Berra ready to end Fletcher feud
Wednesday 30th June 2010, 10:08AM BST.
Wolves defender Christophe Berra is ready to bury the hatchet with Steven Fletcher now the two have joined forces at Molineux.
Fletcher’s club record £7million arrival from Burnley has brought together two players who used to be at each other’s throats in the Edinburgh derby, Berra for Hearts and Fletcher with Hibernian.
Matters came to a head just before Berra’s £2.3million move to Wolves in December 2008, when the defender was accused of having “leapt like a trout” by then Hibs’ boss and ex-Wolves forward Mixu Paatelainen in response to a challenge that got Fletcher sent off in a Scottish Cup fourth round tie.
Paatelainen claimed there was no contact from Fletcher and Hearts rubbed salt into their wounds by then scoring twice to win 2-0.
Berra said: “Steven did get sent off once for a challenge on me when I got a lot of stick in the papers for supposedly diving. It was a big game and these things happen in football.
“I’ve not said anything to him about it yet, but I’m sure we’ll have a bit of banter at some point in training.”
But Berra is in no doubt as to Fletcher’s qualities and is convinced he will be a good signing for Wolves, after scoring 12 goals for the relegated Clarets last season.
He said: “‘Steven is a very good player. He did well for Burnley last season and he’s a very clever player with a good left foot, who will add quality to the squad.
“As a striker you want to score goals and ‘Fletch’ managed to do that even when Burnley were struggling.
“He’s young and talented with potential and I think he’ll get even better. I’ve played against him many a time in big derbies and we’ve have a few good battles along the way.
“He’s a good lad and will be a good addition to the squad.”
Berra and Fletcher were reunited on Monday, when Wolves’ squad began returning for the start of pre-season training at their Compton training ground.
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
