You cannot have the angel in David Beckham without the devil who lurks alongside. Sir Alex Ferguson came to that conclusion long ago. Now Kevin Keegan has taken the same attitude.
Keegan's apparent lack of concern when pressed over Beckham's disciplinary lapse against Germany did not tell the full truth.
For that, you only needed to study the pictures of Keegan and the rest of the England bench as Beckham leapt into Ulf Kirsten, catching the Germany striker high and late after being refused the protection he felt he deserved from referee Pierluigi Collina.
The anxiety-strewn faces demonstrated a mixture of shock, disbelief and genuine fear that Beck-ham would pay the ultimate price.
As it was, the booking he picked up means one more mistake against Romania could deprive England of what the statistics suggest is virtually their only source of creative genius for the prospective Quarter-final with Italy.
Of the last nine goals England have scored, seven, including Alan Shearer's heartache-ending header in Charleroi, have stemmed directly from Beckham centres, while he also played a part in one of the others, the flick-on from which Michael Owen scored against Brazil.
So Keegan refused to criticise him in public, saying: 'I didn't have a problem with that. David's a winner and wants to win. He'll look back at it and probably feel he shouldn't have done what he did.
'The referee cautioned him, which was right, and he got on with the game and didn't let it affect him. David's very important to us. He's got a booking but you don't rest players like him.
'We tell players before they go out to watch what they do and ask them not to do anything silly. It's easy to say it in a dressing room. In an atmosphere like Charleroi, and in a game of that importance, sometimes players do things in the heat of the moment.
'When they look back at the tapes they might feel they were wrong but I'm not going to knock him for it.'
Neither was Sir Alex, even after Beckham was at the centre of controversy in both championship games. 'He has been guilty of a fair share of follies in his career and, yes, he will have to work harder on self-control,' said Ferguson.
'But there has never been any doubt that on the field his commitment matches his brilliance and I admire the way he has coped with pressures no other player in our country has to face.'
What Beckham will have to accept is that he is likely to be the recipient of more of the rough-house treatment he received at the hands of the Germans. However, should he stay out of trouble in tomorrow's match the official cards amnesty will give him a clean-sheet for the knock-out phase.
It did seem that German coach Erich Ribbeck had targeted Beckham for particular treatment, designed to prompt one of the temper tantrums that famously brought red cards against Argentina and Necaxa andled to him being booked 12 times this season.
Beckham might also have expected more protection from referee Collina, but the response that destroys the spirit of all those who would seek to intimidate him is the type of free-kick which brought Shearer's winner.
Privately, Keegan may have had a more forceful word in his ear, aware that stray comments in the Press conference arena might make the issue snowball. England cannot afford to lose Beckham and Keegan does not need telling. That was why he was in the mood to accentuate the positive.
'David's display was good and his work-rate tremendous,' said Keegan. 'We know his delivery is good and a lot of our goals come from his crosses but what I like about him more than anything is his work-rate.
'It's unusual to have a player with that much ability who's got no ego. He's willing to be the general when it's right, but to be the soldier as well when that's the right thing. That's his greatest quality for me.'
