Former England captain David Beckham could be set for a sensational return to English soccer after Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp confirmed he would try to land the midfielder on a short-term loan.
Redknapp revealed on Friday he would ask club chairman Daniel Levy to persuade the Los Angeles Galaxy to lend the 35-year-old to Tottenham until the start of the Major League Soccer season in March.
The Spurs boss denied that the move was designed simply to produce the commercial revenue that Beckham’s signing could bring.
Photo: Reuters
“He wouldn’t be coming here just to sell shirts. In the short term, he’s not going to sell a load of shirts,” Redknapp said.
Redknapp, who has guided an attacking Spurs side to the knockout round of the Champions League and into a top-six position in the Premier League this season, also insisted Beckham had no financial motive to return to England.
“He isn’t going to come here and get big money — we aren’t massive payers at this club,” Redknapp said.
“He has probably got a fantastic house with a pool and he could sit out there every day and enjoy his life for a few months before he starts with LA Galaxy again, but he wants to come over here to the freezing cold and play football,” he added.
If the deal goes through, it would be the first time that London-born Beckham has played for an English club since he left Manchester United to join Real Madrid in 2003.
Beckham has spent the last two MLS close seasons on loan at AC Milan, partly in a bid to extend his England career, but injury ruled him out of last year’s World Cup finals where England flopped.
With United, Beckham won the Premier League title six times and the 1999 Champions League title.
He won a Spanish league title with Real before joining LA Galaxy in 2007.
In other news, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has ruled out a spending spree in this month’s sales.
United are in pole position to regain the Premier League title as they go into this year on top of the table, but Ferguson doesn’t plan to bolster his squad with new signings during the one-month transfer window.
Title rivals Manchester City look set to buy VfL Wolfsburg forward Edin Dzeko, while Chelsea are in the market for a new defender and Arsenal could move for a goalkeeper.
Ferguson, who has already completed the capture of Denmark goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard from Aalesund, is confident his squad is strong enough to last the pace in the title race.
“I don’t think so,” he told a Manchester radio station when asked if he would make signings.
“There is always this situation that if a certain player came up that we like, we would do something, but that doesn’t really happen in January,” he added. “In any case, a lot of the players relish the fact we are keeping ahead of the game by bringing in players who can challenge and be a first-team squad player.”
Meanwhile, Ferguson’s squad will be improved soon as veteran midfielder Paul Scholes will return to training next week after five weeks out of action.
Scholes, 35, has been sidelined by a groin injury since United’s Champions League win at Rangers on Nov. 24.
He has already missed six fixtures, but Ferguson hopes the rest will have allowed the former England international’s injury to heal completely.
“Paul had a little recurrence of the groin injury,” Ferguson said. “We just told him to have a complete break, which is what he has done.
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