Nine days ago it was more important news than what the butler saw – or did. But we still await charges in the matter of the Beckham kidnap plot.
A fly on the Old Trafford wall reports that the player's team-mates were not consumed with concern over the dramatic reports. Why would this be? Maybe because they were suffering from celebrity news overkill – and that lost amid it all, perhaps, was the idea that professional footballers do have a certain obligation to get on with their business, especially when they have the financial muscle to sign up a platoon of former SAS men.
Of wider concern at Manchester United must be the growing sense of disintegrating team spirit – which was the rock on which Sir Alex Ferguson built his superb dynasty.
Now Fergie is beset by all kinds of fragmentation. Patience with the professional self-indulgence of the skilled but peripheral Juan Sebastian Veron has hit zero. Roy Keane's aloofness, and withering criticism, has taken its inevitable toll in the dressing room. Rio Ferdinand is looking somewhat distracted. Beckham's aura as England's captain has dwindled since being placed in Keane's leadership shoes at Old Trafford.
One result was the scarcely recognisable performance by United at Maine Road last weekend, when Beckham, unhelpfully, was suspended. Meanwhile, record sales are anticipated for his latest picture posters. The trouble is that when reality intrudes into fantasy some- one always has to pay the price. Currently, Ferguson is picking up the bill. But for how long?