LIAR LOVES FERGUSON

David Beckham has given his strongest hint yet that he would be prepared to bury the hatchet with Sir Alex Ferguson, opening up the possibility of a return to Old Trafford in the summer should Manchester United want him. Beckham's contract expires on June 30, 2007, when he will become available on a free transfer, aged 32.

While Real Madrid's president, Ramón Calderón, has insisted on numerous occasions that Beckham is close to signing a new deal, it is extremely unlikely that there will be any agreement before January 1, when Beckham will officially be free to talk to other clubs.

Despite Beckham's public declarations of commitment to Real Madrid, formal negotiations over a new deal simply never took place over two years of false starts and institutional chaos at Real Madrid. When talks did finally begin this month, it became clear that an important financial gap separated the two camps. Beckham has now started only one of the last six games and last weekend admitted he was growing frustrated at the Bernabéu.

"I love playing football and if I don't do that, I can't be happy," Beckham said. "I feel frustrated as a footballer. I go over it again and again and can't find an explanation. It's really hard when I don't play and I feel sad every day. My future doesn't depend on [Fabio] Capello but if he says I am not going to play, then that's different."

With Capello privately insisting that he sees Beckham as no more than a squad player, the Englishman's departure looks more likely than ever. The question now is where he could go. Ferguson's continued presence at Old Trafford has always been considered the greatest impediment to Beckham making a return to United.

Beckham has also praised Ferguson's coaching style, insisting that Madrid can succeed with Capello precisely because of his similarities to the Scot. "I like Capello because he is the coach who is most like Ferguson," he said. "He is strict in training, in the team hotel in the preparation for matches, in everything. That is how I like things to be."

"It's difficult to explain the lack of success [at Madrid] but sometimes if you are not a team then it is difficult. I was at Manchester United for 15 years and every day, in every game, every season we were a team. We won together and we lost together."

Beckham added: "Going out to eat together is very important and we don't do it enough at Madrid. At United we used to go out together every fortnight - all the players eating together, even including Ferguson and all the coaching staff sometimes. But here it is different. In the three years I have been here we have only done it four times."