“When he was in the youth team they all had ability, but we always felt he had a bit more,” Bruce said. “He’s got unbelievable technique.”Beckham is by no means powerfully built. He may be 6ft, but he weighs little over 11 stone, so timing is everything. Malcolm Allison, whose book Soccer for Thinkers includes a study of shooting technique, likens Beckham to Colin Bell, the cultured England midfielder whom Allison managed at Manchester City in the early Seventies.

“You’d be surprised how few players really know how to shoot correctly,” Allison said “Beckham is a tremendous striker of the ball. He knows exactly where to hit it.”Comparisons with Bobby Charlton are slightly wide of the mark, as it were. Charlton’s long-range shots – most memorably against Mexico in the 1966 World Cup – hardly deviated in flight, but because of the type of ball then in use, few players’ did. Beckham uses the advantages of the latest technology to bend shots in either direction.

The synthetic modern ball, though no lighter than the leather one of an earlier generation, travels faster and moves in the air more readily The boots are important too. Beckham’s have fins and jets on the upper, of which the claims made by Adidas – that they help impart swerve – should perhaps not be so readily dismissed as hype.It is still what Beckham does with them that counts – the way the instep curls round the righthand side of the ball for right-to-left movement, and, to create the opposite effect, the outside off his foot almost jams down into the ball in a right-to-left slicing action, with his non-kicking left leg planted a long way forward.There’s another side – the defender’s – to every goal, of course. Alan Hansen despaired of the way Derby invited Beckham to shoot by backing off. But Howard Wilkinson, the Football Association’s new director of coaching, believes the change in the offside law makes defenders reluctant to come out and leave themselves vulnerable to overlapping runs.”There’s no doubt that the quality of shooting from distance has improved enormously,” Wilkinson said “Players have recognised the potential for goals there. Imitation is a great educator, and with the close-ups you get on television now kids have grown up seeing what can be done.” They are all watching Beckham, that’s for sure..

KENNY DALGLISH was clearly a logical choice for the Newcastle United board of directors when it came to finding a successor to Kevin Keegan. They covet the championship; Dalglish has, with not one but two clubs, shown how it can be done. Sometimes, however, one wonders how boards arrive at their decisions, how much homework they do and how aware of candidates’ capabilities they are. A Newcastle director was once asked how Jack Charlton was shaping up as their manager “A bit blunt, isn’t he?” he replied. What was he expecting?
Frequently, uninspired shortlists of candidates might just as well be headed “the usual suspects”.