Veron has Beckham's number

It was but the merest glimpse of the number 7 beneath the woolly fashion accessory of the most expensive signing in British football history. But yesterday it had soccer's rumour mill turning faster than a spinning top.

For the number 7 sported by Manchester United's record signing Juan Sebastian Veron on his shirt and shorts when he arrived for fitness tests was, surely, the sacred property of the team's hero David Beckham.

Did this mean that the 26-year-old Argentine, signed from Italian club Lazio for a reported £23.5million, had insisted on taking Beckham's shirt off his back as part of the deal?

After all, when England lost to Argentina during their 1998 World Cup clash in France, it was Veron who suggested to the referee that Beckham should be sent off for his petulant kick at Diego Simeone. The Englishman was duly dismissed.

Or was it just that Becks, who also wears No.7 for England, had tired of the number in the way that he tires of new hairstyles, and asked for a new one?

Worst of all, could it mean that Beckham, who is being paid less by Manchester United than the new £85,000 a week signing and has yet to agree a new contract, was on his way out of Old Trafford to pastures new?