Silence speaks loudly as Ferguson ignores speculation

United manager avoids issue of England captain's possible move to Madrid, where altered formation can accommodate midfielder's artistry

Sir Alex Ferguson was quite happy to talk about Real Madrid; their players, their budget and their place in European football. The Manchester United manager was, however, utterly unwilling to discuss who might be playing for them next season.

Even an attempt to find a circuitous route towards the day's great question; by asking to talk about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who had replaced David Beckham for United's big games against Newcastle United, Arsenal and Real Madrid, was dismissed. Ferguson has been around too long not to see where the conversation was headed: "I'm not going into it. You sell your papers and I'll run Manchester United."

Just as it had been in the wake of Wednesday's epic, when Beckham's two goals drew not a word of comment; Ferguson's silence spoke loudly. He could have dismissed the speculation, reiterated his unwillingness to part with his most celebrated employee, but Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and all the other footballers Ferguson has discarded will recognise the symptoms and he did not explain their absences either. It is not his style, nor does he believe it to be part of his job.

The world's most celebrated footballer has sold an awful lot of newsprint lately – and yesterday he was selling more. His father, Ted Beckham, who often acts as his unofficial spokesman, told the Manchester Evening News that there was no question of his leaving the city, although he reportedly met his agent, Tony Stephens, a man whom Ferguson has notoriously little time for, an hour after the 4-3 pyrrhic victory over Real Madrid in which he had come off the bench to score twice.

"I don't think he wants to go anywhere; he loves it at United, that's where his heart is," said Beckham Snr. "After the game, he told me he was disappointed, devastated really, about not being chosen for the game. Sir Alex Ferguson usually gets it right but this time he got it wrong. But my gut feeling is that he will stay. He never said a word to me about Madrid."

Ever since the journey to the Bernabeu at the start of the month, Ferguson has been preoccupied by Real Madrid; how to match them and how to compete with them. Yesterday, he admitted that, financially at least, Manchester United would not even try.

"We have always acknowledged their superiority there and we're not alone. Barcelona have only bought one player in three years," Ferguson said. He did not, incidentally, think the presence of three Italian teams in the semi-finals was symbolic of a revival of Serie A. He argued that there had been no real dip in Italian form over the past few years but that Spanish and, to a lesser extent, English clubs had caught them up.

Picking through the wreckage of defeat, Ferguson acknowledged that the fact that United have scored five times in two games against the champions of Europe to go with the 15 hammered past Liverpool, Newcastle, Arsenal and Blackburn, should mean an absence of the dreadful flatness that surrounded last year's European Cup exit at Bayer Leverkusen.

"Winning the game only proved what we already knew, that we could score goals. The balancing act was stopping them scoring. Real Madrid can buy players like Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo, players who can beat men and they were key players against us."

Defensively, Manchester United were again found wanting at the highest level. Since returning to the Champions' League in 1996, they have only twice kept a clean sheet in a knockout game at Old Trafford, and not at all in the past four years. Before Real's arrival Ferguson was promising his defenders would not hold off as they had in Madrid; shortly after half-time they had conceded three to Ronaldo and the tie was settled.

"To think you can contain stars like theirs over 180 minutes is fanciful," the United manager admitted. "Our mentality is basically to attack. I could have defended the 18-yard line at home and away and hoped. Juventus were not negative against Barcelona but their philosophy was to defend their 18-yard line all night and keep it 0-0. We don't think that way but the semi-final between Real Madrid and Juventus will be fantastically interesting."