David Beckham > Reviews (37)

Gone for good?

So, yesterday Mr Capello did it. He took the same step that Steve Maclaren took when naming his first England squad, by omitting David Beckham. This time, however, the circumstances are totally different and no doubt the public and media reaction will be much more split on this occasion.

The History

David Beckham is one of the best known names on the planet. To be honest, I would be surprised if there is a single person in the country who doesn't know the name. In the mid 90's Beckham shot to fame with Manchester United and England, he was an integral part of the treble winning team of 1999, as well as the right sided player in the best Premier League midfield ever. Later in the same year he married Victoria Adams - 'Posh Spice' from the girl group The Spice Girls. Many saw this as an unwelcome distraction, as she seemed to want to use David as a tool to promote her ailing pop career. Things came to a head in 2002 when the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson was enraged with Beckham's under performance, and in 2003 Beckham was on his way to Spain, seemingly urged on by Victoria, and to Real Madrid. He stayed there for four seasons, winning only one trophy and in 2007 it was announced that he would be moving to LA Galaxy in the largest contract ever given out to a football player, believed to be worth around $1m a week.

Beckham and England

David Beckham made his debut for England in 1996, and was named captain by Peter Taylor in his one game in charge in 2000, a role that Sven Goran Eriksson made permanent. He went on to captain his country 58 times, and made a tearful resignation after the 2006 World Cup. Despite resigning the captaincy, he expected to be named in the squad, and was shocked and emotional when Maclaren rang him to tell him he had been omitted. It appeared the door was shut for Beckham, and the move to the MLS seemed to state that he had no intention of returning to play for his country. However, at the end of the 2007 season Maclaren gave him a shock recall, giving him five more caps, and when Maclaren was sacked, Beckham had 99 caps and had scored 17 goals.

Beckham and Capello

This is not the first time that Capello and Beckham have crossed swords. Indeed, Capello was manager at Real Madrid when Beckham announced his transfer to LA Galaxy. It seemed at the time that Capello cast Beckham out and made him train on his own, although the truth was that it was the sporting director of the club, Predrag Mijatovic who told Capello to exclude David Beckham. Capello pleaded for Beckham to be included after being overwhelmed by the player's attitude whilst training on his own. He recalled Beckham in February and he played a key role in helping the club win the only trophy in his four years there. The sum of all of this is basically that there is no bad feeling between Capello and Beckham, and therefore this is not the reason for his exclusion.

Is Capello right to leave Beckham out, or should he have given him this last game?

This really is where most of the argument comes on this topic. The main argument for including David Beckham is that the game is only a friendly game; it could give him his 100th cap and is on the anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster, which affected the club he loves - Manchester United. As well as the argument about his 100th cap, many supporters believe that he is actually still worth a place in the squad, if not the team on merit. He was arguably the best player for England over the summer in the games against Estonia and Croatia, as well as the friendlies against Brazil and Germany and could still offer pearls of wisdom to the younger players around the camp. He has been training full time with Arsenal over the last month to gain fitness, and has stated his desire on more than one occasion to play for England for many years to come. Those who are apparently in the know think he should have been included, perhaps most notably Sir Alex Ferguson.

The arguments against his inclusion appear to have won, at least in Mr Capello's mind at any rate, but unlike his predecessor Capello has not ruled out Beckham being included in future squads. The strongest argument for his exclusion is the fact that he has not played in a competitive game since England's defeat to Croatia - at least this is the explanation that Capello has given. However, even is he had been playing he would have only been playing at a level similar to that of perhaps League One or Two over here, and his match sharpness would not have been at the same level had he been playing at the top level. Also, Capello may be thinking about the future and by the time the next World Cup comes around Beckham will probably not be in the squad.

My opinion

I, personally, would have liked to see David Beckham wear the number 7 shirt and the captain's armband for England's game against Switzerland on the 6th February. At times during his England career I was his biggest critic, most notably after his sending off in WC '98 and his poor performances during EC '04 and WC '06. However, for four or five years he was the standout player for our country, always putting in 100% and often getting the team through matches almost single handedly. For this reason alone, and his obvious desire to pull on an England shirt I believe he deserves the right to join a group that contains only Billy Wright, Bobby Charlton, Peter Shilton and Bobby Moore and gain his 100th cap. For now, he isn't going to, but one thing we can all be certain of is that he will be putting in 120% to make sure he is in the next squad.

Thanks for reading
© Martin 0201