Tottenham have lodged an official complaint to the Premier League over the transfer window conduct of Manchester United and Liverpool.Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed United have made a bid for Dimitar Berbatov and eventually expects the deal to go through.
Spurs have also been angered by the comments of Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, who went public last week by revealing Republic of Ireland captain Robbie Keane as a target.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has issued the following statement on his club's official website: "Today's public comments by Manchester United's manager, announcing that he has made an offer for Dimitar and is confident that the deal will go through with time working in their favour, is a blatant example of sheer arrogance and interference with one of our players.
"It is also probably one of the worst offences by any manager in the Premier League to date and is unbelievably hypocritical given his recent comments in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid.
"This comes after a series of events, dating back to last summer, which have shown Manchester United to be in breach of Premier League rules.
"As a result, we have today made an official complaint to the Premier League about the conduct of Manchester United.
"Benitez made similar comments in respect of Robbie recently and we made an official complaint to the Premier League about the conduct of Liverpool earlier this week.
"The behaviour of both clubs has been disgraceful. We told both clubs very early on that we had no interest in selling Robbie or Dimitar, respectively, and that they should refrain from pursuing the player.
"Both clubs arrogantly chose to ignore this request and we now have evidence that both clubs have systematically been working to prise the players away from us, outside of Premier League rules of conduct.
"Our subsequent position has been severely compromised by both clubs making their intentions widely known and indeed making contact with the players and their agents, without the club's permission.
"I have absolutely no wish to sell either player and to date we have not accepted any offer for either.
"However, when a player's head is turned and their commitment is absent, particularly when they occupy key positions such as that of striker, they become a negative influence in a team dressing room in which they were once a positive addition and influence.
"This is the situation we now have on our hands, with both Dimitar and Robbie having made it clear that they wish to leave for Manchester Utd and Liverpool respectively.
"Irrespective of the outcome and futures of Robbie and Dimitar, we are continuing to seek to bring in quality, talented players for the future, who want to play in a Spurs shirt."
Benitez and Spurs have clashed before, in March 2006, when the Liverpool boss claimed Spurs were "desperate" to sell Jermain Defoe and take Djibril Cisse.
It led to Benitez's professionalism being questioned by Spurs officials, and the latest fall-out is unlikely to help the relationship between the clubs.
Aston Villa had already been upset this summer by Benitez's comments regarding Gareth Barry's potential move to Anfield.
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Comment 1 - 11 of 11
Well Chris A that is exactly the arrogant attitude Mr Levy refers to. All clubs will soon be nowhere clubs if all it takes is the cash of MUFC and CFC et al to kill ambitions of the teams who want to make a competition out of the premiership. You may as well go watch your first squad play the second every week.
spurs are a nowhere club going nowhere as i stated its the money they want ,
also the spurs board are saying this because they will try to blame man u for him leaving , but its the board who want to sell him and cash in on him , but they would look bad to the fans if they just took the money so they have to blame someone to make it ok , money is the jewish dream and more they get the more they want but they have to look honest in getting it , so you spurs fans look at your board first ok ,
Carl.garden, how are we trying to unsettle Berbatov? We made an offer. Spurs can say yes or no. It's how the transfer market works. Real, on the other hand, had their manager and president publicly declare their interest in Ronaldo (mostly through their own newspaper) and NEVER made United an offer.
Well said ManUtdUSA - theres a huge dufference between unsettling a player and actually making a firm offer!
of course ManUtdUSA... never a problem when its manu trying to unsettle a player is it?
spurs have made it clear that they dont want to sell - gloves on the other foot now init? double standards or what!!! muppet
All clubs do it, not one club out there that can say they never have!
Chelsea did it with Gerrard and again this season with Torres, Real with Ronaldo, United with Berbatov, Liverpool with Barry and Keane and Martin O' Neil is no angel either!
Some blame has to be aimed at the newspapers because we rely on them for the truth in these reports and they aint always forward with the truth are they!
Blomin comic rags lol
Have Real Madrid tabled an offer or have I missed it all Fergi has done is to confirm an offer did Dimitar want to leave last season and everybody called him a sulk
man u are scum... it has no relation to article but i like saying it.
How is it hypocritical when we have actually mad a bid? Real Madrid are still yet to table an offer. United made a bid, the player has said he wants to come and Fergie has just said it looks likely that we;ll get him.
Where's the problem?
Typical.Man utd moan when its about Ronaldo then do the same themselves.Unbelievable and what hypocrites!
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