Michael Walker talks to Real's other England midfielder about his four good years at the club and the implications for him of the imminent arrival of one David Beckham.

David Beckham provokes sneers from those who consider him intellectually stunted, but he still had the wit this week to realise that the hype surrounding his joining Real Madrid was submerging other details at the club.

For a start, Madrid can win a 29th championship tomorrow night by defeating Athletic Bilbao at the Bernabeu, and for the England international midfielder already on their books, Steve McManaman, it would be a fourth major trophy in as many years: two Spanish League titles, two Champions League titles.

There have been other pots as well for McManaman, such as the Intercontinental Cup, which is taken more seriously in Spain than in England. If Beckham leaves Madrid with the same sort of haul then he and Real will consider their alliance to have been of great mutual benefit.

But McManaman, like his colleagues, has been overshadowed to the point of invisibility by Beckham's arrival. And for McManaman, now 31 and less and less influential in the side, this may be his last week at the club. Tomorrow night could be his last match-day visit to the Bernabeu as a Real Madrid employee.

With a typical professional's lack of sentimentality, he reacted to the suggestion that it might be an emotional evening for him by saying: "Nah! All I'm contemplating is winning the league and then going on holiday. At the end of every season it's volatile at Real Madrid; anyone could be leaving. I've not once thought it could be my last game."

However, he knows that, though he has one year left on his contract, both he and Madrid could see this as a natural ending. Coming on for Luis Figo for the last 17 minutes against Atletico last Sunday, he made an immediate impact. He knows, everyone knows, he could and should be doing it for longer. But he has to be asked to do it.

"It's a Catch-22 situation," he said. "I want to play all the time and this season I haven't. It makes you think, but that's all I'm doing at the moment. It's not a case of me being desperately unhappy. I've got another year here and I'm very happy. We love it here.

"People (in England) seem to think I don't play at all, and while this year I haven't played as much as I want, I feel like I've contributed overall."

McManaman's options should be varied. Madrid will probably let him leave for nothing - they got him for that amount from Liverpool, after all - and he has admirers. However, though an offer from England, Italy or even France would be welcome, he said, he would face a dilemma if another Spanish club came in.

"I don't know if I'd like to play for another club in Spain. I think it would destroy the aura for me if I had to play against Real Madrid. It fills me with a lot of pride that I have been part of it."

McManaman has been part of a phenomenon. When he joined Madrid in 1999, with Nicolas Anelka, it was before Florentino Perez took over as president. But McManaman witnessed Real's boom from the inside.

"The year before I joined they didn't win anything, and to then win the European Cup was huge. But then Perez came in and started to make the signings that took Real Madrid to another level.

"They have been famous names and fabulous players. But we won the European Cup without Figo, Ronaldo, Zidane. Even without them the team we had was exceptional."

Ivan Helguera made the same point recently, and it would be understandable if the pre-Perez players did feel what they had already won has been forgotten.

Victory tomorrow would mean more silverware won by the los galacticos generation. But a draw could let in Real Sociedad and it would be Madrid's first season without a trophy since pre-Macca. How would that go down?

"A disaster. To get this far in the league and not win it would be nigh on disastrous. With the added publicity of the Beckham signing this week it'll all be multiplied if we don't get it.  When Man U don't win the league in England there is always the "end-of-a-dynasty" rubbish. Ours would be that multiplied by 10."