Beckham must now follow the Keane example

England's captain has inspired a nation and the next time he plays for United their fans will be expecting the same

David Beckham's newly minted reputation as a full blown national hero goes into storage today, no doubt to the irritation of some of the more parochial spirits on the terraces of Old Trafford. It is obviously a rational decision by the Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, given the treadmill of physical endeavour and the maelstrom of emotion through which the player has passed in the last seven days.

But as United seek to properly kick start their resumed season against Everton, the sense of loss at the absence of Beckham of England will be high. Here is a passionate captain who revels in both his responsibility and his workload. Suddenly, he is a football paragon: not just deliciously skilled, but inspirational in his supply of leadership in the trenches which can only be described as ferocious.

However, no one at Old Trafford, least of all Sir Alex Ferguson, need feel sheepish about asking a highly pertinent question. It concerns Beckham's willingness to display for his club the commitment he has been producing so spectacularly for his country. Will Beckham really play for United this season?

At the end of the last one, Beckham snapped: "A championship medal and the captaincy of England, not bad for someone who had a mediocre season."

If he was kidding anyone, it can only have been himself. In reality, he could scarcely have claimed even a mediocre season in the service of his club. Whatever dressing was applied, the reality was that Ferguson dropped Beckham for several games and pulled him off in Champions' League match with Valencia. After United's pallid performance against Panathinaikos, Roy Keane railed against the performance of some of his team-mates. He said that competitive standards had slipped near to disaster. There was little dispute that Beckham was one of Keane's prime targets, and who better than Keane to make a judgement about the integrity of anyone's performance?

Keane has been doing for Ireland for years what Beckham has done for England in the last few months, and never has there been the beginnings of doubt about his appetite for work in a United shirt. Even the most ardent admirers of Beckham's skill could not make a similar claim on his behalf.

Indeed, his recent England performances have been most stunning in his willingness to work so relentlessly off the ball, and with every yard he has covered there has been more evidence to support the belief that he may after all have the playing character and energy to become a truly great player, rather than merely one of great talent. Certainly the platform for a hero's return would have been perfect today. United's less than distinguished start to the defence of the title is in urgent need of the old champions' authority. Beckham, who played such a devastating role in the breaking of Germany with infectious commitment at the end of the first and the start of the second half and worked so hard at St James' Park to subdue the menace of Albania, has a new challenge away from the demands of his England job. He has to match, stride by stride, the effort of Keane.

Why, you may wonder, is it necessary to return so persistently to the example of Keane? It is because the Irishman, as it was in the case of his predecessor as United captain, Bryan Robson, is such a seamless example of self-motivation. Keane is the opposite of Beckham in that he runs from publicity. His passion is not for acclaim or celebrity but performance, and when he sees in his team-mates less obvious priorities he cannot contain his indignation.

Keane's not inconsiderable flaw in the past has been a failure of discipline, but it was one which invariably was in direct proportion to his passion to win. Ferguson sometimes attempted to excuse the inexcusable by talking about his captain's "warrior nature" but no one could question his identification of the source of the problem.

What is undoubtedly true is that Keane relies exclusively on the adrenaline of action. Beckham plainly enjoys the backing of a great engine of publicity, one that has been at full revs ever since he assumed the captaincy of England. He has embraced every scrap of attention and the more he has talked before the cameras, the more he has been obliged to deliver football of the highest quality. That he has managed to do so has been, along with Michael Owen's astonishing deadliness in front of goal, one of the key reasons for England's extraordinary transformation under Sven Goran Eriksson.

Though it seems bizarre to say it, if he had played today Beckham would, relatively speaking, have been stepping a little way from the fierce national spotlight. For United over the next few weeks he has to go about the mundane business of winning another title, he has to be an always relevant, hard-working cog in a machine which too often of late has been mostly lubricated by Keane's sweat. It is a test of character even more than talent, and if Beckham should question the relative importance of matches like today's he might reflect for a moment on maybe the most poignant cry of the football week.

It was Paul Gascoigne's expressed hope that he might get on to the field for at least a little of the Old Trafford action. Gascoigne, whose natural talent was second to none, and arguably the best seen in these islands since the youth of George Best, can now only desperately rake the ashes of what was once a potentially great career. Beckham, we can be sure, will never feel the pain of Gascoigne. He is blessedly free from the weaknesses which betrayed a thrilling and deeply creative ability, but there is a susceptibility they both share. It is for the bewitching light of fame. In Gascoigne's case is brought the destruction of all that made him great. For Beckham the danger is that from time to time it may force him to take his eye off the ball.

With the responsibility of the captaincy of England, and the attention it draws, Beckham has little option but to play out of his skin. He sought out that obligation, lobbied for its demands, and so far he has proved more than equal to the challenge. But that should not blur his focus on what is expected of him the next time he plays for United.