No tears among Reds as Alex gambles again

YOU can tell that we Manchester United fans are getting over the sale of David Beckham from a brief perusal of my fanzine website.

Here is a typically black humoured reaction from one Red: "Hey, Ted Beckham, since you won't be needing your season ticket anymore, please can I have it?"

The British media and general public are still in full grieving mode.

When I told a BBC interviewer this week that, contrary to his on-air assertion, Beckham had been no talisman and was probably not worth £25m, his mouth gaped like a cartoon catfish.

While match-going fans are simply shrugging their shoulders and getting on with life, the outsiders are still in denial, waving tearful farewells with obsolete Beckham shirts as though they were holy shrouds. Get over it people! You are behaving like Japanese schoolgirls.

Incidentally, therein lies another welcome side-effect of the sale; we will see a massive drop in the number of far eastern visitors clutching United shopping bags in our away enclosures next season.

Japan and its former colonies have apparently overnight switched from Manchester United to Madrid and I for one will be glad to see the back of them.

It was the great unreported scandal of last season that hundreds of loyal United fans were regularly denied tickets in order to accommodate these tourists and their revoltingly girlish screeching every time Beckham approached the touchline.

Equally welcomed will be the removal of those few domestic idiots who have been writing into the newspapers claiming they will be ripping up their season tickets in protest at the sale.

In fact, the removal of the entire Beckham celebrity circus is wholly good news for most of us.

Stories trickling out of Old Trafford this week are indicating that David's superstar status had begun to cause problems in the dressing room.

Furthermore, it can do no harm to have the players reminded of the fact none of them is safe, however famous or popular.

Given that the team's motivation and hunger were often questioned last season, it is a timely shot across the bows.

The conspiracy theories will go on for some time to come of course, not least when Beckham's autobiography comes out. Or, indeed, when Alex faces the journalists for the first time.

Having listened to several off the record briefings from parties on both sides of the fence, I am confident journalists and fans alike will have fun picking holes in the statements of the various protagonists.

Manchester pubs have, since midweek, become increasingly angry as an anti-Beckham feeling grows. Indeed many Reds belive he or his advisors have been rather too cute.

However, I am fairly certain it will be eventually confirmed it was Alex who did the initial pushing and Beckham and company rather obliging fell into a well-laid trap.

Admittedly, United Plc then made a dreadful dog's breakfast of the end game, resulting in a fee that has fallen below expectations, though the boss will be very pleased with the eventual outcome.

It will have to be conceded, though, that the whole sorry episode will probably put off some target from wanting to come to United.

Indeed, Harry Kewell's agent has already explicitly said as much and I daresay other players of a weak disposition may not fancy entering Fergie's kingdom of terror.

This is probably no bad thing; fans would prefer hardened characters who are prepared to take the risk in order to gain the glory of medals.

If Kewell is genuinely anxious about the Beckham treatment then I for one would suggest he should get lost and join the bottlers of Highbury.

So what are we to look forward to now? Beckham's removal gives us a chance to increase our tactical flexibility as well as the funds to buy at least three new players.

Fans here in Manchester are split on Ronaldinho, quite keen on Kewell, unimpressed by the Frenchmen and Cameroonians on offer, and downright horrified at the idea of Gareth Southgate.

Naturally, we all still dream of Vieira and whispers continue to emanate from our London sources that a move may yet be made for him.

There is the concern that Ferguson's buying record over the last few years has been patchy at best but at least his selling record is superb.

The news yesterday that those mugs at Seville are genuinely interested in taking the comedian Forlan off our hands suggests once again that Fergie's luck is holding good.

It needs to do so, for if he blows the Beckham windfall on a handful of magic beans, the reckoning could be severe, 10 European cup attempts with only one win would look poor; a Beckham free-kick winning the 2004 final for Madrid even worse.

However, as I have written here many times before, nobody loves a high stakes gamble more than Alex.

Richard Kurt is news editor at www.redissue.co.uk.