Roy Keane: Sir Alex Ferguson offered me the No.7 shirt so David Beckham wouldn't get it

Beckham wore the iconic No.7 shirt at Manchester United

More sensational details have been leaked from Roy Keane’s yet unreleased autobiography The Second Half. These are regarding Manchester United’s iconic No. 7 shirt worn over the years by stalwarts like George Best, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.

According to Keane, Sir Alex didn’t want David Beckham to take the legendary number after Eric Cantona’s retirement had left it vacant.

“The captaincy is important, but squad numbers can have an importance.

At United, '7' was the iconic number,” Keane wrote. “When Eric Cantona left there was debate about who was going to be the next captain. I was quite relaxed about it. But there was his number, too - '7'.

“Bryan Robson had had it before Cantona and, of course, it went back to Georgie Best.

“The manager pulled me into his office and said that he wanted me to wear the '7'.

“I said, 'No, I'm not bothered.' And he said, 'I know Becks will f**** want it and I don't want him to have it'.”

However, the controversial Irishman refused the offer asked the manager to give it to Beckham.

“I’d had ‘16’ since I’d signed for the club. I was comfortable with ‘16’. I think it might have kept me on my toes, being outside the ‘1’ to ‘11’. I didn’t think that I was a number ‘7’.

“I said, ‘Give it to Becks.’

“Becks got it, and it suited him - and Cantona. Ronaldo had it after Becks.”

You can read more extracts from Roy Keane’s new autobiography here.