Bebe to make Besiktas switch - report
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If the intent was to avoid fanfare and fulsome tributes, it failed. No matter how low key the announcement appeared and although it was widely expected, it was news nonetheless. The confirmation that Paul Scholes was leaving Manchester United's playing staff generated the paeans of praise that seem to embarrass Oldham's favourite mute.
Ten days earlier, however, United did manage to release a midfielder without undue attention. Timing was a factor: the statement that Owen Hargreaves would depart was made some 90 minutes before a dramatic conclusion to the Premier League season which featured Blackpool's relegation at Old Trafford, while United paraded the trophy. It became a footnote.
The differences between the long-serving local and the Anglo-German-Canadian Welshman are considerable. The countdown to Scholes' exit proceeded over a couple of months, with his valedictory appearance coming against Barcelona while Hargreaves was a lesser-spotted figure, infrequently in the directors' box, let alone on the pitch, even before he officially joined the ranks of the club's ex-players.
Scholes' artistry, modesty and loyalty accounted for his accolades. A man who cost United nothing gave them plenty in a 676-game career. In contrast, Hargreaves made just 26 starts from a four-year spell that, including transfer fee and wages, cost in excess of £30 million.
Scholes remained an influence until the end, a factor in the comeback against Blackburn that clinched the trophy. Hargreaves became a strange hybrid of forgotten figure and unfunny joke, his final two seasons entailing a 30-second cameo against Sunderland and a five-minute outing against Wolves before, inevitably, he departed injured. Scholes' future, on the United coaching staff, is assured; Hargreaves' is uncertain, with his problems seeming both physical and psychological.
Yet the sense of disappointment should not detract from the memory of what a formidable performer Hargreaves was, albeit briefly, for United. In the Champions League-winning campaign of 2008, he played three different positions in the last three rounds: his favoured central midfield role in the quarter-final against Roma, right-back in both encounters with Barcelona and then on the right of midfield when United met Chelsea in Moscow.
His versatility was a consequence of a combination of attributes that no team-mate possessed: Darren Fletcher and Anderson can also offer energy in midfield, while Michael Carrick screens the back four. None, however, could ally defensive discipline with such forceful running. In a country where natural holding midfielders are a rarity, Hargreaves was an exception. He was also more than that.
It explains why neither United nor England have found a suitable alternative. The manner of Barcelona's supremacy in two Champions League finals has been such that it is hard to argue one player would have made a game-changing difference. Yet, if speed, stamina and an intelligent understanding of the game are required to disrupt the Catalans' passing and pressing game, Hargreaves is better equipped than any of his team-mates to try.
The same is true, too, of England's World Cup defeat to Germany. It is not merely a grounding in the Bundesliga that suggests Hargreaves might have kept track of Mesut Ozil rather better than Gareth Barry managed to do. If that was the nadir for the Manchester City midfielder, the fact he has 46 caps, predominantly as a holding midfielder, is a sign of an inability to replace Hargreaves.
Nothing benefits a reputation quite like absentia in defeat, of course, and Hargreaves' standing, which was transformed in England by the 2006 World Cup, remains rooted in the past. A two-year spell, beginning with his exploits in one adopted country's colours, but on another's shores, and culminating in the final months of his first campaign at Old Trafford cemented a status as one of the most efficient players of his generation.
Three years after he effectively faded from the first-team picture, however, it appears the search for a new Hargreaves has been put on hold. Scott Parker, the closest equivalent, has been belated granted a chance in a national team where Steven Gerrard, Jack Wilshere and Barry have been deployed out of position.
At Old Trafford, meanwhile, the priorities appear different: newer, younger defenders, a successor to Edwin van der Sar in goal, a man to accept Scholes' mantle as the creator and, possibly, Dimitar Berbatov's replacement in attack. It is, arguably, only against elite opposition, where no two of Sir Alex Ferguson's central midfielders have formed a long-term partnership and where the selection of a trio is often both enforced and an acknowledgement of inferiority in that department, where Hargreaves has been missed. But on such games are trophies decided.
The need for a newcomer is complicated by the difficulty in locating one. Because, while his many ailments prompted mockery and there had long been a quiet acceptance around Old Trafford that his United career belonged in the past tense, as a defensive central midfielder, Hargreaves had every quality except one: fitness.
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Manchester United forward Bebe will spend next season on loan at Besiktas with a view to completing a £2 million move to the Turkish club, according to reports.
Bebe, 20, joined United in a shock £7.4 million deal from Portuguese club Vitoria de Guimaraes last summer and has really struggled to make his mark at Old Trafford.
The Portugal Under-21 never played a game for Vitoria was available for £125,000 from his old club Estrela da Amadora just months before he joined United and Sir Alex Ferguson admitted he had only seen the player on video.
Turkish news agency Dogan Haber Ajansi (DHA) claim Bebe, who had only played club football in the Portuguese third division before joining United, has agreed to join Besiktas to get his career back on track.
With Aston Villa forward Ashley Young on the brink of completing a move to United to provide more options out wide, Bebe will be allowed to go out on loan.
If the deal is made permanent it would represent a £5.4 million loss for United.
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Bebe is a loser. I don't see why he is so estatic when United won the title and clung onto the trophy. He played no part in this title success. He should be sold off.
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bloody waste of time and money to buy Bebe. the club who sold Bebe to united must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Can fergie for once, stop listening to the scouts. is Martin Ferguson still chief scout at United?
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give bebe some time..am sure he good striker...im sure he'l do well in turky
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I'll be back! Bebe ready to prove to Sir Alex that he's not top of the flops at Besiktas
Rare: Bebe celebrates scoring during last season's Carling Cup fourth round
Portuguese forward Bebe intends to use his season-long loan at Besiktas to prove that Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was right to pay £7.4million for him.
The 20-year-old Portuguese has made just seven first-team appearances since his surprise move to Old Trafford from Guimaraes last summer.
But he said: 'I was happy to come to the best team in Turkey. I want to prove that Ferguson was not wrong by hiring me. He relied heavily on me, but unfortunately I could not show my value and I want to do this in Besiktas.'
Bebe had been at Guimaraes just five weeks and not even played a game for them when United swooped in a £7.4million deal.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson later admitted Bebe was the first player he had signed without having even seen him play on television.
Bebe scored for United in both the Carling Cup and the Champions League and netted six times in 13 games for the reserves.
United believe the move to Besiktas for the duration of the 2011-12 campaign will aid his development, but there is widespread doubt that he will play for the club again.
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Let's hope he stays there.