Spurs say £30m for Berbatov or we stick him in the reserves

The game of brinkmanship between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United over the future of Dimitar Berbatov intensified last night when the London club indicated that they would be willing to consign the striker to the reserves rather than sell him to the Premier League champions for anything less than their £30m valuation of him.

Spurs, having rejected United's opening £20m bid for the 27-year-old Bulgarian, are awaiting an improved offer but relations between the clubs are strained after Tottenham complained to the Premier League alleging United had inappropriately pursued Berbatov.

The Spurs manager, Juande Ramos, spoke with the striker on Friday and deemed him not "focused enough" to feature against Sunderland on Saturday, with an attitude that would not "be good for the dressing room and the team effort".

Although that statement appeared to offer United the initiative in their pursuit of Berbatov as they prepared an improved and apparently final bid of £25m, Spurs moved swiftly yesterday to indicate that they were willing to relegate him to the second string, where he would remain even after the closure of the transfer window, should United not offer the full £30m. The Tottenham hierarchy would argue that he was not psychologically ready to represent the first team, leaving him in limbo with two years to run on his contract.

Compromise is still likely to be reached before Monday's midnight deadline, but Spurs are dismayed that no real interest has been expressed in the striker by any other club.

Tottenham's own pursuit of reinforcements will go down to the wire. They are still interested in the Ajax forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and the River Plate striker Radamel Falcao, who was watched by their scouts at the weekend. The merits of the Wigan forward Emile Heskey have also been discussed.

There remains the possibility of Andrei Arshavin, the Russia playmaker who has long been targeted by Ramos, moving to White Hart Lane after Zenit St Petersburg secured the Portuguese midfielder Danny - full name Daniel Miguel Alves Gomes - from Dynamo Moscow for a Russian-record £24m. Arshavin was left out of Zenit's side for their win over Krylya Sovetov at the weekend and, despite Tottenham insisting publicly that they had "moved on" in their search for recruits, the 27-year-old remains an attractive target.