Daniel Levy has claimed that Dimitar Berbatov twice refused to play for Tottenham as he looked to secure a move away from the club.

The Bulgarian striker joined Manchester United at the end of the summer after months of speculation about his future.

Spurs had struggled on the pitch before Berbatov's departure and Levy believes the whole transfer saga had unsettled the squad.

Chairman Levy also maintains that Berbatov opted out of Premier League games against Sunderland and Chelsea.

"We had a player who had refused to play two games for us, having a detrimental affect on the dressing-room," said Levy.

"We'd known for a year that the player had wanted out of this club."

Tottenham signed Berbatov from Bayer Leverkusen in 2006 and Levy feels the club helped to put him on the footballing map.

Diappointed

Levy insists that Berbatov wanted to move to Old Trafford in 2007, adding: "We were very disappointed.

"Dimitar Berbatov was a player who we brought to this club at a time when Man Utd were interested in him.

"He made a conscious decision to come to this club, we invested a lot of money, nobody had ever heard of Dimitar Berbatov when we bought him.

"A year later with 10 days to go to the end of the window he tells us he wants to leave to go to Manchester United."

Levy thinks Berbatov's conduct then - and a year later when he eventually moved for £30million - amounted to treating Tottenham with contempt.

"I don't think he treated this club with the respect that we honestly deserved," Levy explained.

"We put him on the map, I think he's an outstanding player, but he signed a long-term contract with this club and I think he should have stayed.

"I had so many conversations with him. He kept saying it was about his ambition to play for Manchester United. It wasn't a money issue. We offered him a new contract and he wasn't even interested in discussing it."