Ferguson aims to ignore 'Beckham circus'

The Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has "no regrets" over the sale of David Beckham as he prepares to face his former player.

Beckham was near the height of his powers when he was sold by United to Real Madrid in 2003 but Ferguson feels the matter has long since been consigned to history. The pair will be reunited this month when United take on Milan, in the Champions League.

Ferguson is now more concerned about how his players will handle the inevitable attention that will accompany Beckham during the last-16 tie than wondering about what might have been. When asked about the player's move, Ferguson said: "No regrets. We move on. The only difference with David's return to Manchester compared with other players is that there will be a big media circus surrounding him when Milan arrive. He's such a high-profile celebrity – not just a high-profile footballer – and we haven't really seen anybody else return to the club in that situation. Our job is to concentrate on the match and let the Beckham media circus carry on – we know we're not going to stop it anyway."