The Observer:
David Beckham is to be believed when he says he never wanted to play for anyone other than Manchester United, though the past tense should be noted. He does now.
But stubborn old Salford proved surprisingly resistant to the Beckham phenomenon. Or rather a hard-headed Scotsman and his Irish 'mini-me' did. The events of the past few weeks have been built up as a straightforward personality clash between old-fashioned bruiser Sir Alex Ferguson and foppish publicity-vampire Beckham, but it seems perverse to leave Roy Keane out of the equation.
Keane is the United captain, and will be for the foreseeable future. Keane is the player who spoke out against the Rolex and mansion culture creeping into the Old Trafford dressing room, nailing Beckham (among others) as precisely as his infamous prawn-sandwich jibe skewered the uncommitted corporate element within United's support.
Were Beckham to stay at Old Trafford, Keane is the player he would have to get along with, to take orders from, and the captain of England must feel he has outgrown that role. Keane is the player who has, and has always had, Ferguson's solid, unwavering support. Keane is the new Fergie: the exact opposite of Beckham.
As if to prove it, while United's most recognisable player has been gadding around America, handing out MTV awards and riding the showbiz carousel, Keane has been swotting up on his Uefa B coaching badge on a 10-day intensive course at Warwick University. This is an advanced qualification focusing not only on coaching, but on man-management techniques that only a small minority of footballers take - fewer still while they are still playing. Keane's exam is a sure sign that he plans to move into management. He is expected to take his A badge at some stage, though he will need that only if he plans to coach in Italy. It looks much more likely that he plans to coach at Manchester United. That just might be Beckham's worst nightmare. It is certainly a scenario he could not have been expecting.
Now the endgame has arrived Beckham is being as proactive as the other major players in the saga. Is he spending the summer in Manchester, rebuilding his bridges? No. Did he ask his agent to find him a new club in the immediate aftermath of Bootgate? Almost certainly yes. Did he attempt to play down his dressing room injury, or play it for all it was worth? Is it just chance that Adidas and Pepsi, two of Beckham's major sponsors, are also involved with Raul, Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Carlos at Real Madrid?
Beckham knows what he is doing, and must know that his behaviour this year has not been conducive to staying at United forever. The fans who watch games know that most consistent performer on the right wing last season was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Anyone who has heard the player refer to his entourage of agents, assistants and representatives as 'my people' will have difficulty accepting him as an unsuspecting piece of meat tossed into the shark-infested waters of European football.
The People:
It started with a kick ... we never thought it would come to this.
After football's most infamous flick of the boot, it was Sir Alex Ferguson who put a consoling hand on David Beckham's shoulders.
But the same hand has delivered the dagger blow between the same shoulders - and ended an Old Trafford era.
From the moment Beckham's 50-yarder against Wimbledon sealed his teenage love affair with United, it looked like a marriage built to last.
Now there is only bitter divorce.
El Tel in The NOTW:
IT IS being said that David Beckham does not want to go to Barcelona. Why on earth not?
I'll tell you this. If it came down to a straight choice between staying at Manchester United and walking out at the Nou Camp next season, he should be off to Spain like a shot.
Even if Real Madrid or AC Milan joined the bidding I know where I'd go.
To me it is very simple — get the hell out David and go to a club that could make you a star.
By that I mean a true star. Not just one of a number as he is at Manchester United or would be at Madrid.
If Beckham goes to Barcelona he has the chance to be their main man, the absolute top of their hit parade
The Sunday Times:
He should seriously question why Manchester United are so desperate to sell him and why United supporters, though sad at his departure, are prepared to accept it
On Friday evening Sir Alex Ferguson, his wife, Cathy, and two family friends went to eat at La Mère Germaine restaurant in Villefranche-sur-Mer, a small town in the south of France. During their meal, a reporter and cameraman from Sky television entered the restaurant, walked up to Ferguson and asked why he was selling David Beckham. The manager was not amused.
About the same time as Ferguson’s evening was unexpectedly interrupted, the candidates for the presidency of Barcelona FC gathered in the studio of a Catalan television station. They had turned up to audition for the job that would give them control of one of Europe’s elite football clubs. The most likely player in this poker game was Joan Laporta. He claimed to have the ace, David Beckham, in his hand.
Through the maelstrom caused by Beckham’s expected departure from Manchester United, the player himself has watched from afar. He is on a holiday/promotional tour in the United States and is about to begin another promotional tour in the Far East. Midweek, Beckham sent a text message to Ted, his father. "Can you believe all this **** in the papers?" he asked.
The impertinence of the television reporter in Villefranche-sur-Mer, Laporta’s game of bluff in Barcelona and Beckham’s incredulity are inextricably linked. For he is no longer a footballer, but one of the world’s most lucrative brands. Packaged by any number of advisers and sold as an icon, he wins hearts and earns millions.
Recently he travelled to South Africa for a friendly, even though the normal procedure for players ineligible for the next competitive match is to sit out preceding friendlies. When the England players met the former president, Nelson Mandela, in Johannesburg, many of them felt they were simply stooges in a play that had Beckham in the starring role.
Teams live or die on the basis of equality, and a number of England’s players are tired of the obsession with the captain.
Beckham conveys a sense of having been betrayed by his club, but the damage has been self-inflicted. By paying so much attention to his image rights and his marketability and his sponsorships, he has eaten into the time and the desire that could make him a better player.
He should seriously question why Manchester United are so desperate to sell him and why United supporters, though sad at his departure, are prepared to accept it.
The Sunday Telegraph:
Whatever else might be said about United's readiness to sell David Beckham, it testifies to the strategic courage of Sir Alex Ferguson. A courage previously demonstrated, you might add, in the lashing out of a £28 million transfer fee - a club record that may never be broken - on Juan Sebastian Veron. Or his decision to replace Jaap Stam with Laurent Blanc, whom lesser mortals than the United manager foolishly believed had become too slow to perform at Premiership or Champions League level.
To be fair - or, as Ferguson would put it, behave myself - he has displayed such astuteness in the transfer market over so many years that the odd error can be afforded. His successes include Eric Cantona, Peter Schmeichel, Roy Keane, Steve Bruce, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and even Ruud van Nistelrooy, from whom a weaker manager might have shied after the Dutchman suffered a terrible injury when training with PSV Eindhoven.
An England captain, moreover, whose skill and commitment have done much to keep United at the forefront of English and European football, one who conducts himself impeccably and provides a model of politeness to the nation and who, given that the allure created by his heady cocktail of virtues has caused him to receive invitations from the likes of Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan, is entitled to be asking himself why he should want to work for a bunch of barrowboys. And yet he does still want to play for Manchester United. Or did.
To an extent they have already diminished themselves as a club, not merely by the manner in which they have done business but by their readiness to trade at all. In an ideal world, big clubs should not sell home-grown heroes at their peak. Imagine what you would think of Real Madrid, for instance, if they tried to flog Raul to United. Imagine what their supporters would think. Imagine what Raul would think. And there, basically, you have it.
The episode, however, is clearly not just about United, and those who might benefit from it include Beckham - once his pride has been repaired - and England. He has the option of staying with United and keeping fit with the reserves in readiness for his 12 or 15 international appearances a season, which would make him England's freshest player over the next two years.