Dimitar Berbatov, Manchester United
Dimitar Berbatov has hinted he may go into coaching in the future, and has described what made Sir Alex Ferguson so great at Manchester United.
Dimitar Berbatov said “It’s in my my head, but probably it’s in the head of every ex-football player because we all think that we can be good managers, which is not true, of course. But I have my thoughts and my ideas in my head. I would like to do it probably, but I would like to do it probably in England, because I love it there. Maybe down the line, when I’m ready and prepared to do it, because this is a big challenge. Well, it’s not going to be easy [to manage a player like me]! But as we grow old, everybody is developing and learning things. Wes [Brown] can say better than me, that when you’ve been in charge under Sir Alex, you saw how he can communicate with everybody differently, so for me this is the most important thing: to know how to speak with each and every player individually, because everybody is different. And if you know your players, you know how to speak with them, because everybody’s motivated by different things. Somebody needs to be calm here… give them a couple of motivating words. Others react maybe to a slap in the head, for example. Different kind of things, so you know how to keep the spirits high. Even if the guy is not playing, he can still feel part of the team, because when he goes on the pitch after that you want him to play well, not to be like, ‘What the —-, I’m not playing, I don’t want to be a sub’. That was one of the reasons Sir Alex was so good. Because he can explain to you, ‘Well, son, you’re not going to play next time’. But he was explaining to you that you can understand. You know that you’re not going to play but you accept it, in a way that he’s manipulating you, in a way, and you’re going home with a smile on your face, and you’re not like: ‘Why am I not playing?’ That was very interesting for me, and I would like to get into the psychology of this with the players.”
Berbatov enjoyed four successful years at Old Trafford after arriving from Tottenham in 2008, before moving on to Fulham. After spells at Monaco, PAOK in Greece and Kerala Blasters in India, Berbatov hung up his boots in 2018. The former striker has admitted that he may head down the coaching route.
