Winners, Losers and Nasty Sir Alex

With the end of one of the most climactic transfer deadline days ever, the footballing world now sits back and assesses the damage. And what a world of damage it is. Without a doubt, the upheaval of fortunes at Manchester City which saw them trump Chelsea and sign Robinho, has to be the most amazing story of them all. Could any right minded person have predicted that ‘the next Pele’ would be plying his trade with the blue half of Manchester? He may not be that good, but, make no mistake, Robinho is one of the world’s best or, at least, most promising. Will he fit in the Premier League? Maybe not. But big name signings make headline and City have stolen all of them this morning.

Yet, who else came out of yesterday’s soap opera better or worse off? A more interesting story was the painfully, protracted transfer of Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United from Spurs. This story had been running all summer, like a an endless courtship, and finally reached a head at the very last minute last night. But the ramifications are still high profile. Firstly, lets look at Man Utd and, in particular, their manager.

Sir Alex had been pursuing Berbatov all summer, relentlessly harassing Spurs and barking at reporters when asked about his progress. Tottenham, in no position to sell, rightly said no every time, claiming that Utd weren’t offering the right money. When Man City made their audacious bid yesterday, Tottenham accepted it, as it was the correct valuation and the player wanted to leave - maybe not to City but that was beside the point. Sir Alex must have been fuming. You could imagine the contortions on his face when being informed that Spurs had said yes to City.

So, in typical, disgraceful fashion, Sir Alex brought Berbatov to Old Trafford and began sorting out a deal, without the permission of Spurs. The way he saw it, the player wanted to be at Utd so he’d get him there and then sort out his current club after. Ferguson has divine right, you see. If he wants a player, he should get the player, regardless of who he plays for and what that team wants. Should Berbatov go, Spurs would be short of a striker so Ferguson threw in Frazier Campbell to the equation to sweeten the deal. Spurs got their 30 million pounds but they didn’t get it in time to get a good enough replacement. This may have been their fault, yes, but it is in the interests of Man Utd haters to blame them.

Sir Alex also ensured that Tottenham agreed to drop their charges against Man Utd for their pursuit of Berbatov. He really did get his own way, 100%. Like he always does, Ferguson proverbially bullied enough people to get the right result for him. One can only hope that the FA has the balls to investigate Utd’s approach of Berbatov further. Nothing was said in public but you can bet Ferguson and other Man Utd personnel were calling, texting, e-mailing and convincing Berbatov all summer long. All the time without the permission of Tottenham. It is sad to say but Spurs have been forced and bullied into selling Berbatov to Utd and there’s nothing to stop it happening again in the future.

The bare facts of the saga are as follows: Spurs will get £31 million for Berbatov plus Frazier Campbell on a season long loan deal. Berbatov has a four year contract at Man Utd. Spurs didn’t have enough time to sign the replacements talked about so have a slightly weakened strike force of Darren Bent, Fraizer Campbell and Roman Pavlyuchenko. Utd sealed the deal with ten minutes to go before the deadline. Ten minutes between Sir Alex getting what he wanted and not.

One can only hope Man Utd lose out this season now, purely from a vengeful point of view. It is nothing against Berbatov. Yes he was a bit moody but most Spurs fans understood his need to play for a better team and to win trophies. The desire for Utd to fail is aimed wholeheartedly at their manager. Their manager, who illegally and immorally, pursued another teams player and signed him against all interests of fair play and decency.

I really, really loathe him.