This is largely a pro-Becks, anti-Fergie/plc article. It's also wrong, in my opinion, but worth a read if you're into pseudo-psychology. It's just another angle on the story from increasingly desperate hacks.TD
Like a red rag to a bully (Guardian) Fergie sees Beckham as a threat to his birthright, ego and sexuality Feuds between men are usually caused by them wanting the same job - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - or through sexual insecurity. Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer have similar politics and complementary prose-styles but a waspish Californian homosexual and a burly Brooklyn bar-brawler were always destined for a vendetta by the different swish of their bits. The spat between David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson - which climaxed this week with the manager seeking to move the player to Barcelona against his will - is a little of both. The pair are competing for the single position of the public face and biggest celebrity at Manchester United. Fergie would say that he can stand no player being bigger than the club but the truth is that he can take no red-shirt being bigger than himself. But this is mainly a stand-off over masculinity, although both are heterosexual. Son of a Scots docker, Sir Alex believes in men's men with quiet, non-working wives. He has often named Roy Keane as the favourite player he has managed: a hard-living Celt whose idea of a photo- opportunity is walking his large dogs menacingly past the waiting press. Sir Alex's dad never prepared him for a world in which men wore skirts, bandannas or braids on long afternoons spent clothes-shopping. Freud would tell us that last February, when Ferguson kicked a boot towards Beckham and cut his eyebrow, the manager was, at some subconscious level, trying to dent the pretty face he was sick of seeing in the papers. As for Beckham, my theory is that - after the flying boot hit him - he mentally gambled on Arsenal winning the Premiership. Even the supernatural self-regard of Sir Alex would have been challenged by a second season without a trophy and he might have opted to spend more time with his racehorses. It's statistically unlikely that regime-change at Old Trafford could have brought in another manager who found Becks as much of a challenge to their birthright, sexuality and ego. But, due to Arsenal losing the title more than Man Utd winning it, the footwear-hurling champion of Lancashire is untouchable for at least another 12 months. So what should Becks do now? Logic suggests a lucrative move to Real Madrid, although the decision to holiday in Beverly Hills suggests a couple who are fussy eaters and non-linguists, not natural expats. So consider this possible left-field pass. In football, the name Milburn invokes Jackie rather than Alan, but suppose the No 7 dramatically followed the health secretary and announced that he's giving up football in order to see more of Brooklyn and Romeo. A man already admired by feminists for his rethinking of masculinity would become the subject of statues outside the nation's primary schools, unveiled by Camille Paglia and Naomi Wolf. But, unlike a politician, a footballer who goes to the backbenches never comes back. Part of the genuine sadness of this story is that, at 28, Beckham probably has around four years left in which his feet will perfectly obey the signals from his brain. A man who still seems young is effectively deciding in which city his retirement party will be held. Becks is often compared to a movie star and there's no doubt about the ending Hollywood would want. At the moment, the player's departure happens to suit the plc's greed and Fergie's ego. But he could set the club against the thug by refusing to move and collecting his bank-emptying cheques for the two years still due on his contract. Denying the plc the �30m, which is their main interest in the matter, puts the boot in the other hand, as it were, and challenges his rubicund bully of a manager to keep him on the bench or in the reserves all season. As Sir Alex's rage against his playmaker clearly results from his own name always being bracketed with Beckham's, this would be an exquisite revenge. Fergie would be asked about Becks at every single press conference. A couple of bad results and the Manchester United manager would be ripping his own hair into braids. The problem with that option is that celebrity is fickle and cannot long survive the absence of the glamour-magnet. Admirers of Princess Diana believed that the royal team would collapse once she was playing in the stiffs. But, within two years, she was almost forgotten. Even more than monarchy, football is used to the concept of succession. Diana always talked of going to live abroad to escape the strangely destructive English fame and this seems the only solution for her natural successor among blond icons. Posh had better start learning how to say "I used to be a popstar" in Spanish. ------------------------ Yahoo! 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