No looking Beck as United move forward with Roo

PERCEIVED wisdom might have been that David Beckham had a point to prove in the San Siro last night, the prodigal son seeking to show how wrong Manchester United were to cast him out seven years ago, sending him on a global odyssey that has since taken him to Madrid, Los Angeles and, now, Milan.

Yet it was the club he never wanted to leave, the defending champions of England and last season’s Champions League runners-up, who were facing the stiffer test of their credentials.

It was United, after all, who had lost all of their four previous visits to face AC Milan at the San Siro, by a combined goal tally of 10-0. It was United, and many of their current players, who had performed abysmally in losing their last visit, a 3-0 humiliation which had cost them a place in the Champions’ League Final three years ago.