Berbatov leaves, with Levy's principles not far behind

Last updated : 02 September 2008 By Gareth Davies

Dimitar Berbatov has completed his painfully drawn out move to Manchester United. The Bulgarian striker has cost the Champions £30.75m. The deal also sees youngster Fraizer Campbell move the other way on a season long loan.

Berbatov's departure has been an inevitability for a very long time so in itself his departure is no shock. The most galling part of the deal, however, is that Daniel Levy has agreed to drop his complaint to the FA against Manchester United.

So for the price of a few extra million added to the transfer fee, Levy has, in effect, allowed Alex Ferguson and Manchester United to buy him off. Despite all his apparent shock and disgust at the actions of both United and Liverpool, in the end Levy proved his principles can be bought as easily as his top players.

The whole affair has been a complete shambles from start to finish and yet somehow few Spurs fans will be surprised we have ended the transfer window without fully replacing Keane or Berbatov. Yes new signing Roman Pavlyuchenko comes with a big reputation but we've sold two top quality strikers, not one.

Instead of allowing the mercenary Berbatov to move when his head was first turned Levy dug his heels in, and for what? Was it to uphold the honour of the club or the rules of football as he claimed? Of course not.

Instead Levy steadfastly refused to countenance selling Berbatov to United, not because we aren't a selling club or he wanted to hold on to one of our top players, but because he was trying to prove a point, both to the fans and to Sir Alex. In the end the only point he proved was that when it comes to the crunch he'll act in his own interests, not for the good of the club.

Those who are reading this and thinking that he has done well to get such a massive fee for our best player are not seeing the big picture. Sure Levy has the art of squeezing teams for every penny he can get down to a fine art but this deal was significant for other reasons.

OK, the money has always been reinvested in the club and no doubt that will continue. Yet all this shows the top four sides is that rules and regulations mean nothing. This was never about United going behind our backs, it was all about the money.

In every battle there is a winner and in this case that man is Alex Ferguson. It couldn't really have worked out any better for him as he sees his club secure their number one transfer target and the prospect of a nasty court battle dissolve. He also has the nice little bonus of allowing one his decent prospects to get Premiership experience at a club who have no chance of challenging for a place in the Champions League any time soon.

Oh well, who really cares. I mean what's the point in moaning on about principles when it's pretty clear no one has any in football any more. In sport a where a team can go from the brink of financial ruin to breaking the British transfer record in the space of no more than a week, why should anything be a surprise?

Strangely no explanation from Mr Levy at this point. Perhaps he's too busy tucked up in bed to think of any meaningless platitudes about how the club's hand was forced and how the fee is more compensation for the terrible way the club has been treated.

Pull the other one Daniel.