The sale of David Beckham to Real Madrid has long been on a list of subjects declared off-limits by Sir Alex Ferguson, but, finally, four years after the event, the Manchester United manager has firmed up the long-held suspicion that it had rather less to do with contractual issues than with the pervasive influence of the former England captain's pop star wife.
As recently as a fortnight ago, after Roy Keane's tirade about football's WAG culture, Ferguson straight-batted questions about the problems that arose from Beckham's marriage to Victoria Adams. The mutual antipathy between Beckham's manager at United and his wife was well known, given that the Spice Girl once joked in an interview that she would be happy to let Ferguson drown, but the Scot was widely thought to be saving his opinions for his memoirs - at least until he opened up at a remarkably candid question-and-answer session in his native Glasgow on Tuesday evening.
"He [Beckham] was never a problem until he got married," the 65-year-old said at "An Audience with Sir Alex Ferguson" at the Citizens Theatre. "He used to go into work with the academy coaches at nighttimes. He was a fantastic young lad. Getting married into that entertainment scene was a difficult thing. From that moment his life was never going to be the same. He is such a big celebrity, football is only a small part. The big part is his persona."