Hasta la vista, Beckham
It is easy to forget that there may well a footballing issue at the heart of the continuing media circus over DB07, Goldenballs, Fashion Victim, Saint David or whatever you choose to call the England captain and seemingly former Manchester United player.
Sir Alex Ferguson, it appears, feels he can do without his deadball specialist. And the fact that he will be ridding himself of a man whose profile increasingly threatens to overshadow the world's most famous football club may be attractive to the canny Scot.
Ferguson's interest in selling merchandise, attending movie premieres and ever-evolving hairstyles is less than zero. He is solely interested in the business of winning football matches and, far more pertinently, that Manchester United are the team winning the matches.
Whatever the real truth behind the infamous boot incident after the FA Cup tie with Arsenal, it seems that a final parting of the ways was set in motion here. Beckham's open flaunting of a minor injury and use of his own PR agency to further the story is believed to have angered Ferguson, who was contrite over the incident but angry over the way it was propogated into a media epic.
From here on in, Ferguson seemingly made preparations for the long-term absence of Beckham from his squad by using him sparingly. The end-of-season flurry of big games saw him miss the 4-0 win over Liverpool, 6-2 win over Newcastle and the 2-2 draw at Highbury before he was benched for the Old Trafford clash with Real Madrid.
In his place Ferguson chose to field Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a converted striker unlikely to be mounting a promotional tour of the USA and Asia when he should be resting for the new season. The Norwegian excelled in the role, and in supplying a killer cross for Ryan Giggs to head a timely equaliser against Arsenal he played a crucial part in perhaps the most important goal of United's season.
Solskjaer's adaptability in a varied, fluid and interchanging attacking approach reaped dividends. Ferguson has abandoned the 4-4-2 standard that served him so well throughout the 1990s and chosen to play a diamond formation in which a lone striker is supported by raiding midfielders in Solskjaer, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
Ferguson has never yet been convinced of Beckham's usefulness in a central role. He has only been given his head in that role on one occasion of note - the 1999 European Cup Final - though that was out of necessity in the absence of the suspended Scholes and Keane. It was only on Beckham's return to the right wing that fate dealt United such a happy hand that night in Barcelona.
Beckham's propensity to overplay the 'hollywood ball' has seen him all but rejected from the central role he has so often spoken of craving.
And then there's the England question. Why, ask many, is Beckham so much more visible for his country than he is for his club? Aside from the fact he usually sports a new hairstyle that he probably couldn't get away with at United, there's the feeling that Sven Goran Eriksson grants him far more freedom to go on flights of fancy than Ferguson would ever allow.
As thrilling and effective as Beckham's showing against Greece in October 2001 was, he'd be unlikely to be allowed to adopt the kid-in-a-park-it's-my-ball approach that he gave in that game. It seems little wonder that Beckham enjoys the national stage more than domestic scene where he is regarded as well down the pecking order of midfield players when it comes to dictating play.
His efforts in that Greece game had negative effects on his club form and Ferguson chose to drop the player over the following couple of months in an effort to preserve him. The same occurred in the 2002-3 season after England's clash with Turkey where a headless chicken Beckham hurtled round the pitch with little care over his own personal safety - no doubt a galling sight for Ferguson.
Much the same must have been made of Beckham's trans-continental trip to South Africa, where he did a bit of PR with Nelson Mandela while sporting ludicrous braids and then was injured in a match which, in itself, was only preparation for a Euro 2004 qualifier for which he was suspended. And it must be questioned how much wisdom Ferguson saw in a barely half-fit Beckham travelling to the World Cup after that fractured metatarsal.
In essence, for all the fuss, Ferguson now believes Beckham is expendable. In no way can he be regarded as United's most influential player. That accolade must go to one of Scholes, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Roy Keane (when fully fit) or Ryan Giggs (when he can lift himself out of the torpor of much of last season).
In a depressed transfer market, cashing in a 28-year-old for £30m and then being able to buy three or four players to reinforce a challenge on the European Cup is proving seductive to Sir Alex. A senior defender, a goalkeeper, an additional striker and perhaps a right-sided midfielder as a direct replacement, with Sporting Lisbon starlet Ricardo Quaresma the favourite should one be bought, should all strengthen a squad which looked somewhat threadbare at various times in the 2002-3 season.
As far back as 1999, in his infamous bestselling autobiography, Ferguson expressed concern over the popstar and frontpage lifestyle that his number 7 was leading though he praised the player for not letting it affect his football. One gets the feeling that in the light of that media pressure being magnified in the years since that Ferguson believes the player's game is now being affected in an adverse fashion.
Ferguson and Beckham's famed father-son relationship is at an end. And Ferguson, a firm believer in the concept that no man is bigger than the club, including himself, and no believer in football being a sentimental game, no longer sees the need to have him in his squad.
Protest as his representatives and motormouth father might, David Beckham and Manchester United are finished. Sir Alex Ferguson no longer wants nor believes he needs him.
