Manchester has Monopoly on Transfers:Robinho to City; Berbatov to United

Monday was Labor Day in the U.S., but it was Europe's clubs hard at work shuffling players and contracts before the slamming shut of the transfer window.

The biggest winner is clearly Manchester City which snared Robinho from Real Madrid, and away from Chelsea for 32.5 million pounds. This news came on the heels of an announcement that Abu Dhabi United Group will buy the club from human rights violator Thaksin Shinawatra.

The greatest irony is that Robinho's first showing in a City sweater is against Chelsea on the 13th. ESPN reports that Real did not want to sell the Brazilian to Chelsea, despite Robinho's pleas to move to Stamford Bridge. City's emergence into the deal was a welcome sight for Real, Soccernet says.

Real coach Bernd Schuster did not want to lose Robinho, and tried to head the deal off at every pass. "He's a great kid, but badly advised," Schuster said.

Robinho's is not the only saga to end Monday. Dimitar Berbatov finally joined Manchester United, for less money than Robinho (30.7 million).

Berbatov brings some much needed offense to United, which awaits Cristiano Ronaldo's return from an ankle injury. Ronaldo said this weekend he hopes to be back by the end of the month, far ahead of schedule.

United has not had the best start in defense of its title, most recently, losing the UEFA SuperCup to Zenit St. Petersburg, 2-1, on Friday.

Berbatov, Arshavin at Center of UEFA Super Cup Clash

Three months ago, Friday's UEFA Super Cup between Manchester United and Zenit St. Petersburg would have been really interesting. Remember waaaay back in May when United was in top form breezing through the Premier League and narrowly beating Chelsea for the Champions League. And remember when Zenit was dominating all comers--Bayern Munich in particular--on its way to the UEFA Cup title.

Cristiano Ronaldo was at his dominant best, wrapping up a 40-plus-goal season, and Andrei Arshavin was a relative no-name carrying his nondescript team to one of Europe's major championships.

It would have been interesting to see if this little-train-that-could from Russia could topple the might United.

But now? This week? Eh.

Forget for a second that it's essentially still the pre-season, the two teams are quite different from the teams that wrapped up the '07-'08 campaign. Ronaldo is on the shelf for a while with his infamously bum ankle--and he's still waiting on a move to Real Madrid. And Arshavin? He made his name at Euro 2008 where he was one of the brightest stars and lifting Russia to the semifinals where it lost to eventual champions Spain. Arshavin scored only two goals, but he was clearly a special player and a dangerous playmaker. That has garnered him loads of attention from clubs in western Europe.

Arshavin is one of the players at the center of the Dimitar Berbatov soap opera. Berbatov wants to go to United--he was seen signing a United jersey this weekend. Tottenham, which already lost Robbie Keane to Liverpool, won't let its star striker go unless it has a replacement, and Spurs say they're willing to let Berbatov "rot" in the reserves until their price is met. Arshavin, meanwhile, is one of a host of players reportedly in line for Berbatov's spot at White Hart Lane. But Zenit won't let him go for cheap, and Arshavin too was on the bench for Zenit's 3-1 loss last weekend. Zenit is sixth in Russia after 19 games.

Zenit, however, has landed young Portuguese star and Sporting Lisbon academy prodigy Danny for 30M pounds. Does this open the door for Arshavin's departure? Amazingly, all of these fortunes are intertwined, and someone has to blink first for the remaining dominoes to fall.

As for the Super Cup, United gets a slew of players back in its lineup, including Nani and Ryan Giggs. Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves remain sidelined with injuries. Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez still haven't shown a lot of flash or punch up front. There's a lot to sort out, especially with back-to-back Premier League showdowns with Liverpool (Sept. 13) and Chelsea (Sept. 21) closing in. It's doubtful Sir Alex Ferguson will go all-out to win this one, and neither will Zenit, which is in the middle of its season and scrapping for a Champions League spot.

Super Cup? Super Dud? Your call.

Wither Berbatov? Arshavin? Huntelaar?

Oliver Kay at the Times of London reports the Dimitar Berbatov will sign with Manchester United within days. United apparently re-opened negotiations with the Tottenham star and the magic number is now 25M pounds, after 20.5M had been rejected. The teams have until Aug. 31 to come to terms before the current transfer window closes.

Finally there may be an end to this novela. Tottenham boss Juande Ramos left Berbatov on the bench this weekend because he was psychologically unfit to play, and Tottenham fans flipped after Sunderland came to White Hart Lane and won 2-1.

Berbatov will play up front Old Trafford with Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney. But who steps in at Tottenham? And why, 25M pounds notwithstanding, would Tottenham let him go without a viable replacement.

Zenit St. Petersburg, apparently still in the afterglow of its UEFA Cup win, won't part with Andrei Arshavin after talking serious numbers in the neighborhood of 20M pounds. Dutch scorer Huntelaar is also reportedly in the mix for the Tottenham post. Coach Dick Advocaat, however, says the saga is wearing on his team as well, that Arshavin's head wasn't in the game this weekend as Zenit lost 3-1 to Shinnik Yaroslav.

"He's constantly wondering if they'll let him go or not,'' Advocaat said. ''He's waiting by his phone for calls from his agent.''