United battle for Beckham

　　Manchester United's boardroom paymasters (工薪出纳员) ar e growing increasingly concerned over David Beckham's d elay at committing his long-term future to Old Trafford this season.

　　The private worry among manager Sir Alex Ferguson's hierarchy (等级制度) is that they will be unable to deliver an acceptable response to the massive new wage demands from Britain's most-valuable player.

　　Advisers for Beckham, worth at least ?40million as Europe's heaviest investors carefully monitor developme nts, believe he should be United's highest-paid perform er.

　　They want a significant increase on the ?70,000-a-w eek wages already collected by skipper Roy Keane—a fina ncial package agreed last season that shattered (粉碎) Un ited's rigid (严格的) pay structure.

　　But even a four-year agreement worth around ?4m a s eason, is unlikely to satisfy the Beckham camp which is aware he could leave the club for nothing in 18 months' time.

　　The club is optimistic that the right money can be found to persuade Ryan Giggs, Andy Cole and Jaap Stam t o extend their playing commitments under Ferguson for a t least another three years.

　　But there is a limited amount of cash in the budget —it is believed to be around ?15m—which is why the Beck ham affair is reaching a delicate stage.

　　Club insiders believe that Beckham's wife, Spice Gi rl Victoria, could have a crucial influence on the supe rstar's destiny, even though last summer he rejected se cret overtures (为建立友谊的主动表示) from Barcelona to move to S pain.

　　At 25, he might believe that within the next season or two he will possess the maturity and ambition to ful fil the opportunity of competing in the same world-clas s arena as the likes of Luis Figo and Rivaldo in Contin ental football.

　　by Peter Fitton