Papers: Valencia want Berba
The Daily Star reports... Valencia target Dimitar BerbatovValencia will make a renewed £12m bid for Manchester United flop Dimitar Berbatov in January. The Spanish giants made an offer for Berbatov during the last transfer window, which was rejected by Sir Alex Ferguson. But the Bulgarian striker has fallen behind the pecking order at old Trafford behind Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez and Michael Owen. Berbatov has stated more than once that he will quit Manchester United in the next transfer window unless the champions hand him a new deal. He is in the final 12 months of his current £100,000-a-week deal and can open talks with new clubs in January. Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan are also monitoring his situation. United have the option of extending his deal by a further 12 months between now and the end of the season. And they are considering triggering the option of adding another season to Berbatov’s deal to stop the £30.7m signing leaving for nothing next summer. But the former Tottenham hitman knows he could secure a more lucrative deal elsewhere as a free agent and will tell United he wants out unless a new offer is put on the table.
Meanwhile, Paul Scholes has revealed that the occasionally toe-curling tackling which underscored his career was, indeed, often deliberately exuberant. The freshly-retired midfielder is quoted in the Mirror as saying: "Of course I can tackle. There's plenty of evidence of being able to tackle. I was just getting people back. If someone got me early in the game it was always in the back of my mind that I needed to get them back. I didn't always do it on purpose, some of it was just bad timing, I suppose."