Earlier in the week came news that Real Madrid, not content with snatching the England captain from Old Trafford, were back to entice Sir Alex Ferguson's Number 2, Carlos Queiroz, to the Bernabau. Here we go again, I thought, but the way events unfolded restored, a smidgen of my faith in human nature.
When the news broke, I thought the world was set for another saga of Beckhamesque proportions but how wrong I was. When Queiroz commented on the situation there were no veiled comments, no hiding behind clever rhetoric, just honest words from a man of principle. He said:
"I have a contract with another club and I am a very honourable person but in the next few days I must make a very important decision."
The following day an announcement emerged from Old Trafford where, usually in situations like these, you get more news out of GHQ in Cheltenham. It said that the club were to release Carlos Queiroz from his contract to enable him to take over as coach of Real Madrid. It was a true revelation.
Why cannot all such moves be conducted with the commonsense and integrity this one has been, although the manner and indecent haste with which Real disposed of Del Bosque, the day after he won them their 29th La Liga title, was nothing short of criminal, although he was reaching the end of his contract.
But back to the highly-rated Queiroz, it was an amazing sequence of events, simple in the extreme, if we can rely on the story, as it was reported;
Real wanted Queiroz, Real asked United, Carlos is interested but honourable, United release him from his contract and Queiroz takes over at Real.
Now the entire football world has decided that David Beckhmam's bedding-in period at his new club will be considerably easier that the coach he worked with for a season will now be his manager, and on the surface that might well be the case, especially as the new Real Madrid manager was wholesome in his praise for Beckham when asked how the new Madrid coach would accommodate the England captain and Figo in the same side. He said:
"People ask me whether Luis Figo and David Beckham can play in the same team and my answer is that one of them would only be on the bench if he was injured or out of form."
Queiroz went on to say: "David is a fantastic professional, an athlete who was born to run. In all my months at Old Trafford I never saw him miss a training session and he even tried to train and play when he had a rib injury we knew nothing about."
As for the suggested rift between Beckham and Ferguson, Queiroz said: "I did not see anything deteriorating in the way in which Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham worked together. David always said that Sir Alex spoke to him like a father would talk to his son and that's the way it appeared to me too. Maybe it seems strange that one big club can take a star player and a trainer from another big club in this way. But I would argue it could only happen when there is respect and dignity between the two clubs."
And the respect and dignity with which Carlos Queiroz was able to enjoy "the proudest day of my life in taking over the greatest club in the history of the world" is a message to all clubs who would covet another club's coach.
