UnitedViews

A slight revision needed to my article on the Levy/Berbatov/United rumble. It seems that Fergie was mis-quoted and never actually named Berbatov as the player in the frame, so apologies to SAF (an avid reader, I’m sure) for this mistake. It all makes Levy look more foolish than before. Clearly he issued the statement without talking to United first, which is naive at best. Incidentally, anyone who has read Daniel Taylor’s excellent book (details) will know that the journalist concerned will be in big trouble next year.

So where do things go from here? Will United sue Spurs? No. I doubt it very much. Spurs are too big a club to fall out with. They are too useful both as suppliers and potential purchasers of players. I’m sure that between then them the two clubs will patch things up, blaming the media (always a safe Aunt Sally) in the process.

Will United still want to buy Berbatov?

Yep. In fact they’re in real danger of having all their eggs in one basket on this one. Do we have any Plan B? I don’t think so.

Will Spurs still sell us the player?

Yes. They need the money. I’ve seen Spurs supporting banging on on other sites about how United are the ones in debt and Spurs are in the black. Therefore United have less money than Spurs. Well, no, actually. How much you can afford to invest in the business relates to how much money you can expect to get back. United’s turnover last year was £212M; Spurs’ was £103M. Perhaps more significant than turnover is profit. Well for the calendar year 2007, Spurs made a pre-tax profit a shade under £19.7M. They made all that money in the first half of the year, however. In the second half, they made a small loss (source: http://www.footballeconomy.com/archive/archive_2008_mar_22.htm). In the same year, United turned a profit of £42.3M (source: http://www.finfacts.ie/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_1012300.shtml).

United can expect turnover to be up again in 2008 following the EPL/Champions’ League double. Profit will obviously be determined by outlay. Spurs’ turnover may well be up as well following their run to Carling Cup victory (although they faded badly in the league) but the gap will be greater this year than last, I’m sure.

In other words, if Spurs want to improve their squad next year with the likes of Bentley and Pavlyuchenko then they do need to sell first. They will sell us Berbatov, unless someone outbids us.