TEDDY Sheringham has jumped to the defence of Dimitar Berbatov ’s – telling his the snipers to lay off the £30m striker.
The Bulgarian international has cut a frustrating figure in his first season at Old Trafford, failing to live up to his massive price tag.
His season reached its lowest point in the Champions League final defeat to Barcelona last week when Sir Alex Ferguson only brought him on as a 66th minute substitute.
The Reds’ boss preferred Ryan Giggs to his record signing from the start – and called for Carlos Tevez at half-time before finally turning to the former Spurs’ ace.
But Sheringham, who endured his own difficulties in his first season at Old Trafford in 1997, insists Berbatov will become a United hero.
“He is an outstanding player,” said Sheringham. “Sometimes it takes people longer to fit in at a club in terms of the lifestyle and the football, which is probably what’s happened to him.
“But I’ve watched him and I’ve every confidence he will be even better next season. I’ve seen him be outstanding for Tottenham and I’m sure he will be again.”
Berbatov managed a creditable 14 goals in his debut season and made the second most number of assists, alongside Steven Gerrard, Cesc Fabregas and Frank Lampard, in the Premier League with 10.
Goals
Only Robin van Persie, with 11, set up more goals.
But still the 28-year-old has been roundly criticised.
Fergie has remained a staunch supporter of the player he went to so much effort to prise from Tottenham at the start of last season – but his decision to leave him out of the Champions League semi-finals with Arsenal and the final in Rome, suggested even the United manager has begun to run out of patience.
Sheringham also had to cope with the pressure of being compared with Eric Cantona – in his case coming in as a direct replacement for the Frenchman.
Sheringham also scored 14 goals in his first season at United, but came in for criticism for managing only four in the second half of the campaign.
It prompted Fergie to splash out a then club record £12.6m on Dwight Yorke and also try to land Patrick Kluivert. But Sheringham still became a United legend, winning three Premier League titles and scoring the crucial equaliser in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich in 99.
“I was very similar to Berbatov in terms of the way I looked as a player,” said Teddy. “I didn’t look like I was running around either. But just because he is not like a Wayne Rooney or Carlos Tevez doesn’t mean he doesn’t work.
“Whether or not he’s compared to Cantona won’t make any difference at all. Whatever club you go to you will be replacing someone. And when you leave, someone will replace you.
“You put pressure on yourself, but as long as you do your best, hopefully that will be enough. You have to keep faith in your own ability and know that you are a good player.”
What do you think? Have your say.
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Showing comments 1 to 10 and replies | View All
Red Dawn (03/06/2009 at 12:34)
Kris-Kross, Ashton Under Lyne (03/06/2009 at 13:19)
omo, ksa (03/06/2009 at 13:55)
T.LESS, SALE (03/06/2009 at 17:57)
manu expert (03/06/2009 at 19:45)
what sets fergie appart from other great managers is, he's always reinventing himself after every 3 or 5 years. while managers like lippi, cappello,hitszfeld,hiddink,van gaal,wenger and probably mourinho all have there own certain way of playing and they stick to it during whole of there career's
regardless of the success it brings or not.
fergie's teams does'nt have certain system or a fixed way of playing, he is always willing to adapt or change if it's necessery . what fergie does is, he always takes the best bits out of other managers and puts it in his team. ( even though he will never admit it!) take for instance, in the 90's he tried to copy lippi's team juventus, which had a strong defence, then he changed his team to be more attack minded like madrid, and now fergie is confident that the chelsea way (which is the mourinho way) is the the best way in europe, which is basically a 4 5 1 defensive system.
we have probably the best squad in the pl and thats the reason why we have won the league three years in row. where did fergie get that idea from? answer: mourinho.
when mourinho first came here he said he wanted two players for every position and what happens? he wins two league titles in a row. so mourinho showed fergie the advantage of having a big squad.
if all of you wondering where fergie got he's rotation policy from? well believe it or not he nicked that from rafa!. rafa proved by rotating you can keep players fresh for the champions league.
where rafa failed and fergie succeeded is, rafa never had a quality enough squad too rotate and get the same results, while we have.
so as we were beaten by a attack minded barcelona team in rome dont be surprised if fergie reverts back to the attacking philosophy!.
We Shall Overcome, STOCKPORT (04/06/2009 at 10:06)
Dimi by name, dimi by nature.
Just admit to yourself that you made a mistake last August and jump in Carlos's taxi.
TAXI FOR TEVEZ HEHEHEHEHE
Yaba Daba Blue (04/06/2009 at 18:39)
Siralex, Stavanger (04/06/2009 at 20:10)
Do more than respond to me that he would not have taken the penalty in the Champions League final if there have been news. At me such a statement does things weird, and not as one expects of a top-attack player. Whether we like it or not he is at least one more season in the United. The best we can do is give him support and, to hope that he will score more goals next season.
Leif Arild, Stavanger / Norway
reddevil4ever, India (04/06/2009 at 20:43)
I agree with Teddy, it takes a champion to recognise one !
red (04/06/2009 at 23:53)