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HITMAN: Chelsea will make a British record offer for Berbatov
Sunday January 6,2008
By Paul Hetherington
CHELSEA will make a British record offer of £32million for Spurs’ hitman Dimitar Berbatov – and Tottenham, despite insisting the Bulgarian striker is not for sale, will accept their bid.
The only threat to the deal is if the ambitious Berbatov, 26, waits to see if Manchester United join the battle to sign him – but that would be unlikely to happen until the summer.
Spurs have already decided how to spend the money – they are looking to replace Berbatov with £10m Swede Johan Elmander, who plays for French club Toulouse.
Berbatov will not be the last of Chelsea’s spending this month. They are chasing Bolton striker Nicolas Anelka and will sign Serbia’s centre-half Branislav Ivanovic on Tuesday.
Ivanovic, 23, is arriving from Lokomotiv Moscow for £8.9m.
Chelsea boss Avram Grant, though, also wants striker reinforcements because he is losing Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou this month to the African Nations Cup.
And there is also the fear that former Stamford Bridge boss Jose Mourinho will come calling for Drogba in the summer if he takes over as coach of Barcelona, AC Milan or Bayern Munich.
But Spurs have told Berbatov he won’t be allowed to go until after their Carling Cup clashes with Arsenal.
That means the unsettled Bulgarian striker and his agent will have barely a week to sort out his move.
The second leg of the League Cup semi-final between the north London rivals takes place on January 22 – just eight full days before the transfer window shuts.
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