Man Utd Fan CLub

Tuesday 3 July 2012

No Movement on Berbatov

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed there is currently no deal in the pipeline which would see Dimitar Berbatov leave Manchester United, but confirmed Paul Pogba is to join Juventus and hit out at a lack of respect from the French midfielder.

Berbatov has become increasingly marginalised at Old Trafford and started only three matches after the turn of the year with a further three appearances from the bench. Despite sharing the Premier League golden boot with Carlos Tevez in 2010-11, he made only 12 league appearances last season though still managed to score seven goals.

Although Berbatov was out of contract this summer United had a year's extension in their favour, which means the club will hope to recoup at least some of the £30.75 million fee they paid to Tottenham Hotspur four years ago.

There had been interest in the 31-year-old from clubs in the Bundesliga, where Berbatov spent five successful seasons with Bayer Leverkusen, but there have been no concrete offers. Turkish club Galatasaray have indicated they want to sign the striker too.

"I don't think I treated Dimitar unfairly but he can feel disappointed that he didn't get more football," he told MUTV. "He's a fantastic footballer. It wasn't a great season for him last season, partly because I settled more with Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck... and Chicharito [Javier Hernandez].

"He's a fantastic talent. Nothing has happened with Dimitar and he'll join the tour to South Africa and China."

United's pre-season tour begins with two games in South Africa against AmaZulu FC and Ajax Cape Town before they move on to China to face Shanghai Shenhua, Norway where they will play Valerenga+ Sweden to take on Barcelona and finishing in Germany against Hannover 96.

Although Berbatov remains a United player for now, there is still the chance that he could leave over the course of the transfer window.

Pogba, meanwhile, is to join Juventus after the Serie A champions' long pursuit for his services. Sir Alex was fuming about the player's conduct, saying: "Paul Pogba signed for Juventus a long time ago as far as we're aware. I don't think he showed us any respect at all.

"I'm quite happy that if they carry on that way, they're probably better doing it away from us.''

Another promising young player, Ezekiel Fryers, is also out of contract and although he has been offered a new deal the Red Devils are currently in the dark as to whether he will return.

"We haven't heard anything from Zeki Fryers,'' Sir Alex added. "I don't know what's happening there but he's not been in touch with the club. His agent hasn't been in touch with the club and I can only assume he'll be back for training.''

Sir Alex brought Pogba into the first team picture in March as rumours of a move to Italy grew. But it became clear that was not enough to keep the France Under-19 international, who United signed from Le Havre in 2009, and he did not feature in the first team squad again after being an unused substitute against Wigan on April 11.

There could yet be more new faces coming in, following on from the signings of Shinji Kagawa from Borussia Dortmund and Nick Powell from Crewe Alexandra.

"Yes, there's a possibility," said Sir Alex. "We're working on one or two things but there's nothing really to tell you to be honest.

"We always try to get our work done at the end of the season - we spent a good deal of time sorting the deal with Shinji and we'd agreed a deal with Nick Powell before the play-offs which was a good move by us because the boy had an outstanding final at Wembley.

"When you don't get deals done immediately and you're negotiating with a club over a long period, then you can't expect to just snap your fingers and get it done."

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