It’s a weird one using Berbatov as a yardstick. He did win something with us, but since we sold him we’ve won nothing. Yet the team did improved, as it did post Bale. That’s opening up the debate of a cup vs league performance and CL qualification being a barometer of success. Also know as the Pochettino’s Spurs, Martinez’s Wigan or Arteta’s Goon paradox.
At the time Berbs and Keane left for CL football and much higher wages at higher profile clubs, Berbs did pick up a couple of leagues as a cog in the United machine and Keane came back with his tail between his leagues after realising 70 minutes on the wing, for what at the time was the closed shop of a Sky 4 side isn’t as rewarding as being given 90 minutes and allowed a bad game for a top 6 one. Never the same player when he returned, even just a few months away there’s something to be said for the talismanic properties of having comfort in your surroundings and trust of your peers.
Even with a golden boot and a hat-trick against Liverpool, I’m not sure United fans revere Berns anything like the way we do. For me he froze as a player and lost the confidence and arrogance that made him special here. This came to the ultimate fruition when Fergie saw fit to drop him from the CL final bench for a hamstrung Owen. It’s a measure of the man that he rocked up to sign autographs at a match attaks gig at the stadium, playing very much second fiddle to Billy and Jez of the F2.
Le Tissier acknowledges that he could have won trophies for other teams, but also states that he has had a stand named after him and was voted the clubs greatest ever player. There are far fewer footballers who achieve that then pick up a medal in their careers. Is anyone seriously going to say Ben Davies had a better career than Kane for his milk cup gong with Swansea?
I don’t blame Kane if he wants the payrise, the opportunity to join a group that has every competitive advantage to win trophies in spite of as opposed to because of his contribution, or even for just wanting CL football. But if he should decide stay to try and drag the club he’s been a part of since he was ten upwards, that should be something to be applauded and respected.
160m is a monstrous amount of money but in football terms it is cheap, the top scorer in the league and top assists - he’d bring CL to City and widen the gap to the rest for his ability to take a pen alone. Context is all, more assists than De Bruyne and 7 more involvements than Penandes. 1 more than Mane and Salah combined. That’s with his dodgy ankles. You can buy 4 40m players but it’s still only one place on the field to replace.
By all means let’s insulate ourselves against the pain by chucking in the positives of strengthening the squad, but not to the degree that we downplay his contribution which is head and shoulders above anyone else here over the last 20 years. We’ve had a handful of world class performers in that time, I’m pretty sure a fit King would have been offered the opportunity to grace a higher plane and taken it. Berbatov, Modric and Bale left at the first sniff of bigger things, each using some threat of withholding their labour to grease the wheels.
People say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Truth is you knew you had it, you just never thought you’d lose it.
