United move to force Beckham's hand

Manchester United appear to have upped the ante over David Beckham’s future by bringing forward the England skipper’s contract talks.

Despite both United and Beckham stating firmly in the last month that they had no wish to bring their 12-year association to an end, the 28-year-old midfielder’s immediate future is shrouded in doubt.

Old Trafford officials have remained steadfastly silent over repeated claims from Barcelona presidential candidate Joan Laporta that he has virtually agreed a deal to sign Beckham with Red Devils chief executive Peter Kenyon.

For his part, Beckham, whose claims for a first-team place will not be strengthened by the imminent arrival of Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldinho, is said to have arranged key talks with his advisors at the SFX Sports Group once he returns from his high-profile visit to the United States.

However, the Manchester Evening News have tonight claimed that United now intend to seek urgent talks with Beckham to establish the likelihood of him extending his current contract, which still has two years to run.

Having spent 18 months negotiating his present £90,000 (€126,748)-a-week deal, which includes an estimated £20,000 (€28,166)-a-week in image rights alone, negotiations will not be straightforward.

But, having already established a £30m (€42.2m) market exists for his services, it now seems certain that, as a leading financier told the Press Association last month, it will not merely be enough for Beckham to tell United he wants to stay.

“The United plc will not want Beckham to get into the final season of his contract without some kind of agreement in place because they are running the risk of losing him for nothing,” said John Williams, director of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research at the University of Leicester,

“Once players get into the final 18 months of their contracts, their value starts to decline and the market begins to work very differently.

“It’s not enough just for David to say he wants to stay, one or two other things have to happen, including an indication that he is willing to sign a new contract.

“If David’s contract ran out, it would just be a question of where he wanted to go. The big Spanish and Italian clubs would be queuing up trying to sign him.”

While manager Alex Ferguson still commands Beckham’s respect, their relationship has become increasingly strained, not least because of the ‘flying boot incident’ following February’s FA Cup defeat to Arsenal which left the midfielder needing stitches in a cut above his left eye.

And, when the United boss left Beckham out of his starting line-up for the key matches against Arsenal and Real Madrid, it was a clear signal that he does not regard the England skipper as indispensable.

In his treatment of Dwight Yorke, who he left out of the side completely after the striker turned down a move to Middlesbrough following his own fall out of favour with Ferguson, the United boss has proved he is not afraid to axe big names no matter how much money they earn.

And that leaves Beckham in a very delicate position, knowing if he refuses to either sign a new contract or leave the club completely, he faces two years of misery which would almost certainly cost him his prized England captaincy.