Sunderland last night made a move to sign £5 million Dimitar Berbatov as the race for the Manchester United misfit begins to hot up. Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg are also thought to have contacted Old Trafford yesterday with Berbatov now very much surplus to requirements. Black Catsâ boss Martin OâNeill â who has also made a £10m bid for Manchester City winger Adam Johnson â is thought to have made contact with Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday about a deal to buy the 31-year-old Bulgarian. After the arrival of £24m Robin van Persie from Arsenal, Berbatov is completely out of the picture at United. Ferguson has made it clear his four strikers for the season are the Dutch goal ace, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Mexican Javier Hernandez. After shelling out £30.75m to Tottenham for Berbatov back in 2008, United want £5m for the player after taking up an optional extra yearâs contract on the classy striker this summer. That was insurance in case they couldnât persuade Arsenal to sell them Van Persie. Sunderland have also captured free agent Louis Saha on a one-year deal after the French striker left Tottenham. Johnson is also on OâNeillâs radar and itâs believed Sunderland have offered £10m for the City and England winger who has found it difficult to hold a regular place at the Etihad Stadium. But with Tottenham and Everton also apparently interested in the 25-year-old attacker, Johnson is believed to be weighing up his options before deciding whether to make a fresh start back in the north-east. Signed from Middlesbrough for £8m at the end of the January 2010 transfer window, he is frustrated at his lack of first-team starts at City. He is worried about losing his England place and is planning talks with boss Roberto Mancini this week about his future. Mancini last night hinted he will let Johnson go only if he gets players in before the transfer window shuts. He said: âWe will have time to talk about this after we play Southampton but itâs difficult for us because we need to have players. When we start Champions League games we play every three days for 10 months. âAdam is a player that deserves to play because he is a good player â but sometimes itâs not easy because I can only play 11 players. I understand his position. Every player that canât play is frustrated.â
Mmmmm! £5m for Berbatov? He will be on at least £100k + per week at Utd and too rich for us and imo he isn't suited to our game. Johnson is on big money but at 25 represents better value and we may be able to negotiate with City over wages. If we got AJ I'd be very happy and I do think we have a chance. If we got DB it would be interesting but maybe this is just a rouse to put the frighteners on Wolves for Fletcher?
Maybe Johnson will see the light and understand the value of regular games rather than big bucks. Home town team, local hero etc as well as becoming a linchpin for the team. Fingers crossed.
Any time you can get a player like berba at a club like ours you bring him in and try to make it work and ask questions later! I doubt very much we're even in the hunt for him tbh - he's got eastern European champions league team written all over him. As for AJ, we can only hope there too - but at least we're a decent chance
A nice thought but, one word wages that is where he will decide where to go who pays the most. At present that looks like Zenit.
There's a lot of journalists on twitter saying he is Actually signing for us today. This will be an incredible signing if we can pull it off. The biggest I can remember.
Maybe's adam j. just might be on his way to his native sunderland (easington) hope your spot on with this one poolie. ktf
yer I don't think we will get Berbatov If we got Johnson, Fletcher and Guidetti for our attacking options I would be extremely happy bring in a couple of full backs as well (seems like the Croatian for LB) and maybe a gamble signing CM from la liga for 2m or so who will add abit of class and creativity and we will be ready
Can't see it myself, probably end up with Fletcher and Ince or something. Probably still take them like
Berb will go to some Russian or Chinese club for ridiculous wages. Johnson would be a great buy, and I could maybe see it happening, but his wage demands would be 80k min. You willing to pay that?
Signing Berbatov would be such a coup and I would love it. He feels he wasn't given a proper chance at Man U and that's exactly the type of person MoN likes to work with, someone who still feels they have something to prove. Yes his wage demands may be high but if he is available for £5m then that's £10m less than Wolves want for Fletcher, which would allow us to pay Berba £100k a week for 2 years or so. Guidetti would also be a great signing I think, but does anyone know how his injury is? He had some mystery virus that caused his right leg to have no feeling in it, which I guess is a bit of a problem for most footballers! It goes without saying that I feel Johnson would be perfect for our club, let's hope this time he realises what side his bread is buttered on and comes to us.
The talk of Berbatov potentially coming both excites and worries in the same breath. If we were to use him in a creative role from deeper in midfield and behind a Fletcher, Saha or Guidetti then it could be a massive coup but if he were to be the focal point of the attack I don't think he would fit into that system personally. However, what could not be denied is the huge statement it would make as to where we are as a club right now, as Berbatov is a top, top quality footballer, if not everyone's cuppa when it comes to work rate. Interesting stuff though.
Johnston, Berb and Gudetti would be awesome, but I will wait and see what happens, all three should be preferred to Fletcher?
It's only paper talk, neither one will come to Sunderland, decent players only want to go to the North West or London
-----------Mig---------- Bardo--JOS--Cuellar--LB/Ricco ----------Catts--------- Johnson----Sess----McClean -----------Berba-------- ----Fletcher/Guidetti------ Would like to see an out an out LB come in, and we have seen MoN playing McClean on the right in pre-season so maybe a change for him if AJ comes in. I would love to see that line up against Reading next week but can't see it personally
Got to agree with this. Berba or Guidetti or Fletcher would all give him a decent target. MON talked about a few coming in so I am sure he thinks this also.
