Did Sir Alex Ferguson make a mistake selling David Beckham???

Iconic Global Superstar David Beckham had a wonderful career playing for Man Utd, Real Madrid, AC Milan and PSG etc. Not many can boast this, especially the longevity of service under all these clubs! Even if we did replace him with the world's best footballer CR7.

Weighting up him as a brand, the attention that came with it and his talent on the pitch.

Did Sir Alex Ferguson make a mistake selling David Beckham???

No we got Ronaldo.

Yes, and Van Nistelroy and Tevez but above all of that his unforgivable mistake was appointing Moyes as his successor.

We didn't get enough money for him, that was the only mistake.

I don't know, maybe it acted as a statement to future players that no-one is bigger than the club, and it helped add an element of control or something?

Not really, although it would have been nice if things had turned out differently. But it was clear Fergie was sick of the Beckham media circus and everything that went with it by that stage.

Throwing out Bekham was nothing when compared to

- Appointing Moyes as successor
- Neglecting and not upgrading Utd midfield for several years at the end

Tevez was on a loan deal here and was offered a new contract but went instead to City for more money.

Don't let facts get in the way!

No.

I think Ronaldo would have been signed regardless as the players went up to Fergie and demanded that he’d sign him.

The biggest disappointment that summer was Kenyon fecking around with Ronaldinho. Should have paid PSG what they wanted as we had a lot of chances to close the deal before Barca came.

Didnt we agree to give 32M to make the loan deal permanent and we paid 10M upfront, but in 2009, we said we didnt have that kind of money to pay for Tevez and instead wanted his agency who had controls over his rights to agree to some kind of installment pay and not have to pay entire 22M remaining.
This lead to Tevez believing that Utd no longer valued him, despite being in great form through 2 years. Gill however mentioned about the cash crunch etc..

I am not saying Tevez is innocent and I hate him, especially for that banner against SAF. But I think in 2009 Tevez had little choice but to agree with whatever the company which owned some 4 or 5 types of rights on him, would ask to do

And City capitalized on the fallout with all the money they had.

No. He’d been shit for two and a half years.

Working on his fashion profile.

We sold him and bought Cristiano Ronaldo for half of his transfer fee. No.

It was time for RvN to go, the only mistake was letting him leave for £10m.

We could have signed CR even if Beckham had stayed.

No. Think we had the best of Beckham. I was a massive fan but he wasn't quite the same towards the end of his time here, think he peaked quite early.

Fullbacks becoming Olympic sprinters didn't help given the nature of his game.

No did he hell, when Beckham came out with that stupid bloody Alice-Band to show off to the world's media(Victoria's doing no doubt) his life-threatening injury after his altercation with SAF he had to go .....

If he'd had any respect for himself, the Manager, and more importantly the Club and its fans he'd have snook out the back-door.

I don't think we would've and even if we had, would he have received the same number of minutes or been employed in the same sort of formations and tactics which so suited his development.

All in all, I'm fairly confident it worked out for the best.

"When one note is off, it eventually destroys the whole symphony, David."

Yeah. If your boss hits you in the head.. Let's see how you come up with that

I remember it being one of my saddest day as a United fan, definitely the worst I felt after losing one of our players. However, looking back on it now, we had the best of him and he was followed by Ronaldo who was the most essential part in our best team under Sir Alex. Maybe we could have got more money for him but selling him was most definitely not a mistake.

Yes he would have considering Beckham wasn’t even a regular starter in his final season.

Ronaldo was never a planned signing that summer.

So true . It's weird how in football, players are treated by fans like sub human and managers like gods. You would get fans for example absolutely hammering the players and their performances in one breath, yet criticising the manager would be viewed as treason. Maybe it's a British thing but it's definitely a weird phenomena.

He played 31 times in the league in his last season. Started 27 of those. 11 goals and 11 assists in 52 appearances in all competitions.

Ronaldo was very inconsistent at the beginning and it took time and patience from Ferguson, the club and the fans to see him flourish.

Beckham went to Madrid and registered 7 goals and 14 assists in 46 appearances during his first season. There is no guarantee that had Beckham stayed, Ronaldo would've seen anything like the same amount of minutes and patience for his development that he got here.

The question at the top of the thread asks "did SAF make a mistake?". It's obviously impossible to know for sure what would've happened, but I for one am happy at how things played out.

He was 28 and looking for a change to further his image. Solskjaer kept him out of the team for a lot of his last season too. I think the £25m we got for him was fair and if we had our time over, it should still have happened.

The feck are you on mate?

What? His last 2 season were really good. 01-02 was his best season ever - scored 16 goals and around 15 assists in all comps. Season 02-03 11 goals and 16 Assists. His assist ratio did drop compared to the late 90s where he had like 20+ assists per season but he was still amazing just because of those passes and especially the free kicks. We were complete shit in that department for 3-4 years(I mean Giggsy did score 1 or 2 but it was nothing compared to when Becks played for us) until CR started banging them in.

Love Becks, but it was definitely the right call.

Think so. United had so many problems in central midfield during the years after Beckham left. Scholes was still playing as a number ten and then missed most of 05-06 with the eye injury, Butt completely lost form after Becks left, Keane also had injury problems and was getting older, Fletcher was still a novice and Kleberson, Djemba-Djemba and Phil Neville were all shite. Beckham could definitely had filled a role for us in central midfield during that period. Our central midfield problem was never really addressed till Carrick arrived in 06.

At the time it was the right move, it's not like we didn't have success after selling Beckham. I would have loved if he stayed but it was the right move.

Even if he did, did it really matter?

Meh. We kept winning and replaced him with CR7.

Not exactly true.

Solskjaer didn't push him out. Sir alex did. Solskjaer just did a good job on the right, but nowhere he's better than beckham on the right let alone pushing him out of the team based on ability alone.

100% yes, him and Veron had at least 1 more year in them

True but I think the mistake there was not buying a centre midfielder quick enough. Rather than not converting a guy who'd spent all his career on the right. For all the talk of Beckham in the middle it never really happened.

Fwiw beckham has been a model professional all his time with us. He missed one training due to his son being sick and that's all. For all his fame he never go out on the pitch not giving his all.

Many more talented player crumbles due to fame, and even less than him (balotelli, januzaj, Rivaldo, ronaldo, etc) but not beckham.

He coulr have choosen to be a pop star but he played professionally till 36, in top league even when he lost his pace he never ever lost his dead ball ability.

It really wasn't his fault the media adores him, it really wasn't his fault he's born with a good look and married the girl he falls in love with, who happens to be posh spice. He's still happily married after all this years, so there is love behind all that and not just popularity gimmicks.

What can he do differently? Shave his head? He did it, staying out of the limelight? He tried. He didn't whore out interviews right left center. He didn't indulge in partying and drinking, he didn't gamble, he always runs the most each game.

Saf didn't like him for the circus he brings, but again you can't decide how people perceived you.

He still attend united match long after he's gone, he really loves the club.

It was the right decision at the right time,and maybe the fact that they fell out was a blessing in disguise.We had an excellent team and of course it was filled with world class players,but we were beginning to look a bit one dimensional and we lacked pace in the attacking positions.The squad needed to be rebuilt and we have to remember the fact that we won just 1 title from 2002-2006.Becks,Giggsey,Ruud were all brilliant,but they lacked that bit of unpredictability and they certainly lacked raw pace.So offloading Becks and bringing in a young Ronaldo was a very good decision....

Haven't got a clue what you're talking about there.

Beckham got stiches for it, it may not be intentional, but he puts on a bandaid for it. How's that wrong?

He didn't make a meal out of it, he didn't sue saf or causing a fuss. What else could he do differently? Going out with his stiches covered in crusted blood?