LIAR LIAR

"I haven't spoken to him since I left United," Beckham said. "We were both at the funeral of Jimmy Davis but it wasn't the right place to talk about things.

"I had been at Real Madrid for a few months by then. He hadn't rung me or sent me a message or anything prior to that.

"At the funeral, he said 'how are things over there?' To be honest, I wasn't in the right frame of mind because of Jimmy's funeral but that is the only thing that has ever been said.

"I didn't really think that was his way of trying to start things again. But I don't know. I just wish it had been done the day after I signed for Real Madrid.

"I would have liked confirmation that I wouldn't be playing for him again. From him.

"I still feel a sadness about the way it deteriorated. I wish it could have been different.

"The one thing I wish I had done is try to get in touch with him that summer when the chief executive, Peter Kenyon, said that I should go.

"I wish I had spoken to the manager even if he had said he thought it was time for me to leave.

And proof that Ferguson no longer knows what his players are up to.

"But I don't think he could handle the idea that he had lost control of me.

"I was in my car once, near the Trafford Centre on the outskirts of Manchester, when he rang me on my mobile phone.

"He was shouting at me and asking why I was in Barcelona. I told him I was in Manchester.

"He said a friend of his had just phoned him to say I was sitting opposite him at Barcelona airport. I told him I was outside the Trafford Centre. He shouted 'don't f***ing lie to me' down the phone'.

He'd still fancy playing for him though.

"I still wouldn't have a problem playing for him again because he was such a big influence on my career and he was a father figure to me. "I don't think that will ever happen but I would like to think there might come a time when we are on friendlier terms, when there might be a dialogue between us. I had so many happy times there that I could never forget them. It would be great to be like that but he is stubborn and I am stubborn and that's life. Maybe that's just the way the manager has always been. I know he was like that with other players.