Quest for zero defect a Real issue

Steve McManaman had just departed and David Beckham was stepping forward to take his goalscoring free-kick at the Stretford End. A chant of "You're just a f...ing reserve" still hung in the Old Trafford air – with heavy irony. It could have been directed at either man. The 64,000-dollar question now is whether Beckham will swap his new role as a bit-part player in the theatre of his broken dreams for something similar in the roundhouse of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

In discussing his own future with Real Madrid, late on Wednesday night in the Old Trafford tunnel, McManaman paused and said: "I'll wait and see. God knows what's going to happen in two or three months' time." A grand Bernabeu entrance by Beckham would almost certainly lead to an exit, stage left, by McManaman. On Wednesday, it was Beckham who made the hasty departure from Old Trafford, tight-lipped, stern-faced and barely changed, just 19 minutes after leaving the pitch clutching Zinedine Zidane's No 5 shirt. McManaman lingered long into the night, happily chatting. For the time being at least, it is the England outcast, and not the England captain, who is keeping the home fire burning with the red-hot Spanish favourites in the Champions' League.

Summoned from bench duty for the first time since February, McManaman played his part in the compelling conclusion to Real's two-act quarter-final thriller, performing his tidy link-man service in the patchwork masterpiece of passing that sewed together their first two goals. He played pass number two (of seven) in the move for Ronaldo's opening salvo and pass number three (of 15!) for the Brazilian's second. Beckham saw both goals from the home bench. He must have been watching in envy.

Having emerged with a 6-5 aggregate victory (a record tally for a two-legged Champions' League tie), Real are on course for their 10th European Cup. United, for all their annual promise, remain no more successful in the competition than Nottingham Forest, fellow two-time winners. McManaman is moving in line for a third winners' medal, a collection that only one British player could better: Phil Neal, with four. The big if, in his case, though, is not so much whether Real can overcome Juventus in the semi-finals and then beat one of the Milan teams as whether he will be required for anything other than bench-warming and medal-collection duties in the Old Trafford final on 28 May.

In his four years at the Bernabeu, McManaman has been pushed increasingly to the fringes by the succession of star signings. "I've sat on the bench a lot of this season and that is horrible," he said. "I'm a footballer who needs to play football. I haven't played as many games as I wanted and that is a problem for me."

It has been a problem for David Beckham too, of course. However, having been removed from the fixtures and fittings of the automatic first-choice team at Old Trafford could only help to ease him into a new life of fighting for accommodation in a side boasting so much stellar talent, including Luis Figo in the kind of right-wing role the Manchester United No 7 normally performs. In truth, Real's most urgent requirement is reinforcement at the back, as United highlighted on Wednesday night. Vicente Del Bosque wanted a central defender last summer but the Real board gave their coach the £29.75m Ronaldo instead.

Del Bosque, the unlikely lad who made it from youth-team guru to lasting first-team supremo at the Bernabeu, is standing on the threshold of a third European Cup win as a coach, a feat only Bob Paisley has achieved. Such is the reality of life at Real, though, it is the club president, Florentino Perez, who will decide whether Beckham comes in the summer, and in his three years in office he has made a habit of signing a big-name offensive player each year. In 2000 it was Figo. In 2001 it was Zidane. In 2002 it was Ronaldo. Beckham's face can already be seen on the home page of realmadrid.com, flashing on and off in a Pepsi advert.

If he does become the Real thing, Beckham can expect to encounter the kind of harsh treatment the Madridistas gave last year's big thing for miscuing a couple of shots in the home leg against United. The chorus of boos which accompanied Ronaldo's substitution that night was a sharp contrast to the rousing ovation the Brazilian received at Old Trafford.

"Full credit to the Man United fans," McManaman said, shrugging aside his own North-west tribal treatment. "Our lads can't believe that they've been applauded off the pitch after knocking out the home team." They will surely be applauded back on to the field at Old Trafford on 28 May, with David Beckham sitting in their VIP section perhaps.