Football transfers can often come out of nowhere, but few players only get five minutes to decide their future.
This is the story of Fraizer Campbell, whose Snap decision to join Tottenham on Deadline Day in 2008, Manchester United enabled to complete the signature of £ 30 million of Dimitar Berbatov. Campbell was about to agree on a loan movement to Wigan Athletic, but received a phone call from the nothing from Sir Alex Ferguson, who postponed the situation on a characteristic ruthless fashion.
“It was the international break, so I was with the England under the age of 20 or under the age of 21, I know I'm going on loan, and I'm at Steve Bruce, he was then in Wigan,” Campbell, 37, said Mutv's utd podcast. “So I'm waiting for the faxes to get through, so I could sign … And I get a phone call from a deducted number, so I had something like” Hello? “
“And [Sir Alex says:] 'Oh, Fraizer, it's Sir Alex here. I'm going to call you back in five minutes and you have to give me your answer. I have a deal for Berbatov, it is £ 30 million – it will only continue if you agree to go on loan. So I'm going to call you back with your decision in three or four minutes. You'll speak up like this. “And that's it. “
Desperate not to walk from Ferguson's notorious mood, Campbell agreed with the move. “I would hardly say no,” he joked. “So I told Steve and he said,” Ah no, you kill me. I came to take you to Wigan. “
“But I couldn't pass [Ferguson] Back and say: “No, I don't like to be honest.” I don't think that would have gone well, so I was just like: “Well, it looks like I'm going to track” – and that was it. “
So Campbell and Berbatov exchanged place, in a switch that was much more fertile for the Bulgarian. Bergatov, 44 spoke exclusively to mirror football, admitted that he was going crazy while waiting for the transfer to be completed.
“Believe me when I tell you that my mind was going crazy at the time because I came from a small country, this was my mountain top,” he said. “United was my mountain top. I saw myself there with one foot. The last day of the transfer window, all the things happened. Spurs wanted me to stay and did not go to United and then United said: 'We spoke with Spurs, you're done to go.
“And then you try to please everyone and you don't know what to do and my head and my mind went crazy. My family called, my friends drove me crazy.”
Even after the two clubs had agreed a deal, fate almost stood in the way. With just a few minutes before the transfer window closed, a wandering fax machine threatened to stimulate the movement.
“Come close to the last hour or minutes of the transfer window, there are also times when nothing happened and that made me angry. My agent got angry and desperate,” Berbatov recalled. “The fax did not work at some point.
“Everyone went crazy, but finally it happened and to be honest, I had no power left in my body to be happy. You were so much exhausted, you were happy, but you can't show it.”
The transfer immediately paid dividends for both Berbatov and United, with the objectives of the striker that help United in his debut season to Premier League Glory. Campbell, however, had difficulty having a lot of impact on White Hart Lane.
He only scored three times in 22 performances and only succeeded in the competition before he was sent back to the packaging to Old Trafford. That summer he went permanently for Sunderland and ended his 12-year-old association with the Red Devils.
Berbatov now scored 56 goals in only shy of 150 games for United. Shortly after achieving a second Premier League title with the club, he left for Fulham in 2012.
Reminder of the chaotic last hours of the Summer Cans Fander Star of 2008, Berbatov admitted: “[Playing for Manchester United was] My personal ambition. I kept telling myself: “This is the chance, don't let it slip,” because you will regret it if you do that. “
Comments