How Would You Spend £30 Million?

When Dimitar Berbatov signed for Manchester United just over a year ago, I was not one of the first people in the queue to get his name on the back of my shirt.

I felt he was a great player. I also felt his style did not fit in with that of United.

A year later, I still do not have his name on the back of my shirt but I have found I was wrong about one thing. He is not a great player.

As a football fan, I can admire some of his touches, his flicks and even his laid back style. But the cold fact is, I could do some of the flicks he does in the park with my friends, and I do not have a multi-million pound contract from the world's biggest club.

Berbatov would do well in a team like Tottenham, as he has shown...but he just cannot cope with the speed, work-rate, and consistency required at a place like Old Trafford.

The man just cannot finish. I'm not sure if it is the expectation and pressure on him that is playing tricks with his mind, but he really cannot seem to put the ball in the back of the net on any kind of basis, never mind a regular one.

Watching the Manchester derby, he had so many good chances, mainly headers, and like subsequent weeks, he wasted them. Now, I'm not saying they were easy chances, but a striker like Ruud Van Nistelrooy would have scored, as would the man Berbatov is supposed to resemble; the King, Eric Cantona.

I cannot let this opportunity go to apologise to Darren Fletcher. I was one of those fans who sighed and groaned when Ferguson brought him on. I didn't feel he could cut it, but he has persisted and established himself in the United midfield, albeit a weak one compared to those of the past decade.

I just hope Berbatov will do what Fletcher has done and answer me and the rest of his critics because at the moment I have never seen a bigger waste of £30 million walk onto a football pitch.

Michael Owen on the other hand, less expensive to sign than a penny sweet, could possibly prove to be the best piece of business this summer if he continues to do the things Berbatov cannot: keep a cool head and finish when it matters.

Best wishes to United this season and for their sake, Dimitar Berbatov. It will be a difficult and possibly somewhat disappointing one.

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think.