Dimitar Berbatov picked up much of his English from American gangster movies, but now he is the one in the line of fire. A hero in scoring 23 goals last season, the Tottenham Hotspur forward has been cast as the villain of this campaign. His disgruntled body language is not the reaction that Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, would have wanted to see after Berbatov’s request to leave for Old Trafford was turned down in the summer. Ferguson will expect him to knuckle down if he is to revive his interest and that could come soon, after Emil Dantchev, the player’s agent, and Ivan, his father, flew to London last night for talks with Tottenham. They will hope to secure a move for Berbatov in January.

As a reward for his goals, Berbatov’s pay was increased to £60,000 a week two months ago, when a transfer get-out clause of about £28 million is believed to have been inserted into his contract, the length of which - until 2010 - was not altered. Berbatov had several disagreements with Martin Jol, the former Tottenham manager, this season but his parting shot was to tell the Dutchman that they both needed to move to bigger clubs.

Juande Ramos has used his first week in charge of Tottenham to work on the defence and to speak individually to players. “I have not started to evaluate their personal situation,” Ramos said. “Berbatov is obviously an integral member of the team. I’ve seen him quite happy in training and quite committed. I don’t know if his mood is the normal one or if he’s better or worse than before. As weeks go by I will evaluate if he’s happy or not.”

Berbatov’s languid style on the pitch has often deceived people into believing that he is lazy. The difference this season is that he has scored only two goals and has not been testing the opposing goalkeeper. But it was about this time last year that Berbatov found his rhythm, first in the Uefa Cup and then the top flight, to score six in as many matches. Last season also showed that he can go on runs of five matches or so without a goal, but return with a flurry. Some of his desire appears to have returned in the past two matches and he created the opening goal in the 2-0 win over Blackpool in the Carling Cup on Wednesday.

“He’s one of the best players we have and I would love to count on him for a long time,” Ramos said. “But we know what the situation is.”

Ramos’s reign may have begun with a victory against a Coca-Cola Championship side, but he will be aware that, after they play Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium today, his team face tricky matches away to West Ham United, Portsmouth and Arsenal before Christmas. They will also need to avoid defeat against Hapoel Tel-Aviv on Thursday to stand a realistic chance of qualifying from their Uefa Cup group. “There are many things I need to prepare and implement,” Ramos said. “Nothing fazes me.”