Kurtzen
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- Jan 13, 2006
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Guardian 'Bye-bye Berba' plus
There is a fine line between languid genius and louche waste of space, and Dimitar Berbatov is in danger of crossing it. Martin Jol has been staunch in his defence of the forward since leaving Tottenham, but it is hard to reconcile a series of lethargic performances that have brought just two goals in 14 games this season with the player who so thrilled White Hart Lane last year.
"He is worried about not scoring," his agent, Emil Dantchev, said. "But he sees the situation clearly and knows that Tottenham are lacking the player who can make that killer pass that leads to a goal." Blaming others is becoming a sad trait for Berbatov, but this isn't even an excuse that holds water, not when Robbie Keane sits second in the Premier League scoring charts, not when Tottenham have scored more this season than all but three teams in the Premier League, not when what they most obviously lack is any semblance of a defence.
The other justification his apologists tend to offer is that Berbatov has always been a slow starter. Jol commented with characteristic dryness in the summer that he hoped Berbatov would start scoring before Christmas this season, and it is worth pointing out that at this stage last year he had scored just once in the league and three times in the Uefa Cup. Whether that is acceptable for a professional is debatable, but in any case there is a difference.
For one thing, last season was his first in English football and a certain bedding-in process is only to be expected; for another, last season, even if he wasn't scoring, he looked lively and bristled with a sense of purpose. This season, since being denied a penalty as Paul McShane dispossessed him after he'd rounded Craig Gordon against Sunderland in the first half of the first game of the season, Berbatov has looked generally uninterested.
It is little wonder that Dantchev earlier this week had a chat and a coffee (or "crisis talks", depending on your vernacular) with Damien Comolli, Tottenham's sporting director. It was clearly over the top when the Bulgarian sports papers 7-Days Sport and Topsport both reported the news of Jol's departure with the headline 'BERBATOV SACKS JOL' (even 24 Hours, one of the more serious papers, went with 'BERBATOV KICKS OUT JOL'), but the player must bear a degree of responsibility for the team's malaise. On a practical level, he is no longer helping Spurs clear their lines by holding the ball up; while his palpable air of disillusionment must be infecting the atmosphere at Spurs just as much as it is feeding off it.
It is not just Tottenham fans who are growing frustrated. The mood in Bulgaria is turning against Berbatov too. He was noted, loved even, for his shy, undemonstrative nature. The story is fondly told of how his mother walked into the teenage Berbatov's bedroom to find him doodling dreamily on a school exercise book. When he hurriedly hid it from her view, she assumed he was mooning over some girl, only to discover that what he was actually drawing was the badge of CSKA Sofia, the club where he eventually made his name.
That innocence is long gone.
There were suggestions in the summer that Berbatov, after a successful season in the Premiership and having been linked with a move to Manchester United, had returned to Bulgaria rather full of himself. That, in fairness, is not an uncommon accusation when players from Europe's smaller leagues return home having made it big, but the complaints were given credence by Berbatov's reaction to Bulgaria's 2-0 defeat to Holland in a Euro 2008 qualifier in September.
In the dressing room after the game, Berbatov, who is captain of his country and their highest-profile player, laid into his team-mates, blaming the goalkeeper, Dimitar Ivankov, for an error that cost a goal, attacking the defence for their supposed sloppiness, and accusing the midfield of making his job impossible by failing to supply him with passes of sufficient quality. That he himself had missed two highly presentable chances was ignored.
It was that incident that really set the anti-Berbatov reaction in motion, and it has snowballed since. There have been reports that he has fallen out with Aston Villa's Stilian Petrov and that he lectured the national coach Dimitar Penev, and he had a well-publicised row with a fan following a recent friendly. His apparent reluctance to come on as a substitute in the 3-1 defeat at Newcastle only confirmed the impression of a sulking prima donna.
"In only a few months, Berbatov has managed to lose everything he had at Tottenham," a comment in 7-Days Sport read. "He has lost the love of the fans and the English media, and his good-boy image. Now he has to be perfect, because every missed chance, every poor pass will hurt him. His only salvation lies in goals." The assessment is bleak, but probably correct. Berbatov, with his intelligence, his touch and his superb chest control, offers a team far more than just goals, but it is only solid statistics that can rescue his reputation now.
"I don't see why having coffee with him [Comolli] means there is difficulty for Berbatov at Tottenham," Dantchev said yesterday. "It is a normal meeting; Dimitar is under contract with Tottenham and it is just a meeting to discuss general questions, nothing special."
Which would be fine, if it weren't for the comments he had made in Bulgaria last week. "Let's not talk about this in detail," he said then, "but there are three serious clubs who are interested in him. The question of his transfer is very complicated. Now is not the time to talk about it because there are two months before the winter transfer window comes." The implication, though, was that there would come a time and it would be sooner rather than later.
It would be no surprise if Berbatov were to leave in January, and, with three other international forwards in the squad, Spurs fans could hardly be blamed if they were glad to see the back of him: once it has gone, it is very hard to rekindle the magic. Perhaps Berbatov began as the victim of the extraordinary circumstances that have engulfed Tottenham, but by the end he was an agent in Jol's decline.
Jonathan Wilson Guardian 7.11.07
A Reply by Grunchy(Guardian blog):
First of all there are so many things about Berbatov, that you don`t know, and i address my opinion against the author. Second of all with all this media frenzy there are 2 people that are responsible. The first one is Berbatov, and the second one is his agent. In Bulgaria we have only 2 agents, that worth something. If u ask me they worth nothing, but that is another topic. The first one is Luchezar Tanev, who represents 99% of the Bulgarian players, and the second one is Emil Dantchev, who represents only Berbatov, sinci Dimi was a teenager. He is a simple man, not very smart, and extremely not aware of how complicate British football is. So he things that if he start gossips with Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid, this will only increase the salary of Berbatov and his own cut. Berbatov in other hand is not very intelligent either, and is stupid enough to let the media talk to his stupid agent.
The main problem with Dimitar is that he can`t handle his fame, and he is not verbal enough. And is full of idiots who speaks of his behalf. His mother, his father, always talk how he must go to Real Madrid or Barcelona.
But if you analyse berbatov himself, he is no doubt very gifted player. But he is not a leader, and he will never score 3 goals, when your team is playing shit. He is a kind of player who makes a good team great, but will never start a fight or brake the legg of the oponent. This is not him. The worst part of him is that he simply can`t pick up himself when is on the ground. He starts to blame everybody else but not himself.
About Tottenham and Martin Jol. With all my respect to the spur fans but you have great past, no present, and cloudy future. Jol wasn`t so great at all, and probably those two fifth places in a row, are the most expensive in the history of EPL. And there is one thing i really don't understand. How can you lack a left wing, and buy a teenage left defender (Gareth Bale) to fulfill this void, and buy a fourth forward to warm the bench for almost 20 million pounds witch drain your transfery kitty. Third of all your so called captain is practically dead for football for the past 2 years (Leadly King) and you can`t find a decent replacement. And fourth your team is full of failet promises like ZOkora, Jenas, and the way i see it Lennon is going fast in the same direction.
There is a fine line between languid genius and louche waste of space, and Dimitar Berbatov is in danger of crossing it. Martin Jol has been staunch in his defence of the forward since leaving Tottenham, but it is hard to reconcile a series of lethargic performances that have brought just two goals in 14 games this season with the player who so thrilled White Hart Lane last year.
"He is worried about not scoring," his agent, Emil Dantchev, said. "But he sees the situation clearly and knows that Tottenham are lacking the player who can make that killer pass that leads to a goal." Blaming others is becoming a sad trait for Berbatov, but this isn't even an excuse that holds water, not when Robbie Keane sits second in the Premier League scoring charts, not when Tottenham have scored more this season than all but three teams in the Premier League, not when what they most obviously lack is any semblance of a defence.
The other justification his apologists tend to offer is that Berbatov has always been a slow starter. Jol commented with characteristic dryness in the summer that he hoped Berbatov would start scoring before Christmas this season, and it is worth pointing out that at this stage last year he had scored just once in the league and three times in the Uefa Cup. Whether that is acceptable for a professional is debatable, but in any case there is a difference.
For one thing, last season was his first in English football and a certain bedding-in process is only to be expected; for another, last season, even if he wasn't scoring, he looked lively and bristled with a sense of purpose. This season, since being denied a penalty as Paul McShane dispossessed him after he'd rounded Craig Gordon against Sunderland in the first half of the first game of the season, Berbatov has looked generally uninterested.
It is little wonder that Dantchev earlier this week had a chat and a coffee (or "crisis talks", depending on your vernacular) with Damien Comolli, Tottenham's sporting director. It was clearly over the top when the Bulgarian sports papers 7-Days Sport and Topsport both reported the news of Jol's departure with the headline 'BERBATOV SACKS JOL' (even 24 Hours, one of the more serious papers, went with 'BERBATOV KICKS OUT JOL'), but the player must bear a degree of responsibility for the team's malaise. On a practical level, he is no longer helping Spurs clear their lines by holding the ball up; while his palpable air of disillusionment must be infecting the atmosphere at Spurs just as much as it is feeding off it.
It is not just Tottenham fans who are growing frustrated. The mood in Bulgaria is turning against Berbatov too. He was noted, loved even, for his shy, undemonstrative nature. The story is fondly told of how his mother walked into the teenage Berbatov's bedroom to find him doodling dreamily on a school exercise book. When he hurriedly hid it from her view, she assumed he was mooning over some girl, only to discover that what he was actually drawing was the badge of CSKA Sofia, the club where he eventually made his name.
That innocence is long gone.
There were suggestions in the summer that Berbatov, after a successful season in the Premiership and having been linked with a move to Manchester United, had returned to Bulgaria rather full of himself. That, in fairness, is not an uncommon accusation when players from Europe's smaller leagues return home having made it big, but the complaints were given credence by Berbatov's reaction to Bulgaria's 2-0 defeat to Holland in a Euro 2008 qualifier in September.
In the dressing room after the game, Berbatov, who is captain of his country and their highest-profile player, laid into his team-mates, blaming the goalkeeper, Dimitar Ivankov, for an error that cost a goal, attacking the defence for their supposed sloppiness, and accusing the midfield of making his job impossible by failing to supply him with passes of sufficient quality. That he himself had missed two highly presentable chances was ignored.
It was that incident that really set the anti-Berbatov reaction in motion, and it has snowballed since. There have been reports that he has fallen out with Aston Villa's Stilian Petrov and that he lectured the national coach Dimitar Penev, and he had a well-publicised row with a fan following a recent friendly. His apparent reluctance to come on as a substitute in the 3-1 defeat at Newcastle only confirmed the impression of a sulking prima donna.
"In only a few months, Berbatov has managed to lose everything he had at Tottenham," a comment in 7-Days Sport read. "He has lost the love of the fans and the English media, and his good-boy image. Now he has to be perfect, because every missed chance, every poor pass will hurt him. His only salvation lies in goals." The assessment is bleak, but probably correct. Berbatov, with his intelligence, his touch and his superb chest control, offers a team far more than just goals, but it is only solid statistics that can rescue his reputation now.
"I don't see why having coffee with him [Comolli] means there is difficulty for Berbatov at Tottenham," Dantchev said yesterday. "It is a normal meeting; Dimitar is under contract with Tottenham and it is just a meeting to discuss general questions, nothing special."
Which would be fine, if it weren't for the comments he had made in Bulgaria last week. "Let's not talk about this in detail," he said then, "but there are three serious clubs who are interested in him. The question of his transfer is very complicated. Now is not the time to talk about it because there are two months before the winter transfer window comes." The implication, though, was that there would come a time and it would be sooner rather than later.
It would be no surprise if Berbatov were to leave in January, and, with three other international forwards in the squad, Spurs fans could hardly be blamed if they were glad to see the back of him: once it has gone, it is very hard to rekindle the magic. Perhaps Berbatov began as the victim of the extraordinary circumstances that have engulfed Tottenham, but by the end he was an agent in Jol's decline.
Jonathan Wilson Guardian 7.11.07
A Reply by Grunchy(Guardian blog):
First of all there are so many things about Berbatov, that you don`t know, and i address my opinion against the author. Second of all with all this media frenzy there are 2 people that are responsible. The first one is Berbatov, and the second one is his agent. In Bulgaria we have only 2 agents, that worth something. If u ask me they worth nothing, but that is another topic. The first one is Luchezar Tanev, who represents 99% of the Bulgarian players, and the second one is Emil Dantchev, who represents only Berbatov, sinci Dimi was a teenager. He is a simple man, not very smart, and extremely not aware of how complicate British football is. So he things that if he start gossips with Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid, this will only increase the salary of Berbatov and his own cut. Berbatov in other hand is not very intelligent either, and is stupid enough to let the media talk to his stupid agent.
The main problem with Dimitar is that he can`t handle his fame, and he is not verbal enough. And is full of idiots who speaks of his behalf. His mother, his father, always talk how he must go to Real Madrid or Barcelona.
But if you analyse berbatov himself, he is no doubt very gifted player. But he is not a leader, and he will never score 3 goals, when your team is playing shit. He is a kind of player who makes a good team great, but will never start a fight or brake the legg of the oponent. This is not him. The worst part of him is that he simply can`t pick up himself when is on the ground. He starts to blame everybody else but not himself.
About Tottenham and Martin Jol. With all my respect to the spur fans but you have great past, no present, and cloudy future. Jol wasn`t so great at all, and probably those two fifth places in a row, are the most expensive in the history of EPL. And there is one thing i really don't understand. How can you lack a left wing, and buy a teenage left defender (Gareth Bale) to fulfill this void, and buy a fourth forward to warm the bench for almost 20 million pounds witch drain your transfery kitty. Third of all your so called captain is practically dead for football for the past 2 years (Leadly King) and you can`t find a decent replacement. And fourth your team is full of failet promises like ZOkora, Jenas, and the way i see it Lennon is going fast in the same direction.
