Eric before we signed him was known to be absoulute trouble. Always dissing teammates. And in the past had even punched his coaches. But he had the talent. SAF knew such talent was worth the risk. All Eric needed was the right platform to blossom. A manager like SAF and a club like Manchester United gave him that. For he was surrounded by only real quality unlike at Leeds. Bring Berbatov to a club like United and he would explode.I’ve seen many bad boys reform at big clubs. Cantona was one. RVP at Arsenal springs to mind too. At Feyenoord he was what you’ve described Berbatov as. Yet At Arsenal he was been the model professional. I just think your animosity towards Bebatov is needless.

Secondly. I said we need 4 strikers. I never said he would be 4th choice. Just the 4th (man)striker on our books. One of 4 top forwards to compete for 2 starting roles. Just like in 99. Which is what we need. Which is to have competition/cover for the injury prone Saha & Rooney.

Cantona was well known for his training methods and commitment. He had actually revolutionized the training methods and as one other commenter pointed out above, helped kick the drinking culture in a big way for good. He used to be among the first to report to training and used to request Sir Alex to borrow some team mates to do some more training even in late hours. Plus, if you did read the second Guardian article I linked to in my post, you would see how Berba’s performance itself didn’t warrant him laying into his own team. He missed a couple of gilt edged chances in that match. So he shouldn’t have blamed the team for that.

Remember he was the darling of Bulgaria — a pin up boy in his country. He would have done something seriously wrong to have become a number one hate figure in his country.

The test of character of a player is when the chips are down. And he isn’t giving a good enough account of himself at the moment. I may be wrong, but right now it doesn’t look good for me.

Another flaw in your argument is using him as a 4th striker. 4th striker? He would cost upwards of 15-20 million pounds. That much for a back up beggars logic and common sense. Even the Glazers wouldn’t consent. I seriously doubt that given Tevez was signed. We would be well served with a player who would be average, good in the air and does the simple things well. I am not sure who that person could be, but for me it certainly will not be Berbatov.

Berbatov lays into his teammates because he is a winner. He is proud and hates losing. So don’t expect him to have kind words for his spurs teammates or Bulgaria team mates. That’s tehw ay of such geniuses like him.

WE obviously need 4 strikers at our club. And Berbatov would be a sensational addition as the 4th man. Period!

Use of foul language to some extent is allowed here. Attacking people is not. Hope you do get the difference before labelling someone a hypocrite.