SOCCER: Richard Williams wonders if this is the end of the road in red for David Beckham.

Alex Ferguson did not need telling three times. On two occasions in the last year he had seen David Beckham subdued by the presence of Roberto Carlos, who may be the world's best attacking left-back but is also a competent enough defender to have put England's captain in his pocket in Shizuoka last June and in the Bernabeu a fortnight ago.

And so while the players of Manchester United and Real Madrid were lining up for the official photographs last night, most of the lenses were being pointed in the opposite direction, at the home team's bench, where Beckham was once again keeping his feelings to himself.

This month Beckham had already been dropped for two of the season's biggest games, the 4-0 home defeat of Liverpool and the 2-2 draw at Highbury.

But Ferguson's decision to put him on the bench last night constituted the clearest implicit criticism of the player since he was omitted for a league match against Leeds four years ago after missing training, allegedly in order to mind the baby while his wife went shopping. This time, however, it was not a disciplinary matter.

It was a question of his ability to affect the course of a vital match.

Whether this makes it more likely that this will be Beckham's last season in a red shirt is between the player and the manager.

The opinion in Spain seems to be that Real really do want to take him to the Bernabeu.

His wonderful free-kick, after coming on as a substitute, will hardly have reduced their interest.

One can only assume that the motives are to do first with their president's need to pull off their annual signing of one of the world's most celebrated players, in succession to Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, and second with the commercial returns from all those replica shirts.

But it has to be said that if a Real contract can turn Steve McManaman into the player we saw last night, then it could be of no less benefit to Beckham.

There he was in the starting line-up, ready to demonstrate yet again that his persistent adherence to the Madrid cause has provided his career with a wonderfully fulfilling second chapter.

Last night, making only his 11th appearance of the season, almost all of them as a substitute, McManaman took up his usual position since arriving at Madrid, where he was converted from a right-winger into a left-sided midfield player. Involved and effective from the outset, the way he joined Roberto Carlos and Zidane to work the ball out of the Madrid area after 12 minutes conveyed an unmistakeable air of confidence.

The move received its reward a few seconds later when Zidane, with wonderful vision and economy of effort, poked the ball in field to Guti, whose pass to Ronaldo invited the great Brazilian to beat United's always risky offside trap and place a studious shot past Fabien Barthez.

"Zidane does all these fancy tricks without really hurting you," Ferguson had claimed in the build-up to the match. And he called the world's greatest player "a performing seal".

After the shock of Ronaldo's opening goal, United took a while to impose their tempo on the game.

When they did, in the minutes immediately before and after half-time, Ferguson's attacking trident of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs began to cause mayhem at the heart of the Spanish defence.

But then the performing seal and his mates took over again.

Guardian Service