ANOTHER PR DISASTER

In so many ways Manchester United are in a league of their own, whatever Arsenal may say to the contrary.

Global recognition, spending power, attendances, facilities, influence. You could go on all day listing the attributes of a club, which would be ranked number one in any world Super League.

And that makes it even stranger that, when it comes to public relations, the club which enjoys so much success in every other field is strictly Nationwide Conference.

And it's United's unerring ability to allow a molehill to develop into a mountain which has contributed in no small measure to a rift between Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham which many fear can never be healed.

Has Ferguson's legendary powder-keg temper exploded once too often? Has the incident escalated to such a point that the Reds boss will be forced out of Old Trafford long before his planned retirement date? Will a clearly offended
Beckham widen the rift still further by making it clear that he no longer wishes to play for a manager he once described as a "second father"?

Those questions - and many more like them - will be causing huge embarrassment in the corridors of power at Old Trafford and are doing untold damage to the reputation of a mighty institution.

And so many of those issues would never have been raised if United hadn't shot themselves in the foot over the weekend by ludicrously deciding that if they bury their head in the sand and say nothing, the dressing room incident involving Ferguson and Beckham would prove to be nothing more than a one-day wonder.

Even without the benefit of telepathy, it's not too difficult to work out what took place behind the closed doors of the home dressing room at Old Trafford last Saturday afternoon.

Ferguson was furious about his side's capitulation against - of all teams -Arsenal.

He may have singled out Beckham for special criticism, or he may not.

At the height of his fury he swung his foot at a boot lying on the dressing room floor.

That, or something similar, takes place in a dozen dressing rooms up and down the country on every Saturday of the football season.

And an hour later, when the adrenaline levels return to normal, everything is forgotten and forgiven.

Someone at Old Trafford MUST have known that the flying-boot incident couldn't be swept under the carpet.

Were United's officials so naive as to believe that no-one would notice Beckham's wound?

Apparently so because for a good 24 hours after the story inevitably surfaced, the club's only comment was "no comment".

Would Beckham have been wandering around in public displaying his wound like some sort of trophy if he had received a public apology from either his manager or his club for what happened to him in the Old Trafford dressing room last Saturday? Somehow I think not.

Is it Beckham's way of gaining public sympathy and support for any decision he might now take about his future at Old Trafford? Makes you wonder, doesn't it? What should have been a storm in a tea-cup has clumsily been allowed to escalate to the point where the United future of both Ferguson and Beckham is now being seriously questioned.

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