Editing David Beckham (section)

====1995–1996: Return to United and first Championship====
Beckham returned to Manchester and made his [[Premier League]] debut for Manchester United on 2 April 1995 in a goalless draw against Leeds United. He played four times for United in the league that season, as they finished second behind [[Blackburn Rovers F.C.|Blackburn Rovers]], missing out on a third successive Premier League title by a single point. He was not in the squad for the [[1995 FA Cup Final|FA Cup final]] with [[Everton F.C.|Everton]] on 20 May, which United lost 1–0, leaving the club without a major trophy for the first time since 1989.<ref>Graham Hart (1995). "The Guinness football encyclopedia". p. 69. Guinness</ref>

United manager [[Alex Ferguson|Sir Alex Ferguson]] had a great deal of confidence in the club's young players. Beckham was part of a group of young talents Ferguson brought into United in the 1990s (known as "[[Fergie's Fledglings]]"), which included [[Nicky Butt]] and [[Gary Neville|Gary]] and [[Phil Neville]]. When experienced players [[Paul Ince]], [[Mark Hughes]] and [[Andrei Kanchelskis]] left the club after the end of the 1994–95 season, his decision to let youth team players replace them instead of buying star players from other clubs (United had been linked with moves for players including [[Darren Anderton]], [[Marc Overmars]] and [[Roberto Baggio]], but no major signings were made that summer), drew a great deal of criticism. The criticism increased when United started the season with a 3–1 defeat at [[Aston Villa F.C.|Aston Villa]],<ref>The most famous comment was [[Alan Hansen]]'s "You can't win anything with kids", quoted in ''The Boss''. Beckham scored United's goal (his first for them in the league) from a distance of around 30&nbsp;metres.</ref> with Beckham scoring United's only goal of the game. However, United recovered from this early-season defeat and the young players performed well.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.manutd.com/en/Sir-Alex-25-Years/Trophies/Trophy-Articles/League-199596.aspx|title=Man Utd season review 1995/96|access-date=12 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525232144/http://www.manutd.com/en/Sir-Alex-25-Years/Trophies/Trophy-Articles/League-199596.aspx|archive-date=25 May 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Beckham swiftly established himself as United's right-sided midfielder (rather than a right-winger in the style of his predecessor Andrei Kanchelskis) and helped them to win the Premier League title and [[FA Cup]] [[Double (association football)|double]] that season, scoring the winner in the semi-final against [[Chelsea F.C.|Chelsea]] and also providing the [[corner kick|corner]] from which [[Eric Cantona]] scored in the FA Cup Final. Beckham's first title medal had, for a while, looked like it would not be coming that season, as United were still 10 points adrift of leaders [[Newcastle United F.C.|Newcastle United]] at the turn of the new year, but Beckham and his teammates had overhauled the [[Tyneside]]rs at the top of the league by mid March and they remained top until the end of the season. Despite playing regularly and to a consistently high standard for Manchester United, Beckham did not break into the England squad before [[UEFA Euro 1996|Euro 1996]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Euro 96 stars going strong |url=http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2005/01/Euro96_Feature.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20050326090133/http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2005/01/Euro96_Feature.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 March 2005 |publisher=The Football Association |date=21 January 2005 |access-date=16 July 2007 }}</ref>