Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson doubts David Beckham will make a positive impact at Tottenham.
Ferguson believes there is a downside to the short-term nature of the proposed deal from Los Angeles Galaxy.
"The thing with David if he comes to England is that he will have to go back in March," the Manchester United manager said on Sirius XM. "It's a very short-term loan and we had the same situation with Henrik Larsson in 2007.
"We utilised those two months well and Henrik played a great part, but we knew we would miss him at the very time when we would have liked to have had him - at the tail-end of the season. But that was the arrangement, so we had to move on."
Ferguson never contemplated moving for Beckham because he believes his former player is on the wane.
"Obviously anyone at 35 is looking at the twilight years of his career," he said. "I have players at United like Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville who grew up with David and are at the same level. They know they are coming towards the end of their careers and the horrible part of being a manager is seeing that. These players are eventually going to retire. David knows that better than anyone."
Beckham is sure to use Ferguson's words as motivation, with his Spurs debut likely to be next weekend against ... Manchester United.