Fletcher sure Berbs can prove to be the £30m man - 7M sport

Fletcher sure Berbs can prove to be the £30m man



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Posted Saturday, July 17, 2010 by mirrorfootbal

Fletcher sure Berbs can prove to be the £30m man

Darren Fletcher has backed Manchester United team-mate Dimitar Berbatov to finally justify his £30million transfer fee.

The Old Trafford jury is still out on Berbatov after two seasons in which he has scored just 26 goals in 86 appearances and failed to reproduce the dazzling form that persuaded Sir Alex Ferguson to sign him from Tottenham.

Towards the end of last season, Fergie hinted that he shared the frustration of the United fans over Berbatov, when he said he was “glad we kept faith with Dimitar”.

It was suggesting he, too, had his doubts after the Bulgarian’s slow start to his United career.

But when Chelsea came to Old Trafford near the end of last season for what was effectively a title decider, Berbatov led the attack in the absence of the injured Rooney.

He failed to convince yet again, leading to claims Fergie was ready to cut his losses on the Bulgarian.

But Berbatov, 29, has survived and the pressure will be on him to hit the ground running when the new season starts because of absentees

Rooney is unlikely to begin the season following his extended break after the World Cup, Michael Owen is recovering from injury and new signing Javier Hernandez has yet to make his United debut.

United midfielder Fletcher believes Berbatov is not destined to join £28m former United midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron as one of the most expensive flops in the club’s history.

“Dimitar is a great player,” said Fletcher. “He has fantastic ability. I can’t see him going anywhere. He’s an important part of the team. It’s a squad game at Manchester United and Dimitar is an important part of that squad.

“He’s a good guy. He’s a great lad to have around. Dimitar has a lot of experience and for all our younger players and younger strikers, I am sure they can learn a lot from him.”

Without, among others, World Cup finalists Rooney, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Ji-Sung Park and Michael Carrick, United have brought an inexperienced squad on their pre-season tour of Canada and the US, including new signing Chris Smalling. Fergie said the fact he needed to give his World Cup players extra time off proved the case for a winter break.

“The World Cup players will have 28 days rest,” said Fergie. “The English season is exhausting. If you think about December, mostly we play between eight and nine games at the worst time of the year.

“The pitches are heavier, the weather is worse and then in the second half of the season you’ll find a lot of players at all clubs carrying strains and pulls.

“But because of the importance of the games, they keep on playing.

“When they get to the end of the season and have a tournament like a World Cup or European Championship, they’re not 100 per cent fit - they can’t be.

“They need that rest factor which brings the energy back.”



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