ALEX FERGUSON may have made his peace with Arsene Wenger and seen off Jose Mourinho, but he made it clear last night that he still had a smouldering grudge against the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Daniel Levy, accusing him of "milking" the sale of Dimitar Berbatov and having "a problem" with Manchester United dating back to Michael Carrick's move to Old Trafford in 2006.
Levy was so incensed by Ferguson's pursuit of Berbatov that he accused the United manager of being "unbelievably hypocritical" and committing "probably one of the worst (tapping-up) offences by any manager in the Premier League to date".
Ferguson regards that outburst as "embarrassing" and yesterday he offered another perspective on why the transfer had caused so much friction.
"I think it was all because Berbatov was coming to Manchester United. If he had been going anywhere else there wouldn't have been so much of a furore. But for some reason Tottenham still regret selling Michael Carrick to us. That's their big problem. They regret selling him to us, even though they wanted to (at the time). They can't blame us for that."
Berbatov should face his former club at White Hart Lane today for the first time since moving to Old Trafford on transfer deadline day after several months of drawn-out, occasionally rancorous, talks. A late bid from Manchester City meant United had to increase their own offer from €29 million to €33.5 million, as well as allowing Fraizer Campbell to go to White Hart Lane on a season-long loan, and Ferguson is still unhappy about Levy's hard-line stance. "They milked it well on that last day - they milked it and they got Fraizer Campbell into the bargain. They got a good deal. They can't complain."
The transfer went through only after United stipulated that Levy withdrew his complaint to the Premier League about alleged illegal approaches, and Ferguson remembers it as the most complicated piece of transfer business he has ever known. "He (Berbatov) was very calm. But (United's chief executive) David Gill was on the phone all night up to eight minutes to the bell. It was a bit of an agony."
The suspension of Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra has left United light today, with Rio Ferdinand unlikely to be involved because of a back spasm and Cristiano Ronaldo among those needing a late fitness check, but Berbatov trained as normal yesterday and his sore Achilles should not keep him out.
"He's going to get the reception we expect in the modern day," Ferguson predicted. "He knows he's going to get a lot of abuse. Nobody likes getting abuse, but it's never any different. I applaud our own fans because it doesn't happen at Old Trafford. Paul Ince is probably the only one who gets a bit of abuse and that's simply because he played for Liverpool, but it's not really drastic. You saw it last week when Dwight Yorke came off for Sunderland and got a fantastic reception. But I don't think you will change it (elsewhere). It is modern society."
Meanwhile, When Harry Redknapp was told yesterday that Tottenham have taken fewer Premier League points from Manchester United than from any other team, he joked that he might dodge this afternoon's fixture to go Christmas shopping in Woolworths. Once the laughing subsided, however, he said Spurs were well equipped to stifle United's big guns - so long as the pain that permanently afflicts Ledley King's knee is tolerable.
"Ledley can handle anybody," said Redknapp. "I think he and Jonathan Woodgate are the best centre-back pairing in the league, along with Terry-Carvalho and Ferdinand-Vidic. But we won't know whether he'll play until we meet up an hour before the game. We never do."
Tottenham have taken King to a slew of specialists in an effort to repair his left knee but now accept that the 28-year-old will never fully heal. "There's no cure," said Redknapp. "There's no cartilage, nothing to operate on. It's just bone on bone. So it's just a question of managing it. It swells up after games and it normally takes seven days to recover but having played on Monday night he's had less time than usual. He rarely trains, he mostly just goes to the gym to keep himself ticking over. But even if he only plays 20 games a season, he's worth having because he's so good we have a much better chance of winning."
King's condition means he is unlikely to add to his 19 England caps. "If he plays for us on a Saturday, he can't play for England on a Wednesday," explained Redknapp. "It's impossible."
