in the way of pandering to the fans.
Didier Zokora had a similar situation – while Tottenham had been courting him for months, Arsenal and Manchester United had only looked at him during the World Cup. Both clubs inquired about the midfielder, and that’s as far as it went. I seriously, seriously doubt that United would have bought Zokora – just like they never bought Petit (who was similarly inquired about then left alone). But Zokora played it up with the fans by telling them how he turned down bigger clubs to come to them.
Bigger clubs who would have left him on the bench and weren’t too keen on signing him.
Do you really think that Zokora would start ahead of Fabregas and Silva? Ahead of Carrick and Scholes? Didn’t think so.
The last man – Chelsea’s Ballack, hasn’t talked much about this and for that I commend him. Having said that, United’s attempt to sign him must be brought to light to present a clear picture.
Manchester United moved to secure Ballack back in January / February, when it became clear that he would not sign a new contract at Bayern and would be leaving as a free agent in summer. Chelsea had moved for him at the same time though, and at that time it came down to two things – who was the stronger team, and who had more money to pay him.
“Manchester United were one of the first clubs to try and sign me but, in the end, I didn’t feel they wanted me as much as Chelsea.”
Despite my strong belief that money and current Premiership status (not to mention European strength) was Ballack’s primary motivations, the accusation that United didn’t want him as much hurts because we’ve heard that from several players now, and it is partially true – we don’t have the financial resources to commit to big-name players like Ballack, who would have been come without a second thought three years ago.
A note to Tottenham fans – I’m really happy to see your club perform so well in the last season, and I’m a big fan of your coach as well as many of your players. But if you believe the trash your new signings are telling you, you’ll believe anything.
But wait – you guys already believe that you’ll finish in the top four, don’t you?
Topics: Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham
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Agree with most of your article – but actually, come to think of it, I do think Zokora would start ahead of G. Silva. Or at least once his quality had been demonstrated. I’m just nitpicking though!
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:16Your points are well taken – but lets be clear. No Tottenham fans ever required or requested these comments by the players. i am happy they are at spurs as I believe they will trun out tto be execllent players not because they did or did not turn someone else down.
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:20But lets also be clear – you ManYoo fans are also deluded – players want to go to chelsea rather than you beacuse they think they will win things – look how unhappy mikel looked in a man u shirt !!- they do not think that you are in the same league as chelsea. In fact , only you do!!
So you think you might win the champions league……There is only one way to describe United – faded glamour. A dull lustre that appeals only to those not wanted by chelsea, barca or real.
Well aren’t we getting our knickers in a twist! Haha. It has been well documented that you aren’t as attractive to top players as you used to be whether it was these two Spurs players or not. Scholes was passed it years ago, your defence is weak and you only have one good striker and he doesn’t even score that many or even play as an out and out striker. Good luck catching Chelsea, I think that you may have to be looking down at the teams under you and not the one above this season though!
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:21Mate open your eyes i’m a big MU fan we are on the way down as long as Sir Alex is in charge we need a new manager he has had his day. And I still say Spurs mugged us over Carrick
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:22fair thread, however, were you bored or just clearing your frustrations?
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:225 comments and not a single hate rant? must be my lucky day…
smartie – faded glamour?
say that after this season.
dennis – we got mugged alright.
madyid – clearing my frustrations after reading the same myopic BS in the news every day.
Hugo – that means Arsenal needed him more than we did – heh, I can live with that
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:26What a big hoo-ha over nothing. But I saw Man U play against Ajax on Friday and I was quite impressed with young Rossi. Also think Carrick will turn out to be a good signing – I was tipping him to have a great season even before Man U’s interest emerged. Ferguson apparently wants to build a young team, which means he’s learnt a bit from Spurs recently. Spurs are definitely ahead of Man U at the moment.
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:37You United fans crack me up. What is more funny is that you’ve just spent almost £20 million on a midfielder who you could have had 2 seasons ago for about £3 million.
You’ve got to be asking some serious questions of Ferguson’s transfer market dealings over the past few years haven’t you?! I mean how much money has he spunked up the wall trying to get goal keepers (Barthez, Taibi, Howard), central midfielders (Djemba Djemba, Kleberson, Liam Miller)and trying to convert centre forwards (Alan Smith) and full backs (John O’Shea) into central midfielders.
Sorry, but if you look at the transfer dealings of Tottenham and Manchester United’s over the past 3 seasons Manchester Untied have come a poor second (leaving aside letting Van Nistelrooy go for £10 million when Ferguson stated on numerous occasions that he would definitely not go for less than £15 million). I accept the fact that in the recent past Tottenham have been guilty of bad transfer dealings and lack of policy, but they are now a well run and well managed club that is on the up. Carrick would not have been let go if they didn’t think that they could compete without him, and you will eat your words about Zokora over the course of this season let me tell you.
Tottenham also have a ready made replacement in Tom Huddlestone – Matin Jol knew what he was doing when he sold Carrick, and you have paid a hugely inflated price for a good player, but not a great one, becuase you were desperate.
I still think Man Utd will have a reasonably good season, but you have to replace an awful lot of aging stars in the coming seasons – something which Ferguson has so far failed to do.
You also have to admit that you are not getting the players that you used to do – to a large amount because of Chelsea, but also becuase you have not won anything significant for a while (by your standards) and people can see that your team is currently on the way down, whereas others (including Tottenham) are on the way up.
I think you Manchester Untied fans need to prepare yourself for a period of rebuilding, and this will mean a lack of troiphies. Something that you’re not used to………
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:37Hmm… When Zokora decided to join Spurs, Carrick was still a Spurs player. He went to Spurs to compete with Carrick, Davids, Tainio, Huddlestone, Murphy, Jenas and Ghaly instead of going to ManYoo and compete with Scholes and…?
That said, I still believe ManYoo is a better team at the moment. Tottenham though, are on the up and unless ManYoo got some tricks up their sleeve, they might find themselves behind the Spurs in the years to come.
August 7th, 2006 @ 13:29Since you raise the point – Zokora wasn’t ‘chased after’ by United or Arsenal. Like in Berbatov’s case, United were looking at several other options and didnt commit to Zokora (which would have been a pretty stupid thing to do).
And Davids is on his way out next year, Tainio, Ghaly, Huddlestone are not first-teamers, Murphy is out of favour…that leaves Jenas and Carrick, with Carrick tipped to leave for United.
And even if Carrick had stayed, United would have bought someone else and THAT person would be first choice, not Zokora. Add to that Tottenham’s commitment to the player and of course he was going to sign for them.
Shannon – compare the squads and tell me if a fully-fit Tottenham can beat a fully-fit Man Utd?
United need to target players and follow them to the hilt. Problem is, at Tottenham’s level those players are still 10 mil or under. At our level, we’re talking 20 mil at least.
August 7th, 2006 @ 13:41Let’s not be naive here, most new players come up with these comments when they join a new club. We all understand it to be so, but in spite of this get a little kick out of it.
However, the reason these particular comments are getting the publicity is to highlight MUs ineffective transfer tactics of swooping in at the last minute and expecting players to drop to their knees with gratitude.
It’s just to highlight the misplaced arrogance of the former top team and the papers print it because it makes most football fans feel good.
Sorry
August 7th, 2006 @ 13:42Hello, you can all argue that Spurs (who finished, what, 12 points behind us last season, which was a BAD season) are better than United, but the argument is that these two players said they’d rather have come to Spurs than Man U, and that really is BS. Are you serious? Champions League, contending for the title (no, Spurs aren’t doing that yet), etc, etc. I mean, Ahmed may have been riled up, but damn, it took a second for all of you to be riled up too. He’s not saying we’re better – that’s kind of obvious
He’s saying that Ballack snubbed us to win – fine. Did Berbatov and Zokora do that? I’m pretty confident the answer is no.
August 7th, 2006 @ 13:48Although many think (myself included) that Spurs are on the up and United are fading as the powerhouse they were. The fact is that Spurs did not beat any of the four teams above them last year (we got close though, Man U – shit defending from us, Arsenal – Robinson in the sun, Liverpool – Kewells volley, Chelsea – Jenus miss.) Until we do it will always bre open to debate. This year we will see, if last year was just a flash in the pan. I agree with most that Carrick is overpriced at 18.6 mill, and United payed well over the odds to apease the fans. Although he was a good player for us last year he slowed the game down too much, allowed the opposite to re-organize. It is quoted that he passed about 300 times and crossed about 100 times more than any other spurs player, of course he did, he took all the corners and most of the free kicks in the opposing teams half (Idont remember that many being that good). A good price for us Martin Jol knows what he’s doing.
August 7th, 2006 @ 13:52Rump, which is Ahmed’s point exactly. He’s saying everyone is getting a kick out of kicking United, often (as in this case) by a fair bit of stretching of the facts. If a player says he rejected us, it becomes a big deal – and no, TRUST ME, if we’d swooped in for Zokora and told him we wanted him bad, he’d have come. He’s just not good enough for us to have done that.
August 7th, 2006 @ 13:55I am somehow delighted while discovering that it is still so BIG a honor to say to people that you ‘refused’ Man Utd!
August 7th, 2006 @ 14:31I am glad that no spurs fan here flame the guy for his views. The article is fair, I suppose. Anyway as a spurs fan, I was really disappointed that Carrick went. I think he is a very good player with the right system and Martin Jol’s purchase of zokora is testament to the fact that he is building the system around carrick. We would miss him a bit this season, the price 18.65 is fair in my view if carrick is played in the right system he is worth every penny of it. But I have a suspicion that man U are not so sure, that is why so many of their senior people, Sir Bobby, SAF…etc etc came out for the record to justify the price. No one came out when they bot Veron…But carrick is another Veron, if man U failed with Veron, I hope they dun fail with Carrick, I like the chap…
Spurs is finally having a proper management structure in place. I would like us to challenge the top two, but I am realistic…we would be happy if we make top 4 this season. As for Man U…yah i agree with some of you, end of this season…we might struggle to see them at the top 4. My dad is a man U fan…hehe
August 7th, 2006 @ 14:54Zakora is the poor man’s Michael Essien.
August 7th, 2006 @ 14:56I’m now taking a leaf out of ferguson’s book. We are the better squad, all our penaltiess are deserved but we only get 1 in 4 clear cut ones none of the oppositions are, if one of our player gets sent off its the oppositions fault for diving or playacting. If we are winning then we will complain that the refs added too much time if we are losing we demand our statuatary 9mims that we got v A Villa in 1994 when the refs watch stopped and we won the prem.
In answer to your points fergie style, “We have an excellent squad and we are glad that you think thay our player are not to your standard we do not judge your standards only ours. I am certain that both Berbatov and Zokora will be excellent premiership players.”
A final comment to Manu fans: I noted a pre Abramovic Chelsea 2002 beating you in a live match at Trafford they were winning 3-0 after 55 mins. It was interesting to see a less than half filled theatre of dreams for 30mins. You were reigning champions then. But then as fergie says “I can have my cake and eat it, and I agree with Mike Gatting when he told the upmire One rule for one and one for another”
In Carrick you have a class act and we wish him well in the future.
August 7th, 2006 @ 16:30It does sound as though you are very bitter about something. It might be because man u supporters are paying for the Glaziers to take over your club and you have been taken over as the top club in England. Also a number of other clubs are very close behind you and in fact are nearly taking over you. IRO Carrick he is a very good player when he wants to be and 18.6 is a fantastic deal for spurs. This was a desperation signing. Look forward to finishing above you next season.
August 7th, 2006 @ 12:40Just a quick note to all Utd fans…..we have never suggested that we are bigger than you though the mere fact that you feel the need to post such an article suggests that the gap is narrowing. My perosnal belief is that Utd are on the way down and have been for the last 2-3 years and in that I mean you will not dominate english football like you did in the 90′s for a while yet. It is now Chelsea’s turn (unfortunatley)and I can’t see you challenging their superiority with your current setup (manager & owners).
I didn’t want Carrick to go but for the money we received I can not complain, if it were 12 months ago I would have been happy with 6 million, he had a good season. Carrick is very good, don’t get me wrong but he has to learn how to dominate games and take the game by the scruff of the neck…..he goes missing far too often for my liking. To justify the price tag, he needs to develop this side of his game sharpish.
Also if I was a United fan going in to the season, I would not be optimistic – as it goes you sell your only prolific striker and sign a midfielder who scored two goals in two seasons.
If it makes you feel better I would rather you win the league than Chelsea or Arsenal!!
August 7th, 2006 @ 16:51That is typical of Man Utd….if they don’t Cost £20m plus then they can’t be good enough for us….do you not think if you had Carrick in your side last year you might have challenged Chelsea more? He played jsut about every game for us and if he had done so for you how many goals might the horse faced one have scored?
August 7th, 2006 @ 16:53Look at Lennon…I suppose at £1m he wasn’t good enough for you, the same applies to Paul Robinson for £1.5m. And there current worth in the transfer market….who knows but probably at least 10 times as much each. Still…we’ll keep picking up these players and becoming a stronger side for it…enjoy the top 4 position while it lasts! COYS
Yeah but Man Utd’s problem is that any player who is actually worth 20 Mill+, wouldnt go to Man Utd nowadays.
The turning point seemed to be when Beckham was sold, He was like the Heartbeat of your club in a way. You lost alot of charisma when he left. Real, Chelsea and Barca are more fashinable nowadays, and fergie just looks like a smelly old man
August 7th, 2006 @ 19:00Don’t some of you all now feel stupid?
January 16th, 2009 @ 11:56