{"id":54516,"date":"2014-10-08T11:49:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T11:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=54516"},"modified":"2014-10-08T10:59:28","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T10:59:28","slug":"alex-ferguson-did-not-want-beckham-to-be-no-7-keane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/10\/alex-ferguson-did-not-want-beckham-to-be-no-7-keane\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ferguson did not want Beckham to be No 7 – Keane"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sir Alex Ferguson tried to prevent David Beckham wearing Manchester United’s famous No 7 shirt, according to Roy Keane.<\/p>\n
Beckham inherited the shirt following Eric Cantona’s retirement in 1997, joining the likes of George Best and Bryan Robson in United folklore.<\/p>\n
But writing in his autobiography\u00a0The Second Half,\u00a0<\/em>Keane claims Ferguson wanted him to take Cantona’s shirt as well as his captaincy.<\/p>\n “At United, ‘7’ was the iconic number,” Keane wrote. “When Eric Cantona left\u00a0there was debate about who was going to be the next captain. I was quite relaxed\u00a0about it. But there was his number, too – ‘7’.<\/p>\n “Bryan Robson had had it before Cantona and, of course, it went back to\u00a0Georgie Best.<\/p>\n “The manager pulled me into his office and said that he wanted me to wear the\u00a0‘7’. I said, ‘No, I’m not bothered.’ And he said, ‘I know Becks will want it and I don’t want him to have it’.”<\/p>\n Beckham went on to wear the shirt for six years until his departure for Real Madrid saw it pass to Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n In a book packed full of talking points, Keane also says he regrets apologising to Ferguson over the notorious MUTV interview which hastened his acrimonious departure from Manchester United.<\/p>\n Ferguson criticised his former captain in his autobiography last year and Keane has hit back with a host of barbs and criticisms in his own book.<\/p>\n Keane says Ferguson was ill-advised to pursue a legal case against John Magnier and JP McManus over the stud fees from the Rock of Gibraltar racehorse.<\/p>\n And the former United captain effectively withdrew an apology he gave to Ferguson after the MUTV interview in which Keane was alleged to have criticised several of his team-mates.<\/p>\n “Now I kind of wish I hadn’t (apologised). Afterwards I was thinking, ‘I’m not sure why I apologised’. I just wanted to do the right thing,” Keane said.<\/p>\n