He seems to be playing rather well right now. It will be fascinating to see what he can do in the MLS playing with Landon Donovan, although the rest of LA’s squad is pretty weak. I do have tickets to the Aug 26th game at Colorado and I’m looking forward to seeing him play.
If he doesn’t back out of his contract, that is.
At the time he was dropped from the England squad through to just prior to the LA deal being struck, he was playing terribly and did deserve to be dropped. The only thing keeping him in the England squad up to and throughout the World Cup seemed to be Eriksson’s inability to see anything wrong with his captain and one great free-kick per game seemingly cancelling out 89 minutes of awful tackling, mediocre passes and crosses and prissy pulling out of challenges.
Of course that never meant he was going to be done with the game. Andre Agassi had a terrible few years during his Brooke Shields years, then turned it around to become the only man in the open era to win all four grand slams, Olympic gold, the Davis Cup and the Tennis Masters. In cricket, Ryan Sidebottom’s absence of 6 years from the England team was well deserved, but his performances against the West Indies this month have put bigger names to shame.
The fact that Beckham’s back in the England squad shows he wasn’t written off, just that, at the time, the manager (and most of the country) felt he had better options. Now I just wish the same would happen to Frank Lampard…
I have tickets for the FC Dallas v LA Galaxy game on July 31st which should be one of Beckham’s first games here. I’ll be cheering for Dallas, but I’ll be looking forward to seeing how Becks fares.
Absolutely they did, not only becasue England may not be in Euro 2008 because he was dropped for several games, but because he was pulled for no reason. People say now he was pulled either for bad play or a bad World Cup- both of which are bollocks. He set up or scored most of the Euro goals, was probably the MVP, and was not even playing anywhere when dropped.
Sure Lennon or Defoe may be faster and younger, but Beckham is the best crosser and free kick taker on the team, by far, and these are two of the most common ways of scoring, and soccer is about scoring and winning, not about who’s faster or younger. I could maybe see them not starting him a couple of games to give younger players a chance, but to not even have him on the team, when a team is like 24 players? You’re saying he’s not one of the best 24 players in England? Come on.
Mclaren thought he was going to distance himself from the Erikson regime and drop Beckham, the team would trounce the easy opposition and he’d look like a genius. What an ass. The irony is that its Beckham who may yet save his job.
I wonder though if Beckham will play for the Galaxy this year. It would be better for him to get a loan to an English club, or stay at Madrid another year and then join the Galaxy after the Euros- assuming they make it.
You couldn’t drop him for football reasons, as Wee Bairn says he was the most productive English player in the world cup when you get down to the pounds shillings and pence of it. He was dropped because MacLaren wanted a fresh start, which is hard to argue with. Given that the whole Beckham circus is probably a huge distraction, and he is into his 30s, he was an obvious guy to pick to hang them up and usher in a new regime.
To bring him back now, though, is yet one more example of MacLaren’s complete un-fitness for the job. He’s pretending that he dropped him in the first place for football reasons, which is preposterous. It just makes him, and the England team, look really weak.
Beckham probably has the game to continue at a high level for a good few years I would have thought, all his impact is on the technical level and those skills aren’t going away any time soon.
Personally i don’t think there is a huge barrier to him playing for England after moving to Galaxy, at least in the short term - he’ll still be playing and training regularly, if not more so than he has been at Real until very recently, and probably more than some players who’ve made the squad before.
It would be more of an issue if the position he excels at required top-class opposition in order to “stay current” - i’d have problems with him being picked if he were a central defender for example, but his primary skill lies in the creative role. Plus i’m sure in the back of his mind the thought of being the first ever England player to receive a call-up whilst playing in America is a rather tempting one.
My respect for Beckham actually went up enormously after MacLaren dropped him. He took it with good grace, given that everyone knew that it was for political reasons as much as footballing ones, and he has set out to prove himself on the football pitch rather than through the public court of the media.
Similarly i think the decision to join Galaxy was a brave one, given the amount of stick he was always going to get for it (although i’m sure the money helped!).
Right now i hope Becks is pissing himself laughing at the fact that Real are desperately trying to get him to extend his contract and that he throws the offer straight back in their faces - especially given the downright shitty way the manager Capello and Club President Ramon Calderon treated him during the last round of negotations and after his decision to join LA Galaxy was announced:
“an average cinema actor living in Hollywood”
ha! they don’t seem to think so now…
This seems a bit harsh on Steve McLaren. Player loses form, gets dropped, bucks ideas up, returns to team playing better than in years. That’s good man management, isn’t it?
Yes, if he had actually been in bad form. He was dropped right after being the best player in the World Cup- league footbal had not started back when he was dropped IIRC, so there was no bad form.
He deserved to be dropped. So did Lampard, Rooney and a load of others. The drop did him good - he was hungry to get back into the squad. Hopefully, when Rooney and the rest are eventually dropped, the same will happen to them, and we’ll have a team worthy of its reputation on paper.
How do you work out he was the best player in the World Cup? From where I was watching, that was Hargreaves.
There was always more to it that simply Beckham’s on-field form.
It was claimed that his influence in the dressing room undermined the manager, which for the long-term good of the team needed to be removed.
Fergie also suffered from this, and that’s why Beckham left for Madrid.
It also sent a v. powerful message to some of the other “automatic” picks - Lampard, Ferdinand, Owen - that Mclaren was willing to drop them for poor form (something Sven seemed reluctant to do).
And you have to admit that Beckham for a long while last season didn’t produce the goods, and seemed more interested in his off-field activities than putting the performances in.
Its sort of like comparing which pile of shite is the least big, but in terms of putting the ball in the back of the net, Beckham made it happen more than anyone else, which hardly merits dropping. But, as said already, if Steve MacLaren wanted a clean slate then dropping Beckham was a good move, and probably empowered a manager who desperately needs empowering.
It’s been mentioned in several UK newspapers that once Becks signed for Galaxy the pressure he was under at Real vanished. He began playing a hell of a lot better and that prompted his recall.
From what I’ve seen of his performance so far the papers could have it right…for a change
It also seemed to me from the two England games that he has modified his technique on crosses a bit. More topspin and he doesn’t hit it quite as far/hard?
nah, its just so long since we’ve actually seen a cross in an England game that we’ve all forgotten what they look like:
“Wow! What’s that Grandad?!”
“That’s a ‘cross’ my boy, used t’ see them all the time back in t’ day.”
…and then promptly failed to drop them.
For the record i didn’t (and don’t) disagree with beckham being dropped for the precise reason you mention - it was a valid message and one that needed to be sent.
Trouble is, messages only work when you actually follow through with them - which MacLaren hasn’t. This isn’t just his fault, but the fault of the media, FA and sponsors who place so much empahsis on “superstar” players.
In a similar vein the sooner MacLaren (or the next manager) realises that it just ain’t possible to play Gerrard and Lampard in the same team and actually drops one of them to the bench the better. That would mean one of them couldn’t be featured in the promo photos for the next super-expensive replica kit or England MacDonalds happy-meal tie-in though, so i guess its probably asking too much.
Personally if i was appointed England boss tomorrow i’d actually drop the whole fucking lot of them and bump the England U21s up to the squad en-masse - that’d learn 'em.
Plus it would mean i’d get to shout school-football favourites at the screen like “STOP BUNCHING!” and “YOUR LACES! TIE YOUR FUCKING SHOE LACES!” rather than falling asleep at the latest England yamn-fest, which would be a pleasant change.
Beckham’s form for Real has been exemplary in recent months but I think he really excelled himself against Estonia, a team lying 110th in the FIFA rankings who haven’t scored a goal for 2 years and who are defensively inept.
I like the player because he is a trier but let’s not get carried away. Stiffer tests await in the autumn.
I just read an interview where McLaren seems to be taking credit for Beckham’s “return to form”, implying that he knew dropping him from the sqaud would make Beckham work harder, and that dropping him was the right thing to do- Beckham too classy to respond. McLaren’s an ass.
Absolutely, but its worth bearing in mind that (at all times) the real argument isn’t:
“Is Beckham good enough to play against X Team?”
But:
“Do we have anyone available who can play better in the same position?”
Right now, i’d say “no.” Whether that’s still true in a few months though is of course open to question. In fact that’s my biggest issue with the current set-up - that too often we pick and stick with players who are “world class” at club level, but for one reason or another fail to perform at international level.
interestingly the latest issue of When Saturday Comes hit my doorstep this morning and its front cover, over the slogan “BIG PLANS FOR BECKHAM”, features Beckham saying:
“Sell the house in Madrid, get a new haircut, save Steve McClaren’s career”