HEARD THE ONE ABOUT BECKHAM AND THE OLD LADY?
According to vice-president Roberto Bettega, Juventus simply do not need the Manchester United midfielder as they have plenty of talent in the centre already. "We know that Beckham is an excellent player but there are not enough places in the team to accommodate him," said Bettega. "Right now we are happy with our squad so we are not going to change anything important in the near future."
An accurate assessment or a boastful claim? Opta duly investigate.
Beckham's performances so far this term have been patchy by his own high standards. His overall passing accuracy for the season has been just 78% - only 2% above the average for the entire Premiership.
Indeed, four of Beckham's colleagues in the Manchester United side have made more successful passes than the England man, and even Gary Neville has completed almost as many in the opposition half.
One of the key features of Beckham's game in recent seasons has been setting up goals for his team-mates. Last term he managed more goal assists than any other Premiership player, but 2001-02 has been an entirely different matter. He has set up just two goals so far - Laurent Blanc's header against Spurs in September and Ruud van Nistelrooy's opener against Leicester last month.
Compare this with a man who, while widely accepted as one of the most underrated players in European football, has nonetheless played over 200 minutes less Premiership football than Beckham this season. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has set up no fewer than five goals already this season, making Beckham's pair look rather measly.
But the question is how would Beckham fare in the current Juventus side, with Bettega claiming that in Pavel Nedved and Gianluca Zambrotta they have all the midfield and right-wing talent they need.
Neither of those two players can lay claim to a better pass completion rate than Brooklyn's dad. Nedved has maintained exactly the same completion rate, while Zambrotta is a single percentage point below them both.
Each Juventus star has played more league football than the Manchester United man, and yet both are level with Beckham in terms of goal assists. Not only that, but with 12 apiece the two have less than half as many key passes leading to scoring chances than the Englishman.
Moreover, Beckham has had more success in front of goal himself. He has five strikes to his name so far - Nedved has just the one and Zambrotta Is yet to break his duck.
Leaving just one real possibility for the two Juventus players to outshine Beckham - crossing. Without going in to too much detail to avoid heaping further embarrassment on the performances of the Czech and the Italian, it is enough to say that Beckham has been far, far better in terms of getting the ball over from the flanks, with more successful efforts himself than the two combined.
All in all it would appear that for Juventus to claim that they do not need or want David Beckham in their side is nothing short of cheekiness. Even while suffering from 'physical exhaustion', according to Alex Ferguson, he has been more impressive than the Bianconeri pair by some margin. Could it possibly be a case of a pre-emptive strike in the face of rejection by the player himself?
