Alex Ferguson rocked back on his heels and ransacked his memory vaults. Having just described one of his players as `Incomparable", Ferguson thought again, reaching through 50 years of playing, watching and coaching football. Eventually he plucked out one name from the five decades. "Well, Johnny Giles," said Ferguson, "when he was a young player at Leeds he played in a similar area. He had a range like that."
It is part of the passing of time and the movement of generations that the Manchester United player Ferguson was talking about, David Beckham, and all those who adore him may well think Giles should be flattered by the comparison. But it is actually a measure of Beckham's growing stature that as shrewd a judge as Ferguson should bracket his 25-year-old in the same company as one of the modern giants of English football.
Yet Giles, an Old Trafford employee before he moved across the Pennines to Leeds, must also have an appreciation of Beckham, who, when isolated from the spin-off industry that surrounds him, is a more engaging subject than the celebrity icon he enjoys being off the pitch.
Beckham still has his faults as a player. He bullies weak opponents maliciously and can be spiteful when he could be magnanimous, but when, as on Saturday morning, his sole concentration is on passing and winning, then Beckham does merit the bulk of praise he receives.
Coming on for the hamstrung Roy Keane after half an hour with the game goalless, Beckham initiated the opening goal, scored the second and delivered the cross for the third. Apart from that he did nothing.
"His range of passing is unbelievable," said Ferguson with an open enthusiasm he shows fairly infrequently. "He's got great pride. He was on the bench today and he won't have liked that. I've never seen anyone with that range." It was then that Ferguson paused and reached for Giles.
Beckham did the majority of his damage from his customary position on the right flank but Ferguson appears to be addressing the time when Beckham relinquishes that position and moves inside. Luke Chadwick, a highly rated 19-year-old England under-21 winger, has just been recalled from United's Belgian feeder club Royal Antwerp and Ferguson said: "Chadwick is a possibility on the right. We have alternatives."
Those last three words just about summed up this game. While Ferguson was able to leave Beckham, Andrew Cole, Wes Brown and Ryan Giggs on the bench, a precaution due to tomorrow's Champions' League match in Brussels against Anderlecht - a game Keane definitely misses - David O'Leary said that he was looking forward to going home to Leeds United's training ground to see the eleven players he left behind on Saturday. "Coming to Old Trafford with eleven players out," said O'Leary, "I think you've got a chance of not winning."
O'Leary did not use the injury crisis as an excuse here - Ferguson had done that for him - but he did question the refereeing of Jeff Winter. Certainly the linesman's failure to raise his flag when Dwight Yorke was clearly offside for the first goal was a decisive mistake. Yorke was a yard off when Phillip Neville supplied Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and when Solskjaer's centre arrived at the far post Yorke was still a yard in front of the Leeds defence. He headed in his second goal of the season.
Leeds had held out for 42 minutes, though Paul Robinson had made the first of a series of impressive saves, and within five minutes of the second half they were two down. Jacob Burns's stupid foul on Solskjaer resulted in a free-kick twenty yards out. Beckham struck it and it deflected past Robinson off Lee Bowyer.
The game turned nasty for 10 minutes then with Bowyer joining Alan Smith in the book, but the contest was over. Solskjaer's third with seven minutes to go reinforced that and Leeds were fortunate to leave the field having conceded just three. Fabien Barthez departed having not made a save.
And now it's all about tomorrow and Europe, though for Leeds there is another concern on the horizon. The court case in which Bowyer, Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Duberry are to appear has been moved forward from next June to January. Assuming it lasts a fortnight, Leeds will be without yet more players. O'Leary might actually have to ring Johnny Giles.
MANCHESTER UTD: Barthez, G Neville, Silvestre, Johnsen (Brown 45), P Neville, Fortune, Butt, Scholes, Keane (Beckham 31), Yorke, Solskjaer. Subs Not Used: Bosnich, Giggs, Cole. Goals: Yorke 41, Beckham 50, Jones 83 og.
LEEDS: Robinson, Kelly, Matteo, Hay, Woodgate, Bowyer, McPhail, Jones, Burns, Smith (Huckerby 78), Viduka. Subs Not Used: Milosevic, Molenaar, Evans, Hackworth. Booked: Smith, Bowyer.
Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).
