The Bulgarian's capture bucked the trend in last summer's Old Trafford transfer market business plan.
But United will not be revisiting the one-off strategy that saw them splash a club record fee of £30.75m for a 27-year-old.
It wasn't the norm for a club who specialise in producing their own young talent and snapping up targets in the early to mid-20s bracket.
It is understood that United will not be chasing the signatures of players at the peak age of 27 and beyond.
Berbatov was an isolated case 12 months ago as Sir Alex Ferguson tweaked his 2008 Premier League title and Champions League winning squad.
Value
But in a financial sense it was done with a heavy heart. The Reds gave Berbatov a four-year contract when he moved from Spurs knowing that when the deal expires in 2012 they will recoup little of their record fee if the striker is sold on at 31 years of age.
Indeed, from the moment they sanctioned the astronomical cheque the Reds hierarchy knew Berbatov's residual value would dip substantially.
Having made that exception in the Bulgarian's case United are keen to revert to the policy they have adhered to since the previous similar deal of £28.1m for 26-year-old Juan Sebastian Veron in 2001.
Since then United have steadfastly pursued younger players with a potential profit in sell-on value or at least someone who wouldn't see the club suffering a huge loss if he did move on.
A £30m deal and a six-year contract for Wayne Rooney at the age of 18 ticks the boxes on the Reds transfer blueprint.
Of course, Cristiano Ronaldo's case is very much the perfect scenario.
Bought for £12.5m as an 18-year-old and sold for a £67.5m profit six years later. That's the stuff of dreams for any bean counter.
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That's the golden nugget United's backroom staff and scouting network will be looking to unearth again.
Thus, the Reds are highly unlikely to be going down the Berbatov road again.
It could rule out a number of top name potential targets who are in the transfer mix this summer.
Valencia's David Villa, who is likely to stay in Spain with either Real Madrid or Barcelona, is 28 this December and will command a £35m transfer fee. That's Berbatov territory and effectively means the Spaniard is a no go for the Premier League champions.
Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o has also been linked with numerous clubs this summer, including United, but at 28 the Cameroon striker is too old and too costly.
Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery is also unlikely to be on the hit list.
The French midfielder is 26 and his German employers value him at over £50m.
Real striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar could be border line.
The prolific Dutch goalscorer will be 26 in August. However, he could possibly leave the Bernabeu for a more sensible £20m transfer fee which might entice United.
But possible targets like Karim Benzema of Lyon who is 21, Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero, 21, and Brazilian Douglas Costa from Gremio who is only 18 and has a £21m release clause really do fit snugly into United's transfer guidelines.
Talent
It is why the Reds are happy to pursue Wigan's 23-year-old winger Antonio Valencia for £16m.
It is also why Carlos Tevez at 25 and costing the agreed £25.5m fee still comes within the parameters.
With the Reds keen to stick to nurturing their own Academy talent like Danny Welbeck, Federico Macheda and Davide Petrucci, and bringing in Partizan Belgrade's Adem Ljajic in January whilst continuing to search the younger end of the transfer market they will also have a keen eye on the under-21 European Championships.
Ones to watch in the Scandinavian tournament are the likes of the Belarus' powerful 22-year-old midfielder Sergei Kryvets who plays for FC Bate.
Gojko Kacar of Serbia is a 22-year-old goal-scoring midfielder-cum-striker and Marcus Berg, 22, with Sweden is earning a growing reputation as a poaching hitman for Groningen in the Dutch league.
Who would you like to see United go for? Have your say.
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So buying unknowns from the u-21'S is the future?
Isn't that what citeh used to do?
Since when has a "resale" value on players ever been important to us?And since when have 26-year olds been "border line.?"
We've never been a selling club and we shouldn't start now.We should be looking to buy players like Eto'o who can hit the ground running,not kids who may not even like living in England!
If any of this article is true I'm begining to feel seriously worried about the prospects for next season.We simply can't justify selling our better players,replacing them with kids no-one has heard of then putting up the price of season tickets.
Spurs have stung us twice over the transfers for berba and carrick, maybe we should buy there negotiator in the transfer window, still cant believe we only sold beckham for 24million and van nistelroy for 10 million.
Pity this piece does'nt explain why Fergie was so desperate to pay the ludicrous price for Berba and its hardly surprising that we don't intend to make the same mistake again.
United do not want Tevez and that's been obvious for the last 12 months - otherwise they could have signed him up? They have simply refused to do so and run down his loan periodaccordingly.
The pressure on Berbatov next season is immense. The fans aren't totally convinced and United need plenty of goals to make up Ron's shortfall. I'll keep my fingers crossed that he bags nearer 30 than 20.
Aguero,Costas and Sanchez would be ideal buys this transfer window!All greats in the making,all United types of players!I can't understand why we bought Berba personally!But,In Fergie we trust!
its all about balance, i posted on another thread anderson,nani ..maybe costa macheda ,wellbeck all well and good, but i agree ETO can come in and do what we want maybe luca toni , amybe klose , why must we buy benzema now, why cant we negotiate with lyon to take him in 12-18 months ? too many kids and prospects is also not a great idea especially as im not too confident we actually are in a position with our backroom staff to dramatically improve them..ronaldo being an exception
Got my Euro U21s matches booked and am looking forward to seeing the 'sons of Vidic' (apologies to George): Adem and Zoran.
Berbatov was the missing link, give him a break he will get better, that is unless his play has also been effected by the tactics of Fergie.
i for one trust SAF and i do have a feeling that he is chasing or watching 1 or 2 players that the media does not expect, as for the article I hope and wish that we at the end could get Ibrahomivich , he is a player that fits , age wise and in the EPL, strong, skillful and big, I did not like him a year ago and did not think much of him, but after watching him against us(2nd game in particular) and in a couple of games in the italian lg i changed my mind and i hink 50-60m will be too much but ok. I do not mind 2 Milner and lennon for (15/20) each and we are ready, for next season, oh yes and get rid of Nani,nev.,Gibson, Kurczwhatever or Loan them, another crazy solution is Walcott and one of Adabayor/V persie/Arseshaven for 50-60 (you weaken them too). there U go Sir Alex, my two cents..
This is a refreshing piece. We've already splashed the cash in years gone by and along with a good youth policy it has reaped dividends. I'm not sure I understand where 'paranoid from Essex' is coming from. You go on about [in other posts] the Glazers not investing in the club and complaining about ticket prices yet you would like to see us spend ridiculous amounts of money on players that will ultimately drain the financial resources of the club - what do you think will happen to the ticket prices if every player we buy we lose tens of millions of pounds on?
Seeing as we can't compete with Madrid and Chelsea in the transfer market it would be nice to see Fergie pit his wits against the best by unearthing a few young talents like Ajax used to do. They competed at the top level and and massive profits from the players they groomed and eventually sold on.
It is exactly what he's done with Ronaldo and what he did with the Class of 92, but in between those times it's been about beating the British transfer record time and again and I'm bored of it. There have been encouraging signs that he realises that is the way forward with the Brazilian contingent he's brought in and with supposed current targets, and I for one will be a lot more excited about a United team full of youthful enthusiasm over one full of pouting egocentric galacticos.
Will there really be any glory in Madrid winning the Champions League next season after spending £140 million on arguably the two best players in the world? And they haven't finished spending yet?
"We simply can't justify selling our better players,replacing them with kids no-one has heard of then putting up the price of season tickets."
Hmmmm did we not do that very thing with Ronaldo?
David Villa is 27, but make absolutely no mistake. He will score goals for fun for years to come. He's fast and clinical - exactly what Berbatov isn't. Apparently the deal between Real and Valencia for Villa has fallen through - what a wonderful opportunity!
Yes must hand it to Fergie he really found two winners in Pique and Rossi god job he sold them!
Hetixo grimes, you do have to do both.
Arsenal Im sure has the potential to create an EPL winning side but they rely on youth only. United havent been able to to compete with Chelsea (add Real and Man City) for a while. But they have spent when needed and that has stopped us being an also ran.
But football is starting to look like the housing market - everyone knows it can't continue yet clubs stretch and keep spending till it all goes belly up. And it will.
So in one sense I hope SAF doesnt spend widely. We wont have 80m to spend for many years yet, unless some new mega rich benefactor comes along and that will bring its own problems.
I agree with "hetixo grimes", and cant understand One of the "Paranoid supporters", Essex. spending large amounts of money on players that are un proven in the prem doesnt make sense and never will. You only have to look at our current team were there is a nice flow of youngsters coming through, Anderson, Da Silvas, Evans, Welbeck, Macheda, fletcher, most of which have been with the club for a while and are starting to show there worth!!
Dont you remember veron? Classy player not proven in the prem and didnt cut the mustard at Utd or Chelski.
Two summers ago United - SAF and CQ - appeared to pull of a masterstroke. Nani and Andserson were snapped up right at the start of the summer followed by Hargreaves. And then we had our summer saga - Tevez.
The move sent out a message that United were getting the best talent and it caught the rest on the hop. OT was abuzz.
Fast forward two years and what happened? First season was good - all 4 scored top penalties in Moscow. Second season and all four have questions marks over them. Tevez will go, Hargreaves may never play effectively again, Nani is not the new Ronaldo and the jury is still out on Anderson despite the abvious potential.
Lesson from all this? Can't always judge a signing after 12 or even 24 months.
Bebaslob is worth about 40p now I reckon, Nice that City made sure the price went up several notches before you signed him - Magic!
you got Robinho instead!taken off by Brazil along with Elano.you wouldnt have known either were on the pitch as Egypt came back from 3-1 down. brazil did win the game once those two were taken off though!!!
whoever we sign have to be ready made proven top quality, we can't afford to sign potential maybes, we have to replace rons goals,creativity and pace.
benzema a must up front hes young but hes proven his quality over a few seasons from a young age.
right wing for me valencia isn't the answer we need an outstanding player to come in and i don't think he is,ribery from munich or silva of valencia.
we need a central midfielder who can control a game keep possession has great vision can score goals in the double figures a special player as it really shocked me how our midfield couldn't math up to barca's
bernie, to be fair, Elano scored a cracking goal.
I can understand this policy and it is the one we are more used to at Manchester United. The signing of Berbatov was something unique. As would Man Utd going out and signing Frank Ribery. Ferguson prefers to look for players around 23-24 or younger. Its not easy however to keep getting young 18 year olds and being patient. When we signed Ronaldo we did not win the title for three years. That isn't his fault but we were in a transitional period whereby we were waiting for these guys to learn and progress. If we can be patient again and be happy to excpet that winning the title will be difficult we could begin introducing Welbeck, Macheda, Tosic, Ljelic, Petrucci, Possebon, Fabio to the first team, just as Rafeal and Evans have. These guys need to play more football in the first team and in the Premiership, not just Carling Cup. You add possible arrivals like Douglas Costa and Javier Pastore to the mix and we would have a terrific group. Long-term the benefits will be great, however short-term it may result in lack of success.
...and Dukinfield Bertie Berbatov has a championship medal ,and pray tell me who had any trophy at city last season?Go join Manc and a bertie in his tripe shop ,you seem to be well qualified.
In my opinion we already have the answer to our midfield problem. His name is Rooney! Put him at the apex of a midfield triangle, with Carrick & Hargreaves/Fletcher & I reckon he would provide the artistry, passion, possession & inspiration shown to be sadly lacking there against Barcalona.
Out with the old and in with new for city also .33 RD SEASON on the trot, the trophy room dust ,and cobwebs swept away from the forlorn antiquity known as citys trophy room in the anticipation of a new dawn.
Some things never change!