Gary Neville and Teddy Sheringham spoke of the brilliance of David Beckham, and why a near-parental bond between Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson led to his acrimonious departure from Manchester United.
The pair were talking to Off The Ball's Cadbury FC Roadshow, where attention turned to the development of Beckham into not only a supreme footballer but a global star.
Neville formed a playing bond with David Beckham on the right-hand side for United, one link in the 'balance' that Neville to have been crucial to United's success. It was a formidable partnership, mirrored by the threat of Ryan Giggs and Denis Irwin, from the mid-1990s to early 2000s.
The relationship between Giggs and Irwin, arguably, was less intense than that of Neville and Beckham; a pair that had formed a near-supernatural understanding of each other's games in United's youth system.
Neville spoke about disappointment in not trying to be more adventurous, but it was an understandable calculation given the superstar technical abilities of Beckham; no more obvious than his performances in 1998-1999. But someone of such skill can only flourish with a solid foundation.
'Telepathic'
"It was just telepathic," says Neville.
"It got to the point, in the end, where perhaps the opposition knew what we were going to do. Certainly, from 1996-1999, we were catching a lot of teams out in Europe, purely through me being a decoy.
"He was the best passer and deliverer of a ball that I have ever seen. I look at [Kevin] De Bruyne now, and he is similar. Even feeding it into the striker's feet, he was unbelievable.
"Then your runs would start," said Neville of his own view of Beckham's brilliance.
"Once you got it into the striker's feet, you were in business. Because then the central midfielders are running back, the wide players are running back because they are disoriented as to where they are on the pitch.
"You would start to make these runs forward, he would get the ball and I would go around him, I would get a yard and he would cross it. Or if the left-back started to come towards him, he'd pass it back to me, I would stop it and roll it back to him to get a cross in. You couldn't stop it - for about three or four years."
Neville developed his relationship under the late Eric Harrison at Manchester United, alongside Beckham, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.
Standards
"He always had in his mind that he had to be the very best at everything; that he had to set a standard or set a trend. So, if it was his hair, or fashion, or his car - we all got given club cars at 18 or 19.
"I swapped my Prelude for a Honda Accord. Scholesy and Butty kept theirs, but [Beckham] added the leather seats and the Bose speakers to his. Becks made it the best Prelude in the car park. He wanted to be a star. He wanted to do things beyond football and United.
"At the time, I was disappointed that he left because I thought United would always be there for him. But when you think that he played for Real Madrid, Paris St-Germain, AC Milan, LA Galaxy - there is no doubt that he has done the right thing.
"What an experience he has had by being bold enough to leave United, which none of [the Class of '92] would ever have done. We would never have left our home city. He loved United, but he realised he basically had to experience the world.
"I always think that it wasn't something I appreciated in him until I went to watch him at Real Madrid or Paris. I went out to Miami to visit his football club - this stadium is unbelievable and training centre is out of this world.
" He has built that."
Sheringham was taken aback by the meteoric rise of Beckham, to the status of global star.
"Gaz and Becks were two young lads when I met them with the England squad and joining United. They were young kids, setting out on the world of football to become better players.
"To see him go on to bigger and better thing than United, and then to see that he is a global star wherever he goes, is just ridiculous. That this young boy from Chingford would just go on to the world stage as if he owned it.
"For him to go on and become this world icon, when you have been around him as a young boy, is quite surreal."
Beckham's technique
Beckham's technical abilities are world-renowned, and Neville and Sheringham were both effusive in their praise.
"He has got immaculate standards, and that was in his football as well," said Neville.
"The way in which he struck and pinged a ball - the technique was just perfection. Most football players can ping a ball, but when some players ping a ball it is just looks absolutely perfect.
"It is an incredible quality and talent he has, and even to this day he mesmerises you in what he does,"
Sheringham concurred, believing that moving Beckham from the right for United or England was to the teams' detriment.
"When you took him away from that area, we lost something massively. When England played him in central midfield, we lost something massively. He just had a way of feeding a ball in, or curling it, bending it or drilling it.
"He could do everything with that right foot; if he couldn't find you with one pass, he would find you with a different pass."
It was on England duty in a famous World Cup qualifier that Beckham pulled tecnical rank on Sheringham.
"I won the free-kick, and he had already had about six free-kicks - he'd hit row Z and row T!
"I said 'Becks, I'll have this one', and he said 'Ted, you can't even reach from here - get in the wall!' Got myself in the wall and watched it fly in the top corner!"
Ferguson
It was the events leading up to his departure for Real Madrid in 2003 that put Beckham and Ferguson in line to collide.
"He was tweaking the tail of the tiger," remembers Neville. "You knew that if he wore something or his hair was slightly different, or wore a cap in the team meeting [something would happen.]
"The real problem that the boss had was that it was one of the young lads. Cantona, Yorke or Teddy might do similar but that was OK because they had been brought into the club. But he had known Becks since he was 13.
"It was almost this parental thing, like he was going rogue. He wasn't. Becks was the most hard-working, disciplined, professional who loved the club.
"He was obsessed with football, but he wanted to do something outside of football.
"There was just a clash down to the fact that the boss saw him as 'his boy' that he had in the changing room from 13. When he is 23 or 24, he had grown up.
"It worked out for them both in the end, but there was enormous respect between them both."
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