David Beckham - First Manchester United, Now England…
Steve McClaren’s move to axe David Beckham from the England squad was an inevitable decision on two fronts.
First, McClaren is building a team that can effectively challenge for Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010. At 31, Beckham is too old to be guaranteed a starting place in Austria and Switzerland come 2008, and it makes sense to drop him now.
Second, McClaren is very astute when it comes to manage his PR (if you remember how his personal affairs were handled in the news a few months ago, you’ll know what I mean). The pressure was on him to distance himself from Eriksson and regardless of his motivations, Beckham’s omission will be credited in part to McClaren’s desire to start on the right foot and to get the media on his side.
What I haven’t seen in the media is an account of why this decision was wrong. Not the decision to drop him from the squad, but the decision to drop him from the squad that is named for the Greece friendly.
It’s no secret that a number of England’s first-team players are missing through injury and suspension. Joe Cole, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen are all out due to injuries, while the United duo of Ferdinand and Neville may not play because of recent knocks.
With 5 first-teamers out, it is obvious that the squad will be changed when the first qualifier swings by will be different - Ferdinand and Cole would be hoping to return while Rooney will definitely return after serving out his suspension. With those squad changes in mind, would it not make sense to play David Beckham against Greece, and then drop him latter?
England play Greece on August 16 at Old Trafford - if you are going to drop a player of Beckham’s stature, let him at least play in England’s colours for one last time against his home crowd.
Sentimentality is dangerous, but we’re talking about a player who was one of England’s best players at the 2006 World Cup and was directly responsible for England’s 3 wins - including helping them win 2 of those 3 matches single-handedly.
Beckham never was, nor could he be, a great captain. And while his departure from Manchester United hurt the club more than Ferguson would care to admit, Beckham’s departure from the England setup is a good thing.
Ruthlessness be damned - as an England player, David Beckham deserves a proper farewell. McClaren’s statement that the door is still open for Beckham amounts to a diplomatic slap on his face. Don’t leave Becks hanging - give him a chance to say goodbye to England and Old Trafford, and then send him home.
After all, we have the World Cup to win, and Becks won’t be there for us in 2010.
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Is there some other kind of world cup that you know about and I don’t?
1) Beckham’s free-kick against Paraguay - leads to an own goal, England win 1-0.
2) Beckham’s cross that led to Crouch’s header against T & T and England’s 1st goal of the match. England win 2-0, Beckham is named man of the match.
3) Beckham’s free kick against Ecuador - Becks scores, England win 1-0 and go to the quarter-finals.
That’s the 3 wins. Of the other matches, we drew 2-2 against Sweden (a match Becks was anonymous in because he didnt get the ball much) and he was injured against Portugal - a match we lost on penalties.
Where were you mate?
You are one of thos muppets who wear rose-tinted glasses. Bechkam was already on the decline when SAF got rid of him. He wasn’t fully focused on his football. Did he help Real win anything significant since he moved there??? In fact, OGS was doing a great job after he took over from Becks. My view is that United missed OGS after he sustained his knee injury, and not Becks!!!
dude, dude, dude, I LOVE Becks. (It’s another thing that I think it’s time for him to take a few months off, jog, run, party, whatever, get back in shape somehow). I was talking about England winning the next world cup, or the one after that, or another one, till 2064 or whatever
Beckham on the decline? Surely you watched the run-in to the 2002-2003 season, when Beckham was by far one of our best players on the pitch?
Losing OGS was a bad blow, true.
By your logic, Neville should be sold, Keano should have been sold after 2003 as well.
How many people help win a league title single-handedly? Real have been poor generally in the last three years, how does that become one player’s fault?
Steve McClaren is an idiot and unfit for this job, the FA are a bunch of idiots too, they could have done more to convince Scolari to take the job.
- But when he did not want the job they gav it to this idiot.
Beckham is always used as scapegoat, its actually sad.
- Because of his fame alot of people critize him for no reasons, but he was better then alot of players at the World Cup, he had 1 assist and scored a goal and freekick against paraguay led to the own goal.
- Thats better then Lampard and Gerrad who were invisible the whole tournament, why are they not dropped ?
Also , McClaren said he wanted to “go in a different direction” and beckham was not a part of that.
What does Phil Neville bring to the table that Becks doesn’t? Including Phil Nev. on the squad ahead of Beckham is an insult to a player that has been a decent Captain, and a passionate player for his country.. It’s, quite frankly, a slap in the face.
Sorry for the rant but this really makes mad.
I think Beckham was a great captain. I certainly wanted to know about his performance on this match and then I find he wasn’t there! What the hell?!
I know, he’s old for soccer…McClaren’s new era..whatever…Becks deserves a decent farewell!! Please! Common sense…
First of all.. Becks’ an ENGLAND LEGEND!!!.. AND HE SHALL NEVER QUIT FOOTBALL ENGLAND TILL PELE DIES!!.. Not even from LA GALAXY…