A New Era in English Football
On the 2nd July 2006, David Beckham decided to give up his role as
England Captain - a role he has occupied since 15th November 2000 under the tenure of Sven-Goran Eriksson. His surprise decision came as a result of England’s quarter final World Cup loss to Portugal on Saturday the 1st of July, via penalties in Gelsenkirchen - Germany. On the 11th of August 2006, the new manager – Steve McClaren announced his squad and left David Beckham out – the first time in 10years that Beckham failed to make it to the English squad. England’s performance at this years World cup was at best – Disgraceful! That is considering the typical inflated English egos, falsely believing that “English is Best”. I am not your typical football analysts but you don’t need one to assert with supreme confidence that England didn’t stand a chance neither in heaven nor in hell of winning the cup. Eriksson was just an attention seeker that managed to turn the England football team into a media frenzy very good at getting front-page coverage for celebrity status and not football. Turning David Beckham into more of a celebrity than he already is and making him bigger than the team he was supposed to be part of. He effectively turned the English team into the David Beckham team and in all honesty Beckham, for a long time now has not been as good as he once was at Manchester United. With the hysteria surrounding him, I thought he was going to stick around the English football squad forever. Thank God the new manager saw enough sense to drop him. By getting rid of Beckham and Sven-Goran Eriksson, England has demonstrated their desire to usher in a new era in football.
I wrote about my disappointment with Sven when I saw his World Cup squad. In the squad were four strikers – Owen, Rooney, Crouch and Walcott. Out of the four, Rooney and Owen had well known injuries – so were not in tip-top condition. They were not even fit enough to play normal premiership games! So with two strikers with question marks, that leaves two – Peter Crouch and Theo Walcott. Peter Crouch was then the up and coming Liverpool striker. 6 feet 7 inches tall and lean like a long distance runner – nothing like the build needed to be a top-flight striker - I had my doubts as to whether he would be able to deal with very strong and powerful defenders and strikers from countries like Ghana and Angola. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see England play against descent opposition. That leaves Theo Walcott. Theo is an untried and untested 17 year old that has not even played a premiership game in his life. Why any manager would chose a fresh-faced 17 year old that hasn’t even played national football to play in the number one football tournament in the world will remain a mystery to me. That is considering top-flight players like Darren Bent [Charlton] and Jermain Defoe [Tottenham] – amongst many others. Typical Eriksson stupidity and still some people had the audacity to even dream of getting anywhere near the cup. On top of that were their WAGs [Wives And Girlfriends]. I have nothing against them but their conduct in Germany was typical of slappers married to footballers – stereotypical footballer’s wives, airheads married to footballers but know nothing about football. The boys were not doing us proud and their partners just added insult to injury. At least they [the WAGs] had fun!
Back to David Beckham, he is blatant example of one being a victim of one’s success – celebrity success and not footballing success. He has proven that just like failure, success comes at a price. He has demonstrated that one can just become too big for ones boots. In his case, his place in the English football squad. Take it from me; David Beckham has played his last game for England – and quite rightfully so! You don’t expect someone as big as Beckham to play under the captaincy of another English player. Under Eriksson, Beckham was literally God. For England to move in a new and more serious direction, they needed to make certain changes. Beckham was not the only one to be dropped, Sol Campbell and David James suffered the same fate. In my view they were the necessary heads that needed to roll if England meant business. There is a ruthless message there somewhere. In the English squad exists raw and untapped talent. John Terry and Steve Gerald are better captains that Beckham will ever be but they pale into insignificance in terms of celebrity status. Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Philips are more agile hence better in the mid-field than Beckham. Beckham just remains the best crosser in the world but the game of football requires more skills to be in the possession of any one player to be looked upon as one of the greats. Look at Zinadine Zidane, look at Ronaldinho, Look at Rooney, look at Raul, and look at Samuel Eto’o to mention a few greats. All these mentioned are true footballing greats but Beckham outshines all of them put together in terms of world celebrity status. It was very hard to drop Beckham solely because he was world famous. Even Real Madrid bought him for his status and not his skills. His meteoric rise to fame has nothing to do with hard work but a perfect succession of favourable events that came together to give us the man. Not even Wayne Rooney, Aaron Lennon or Theo Walcott will get close to the God-like status of David Beckham. Taking a trip down memory lane – he signed up to the very famous Manchester United and was in their first eleven in 1995 aged 20. He got his first call for the England football squad on 1st September 1996 and won the PFA Young player of the year the same year. By 1997, with his career on the up, he started dating Victoria Adams – Posh Spice! With their dashing good looks, media interest was sky-high. They both liked the celebrity status and milked it for all it was worth. When they got married on the 4th of July 1999, they were established front-page celebrities. He was still at Manchester United [1998-99] when they won the treble – Premiership League, FA Cup and Champions League – and in 1999 he was runner up to Rivaldo for both the European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year. He was also runner up to Luis Figo in 2001 for the FIFA World player of the year. Because of his celebrity status, his relationship with Ferguson began to suffer. Fergie believed David was being distracted by both his wife and his celebrity status and sold him as a result. Under Eriksson, he was given a free hand to do as he pleased. He could do no wrong. Because of his god-like status, the interest in English international games was sky-high. But it was Luke-warm after Luke-warm experience. England was getting carried away with the interest and not delivering the goods. I am sure there were one or two players that were not happy but not big enough to criticize Beckham. No matter how badly he played, he managed to play the celebrity game perfectly. Attending or throwing A-list parties – with or without the wife, mixing and mingling with the stars, endorsing this or that product, wearing this or that outfit and many more. All this in addition to his footballing duties. No competing athlete can afford to live such a lifestyle. You need to train, sleep and get fit. The minute you stop, your fitness drops. Imagine Linford Christie or Michael Johnson doing the same in their heyday – simply impossible. In the end Steve decided to get rid of beckham. As unfair as it might seem to the millions of his female fans and those that know very little about real football, it was the best decision.
With Beckham out of the way – eventually, things are looking good. On the 17th of August this year, England played a friendly with the Euro 2004 winners Greece and thrashed them 4-0. There was a new captain in place – John Terry, and Jermain Defoe was called back to camp, so was George Bent. John Terry, Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch [2] all scored. Amazingly, Crouch has now netted 8 goals in 12 games. I do not rate him as a player but god he scores for England! Mind you this might be beginners luck and we have all seen it before. Eriksson’s era was punctuated by great highs and equally great lows and I hope this is not just a high before a low. What I can say and most sincerely feel is that McClaren has made changes that have proven to me that he means business. Too early to call but I believe that we have ushered in a new era in English football.
England Captain - a role he has occupied since 15th November 2000 under the tenure of Sven-Goran Eriksson. His surprise decision came as a result of England’s quarter final World Cup loss to Portugal on Saturday the 1st of July, via penalties in Gelsenkirchen - Germany. On the 11th of August 2006, the new manager – Steve McClaren announced his squad and left David Beckham out – the first time in 10years that Beckham failed to make it to the English squad. England’s performance at this years World cup was at best – Disgraceful! That is considering the typical inflated English egos, falsely believing that “English is Best”. I am not your typical football analysts but you don’t need one to assert with supreme confidence that England didn’t stand a chance neither in heaven nor in hell of winning the cup. Eriksson was just an attention seeker that managed to turn the England football team into a media frenzy very good at getting front-page coverage for celebrity status and not football. Turning David Beckham into more of a celebrity than he already is and making him bigger than the team he was supposed to be part of. He effectively turned the English team into the David Beckham team and in all honesty Beckham, for a long time now has not been as good as he once was at Manchester United. With the hysteria surrounding him, I thought he was going to stick around the English football squad forever. Thank God the new manager saw enough sense to drop him. By getting rid of Beckham and Sven-Goran Eriksson, England has demonstrated their desire to usher in a new era in football.
I wrote about my disappointment with Sven when I saw his World Cup squad. In the squad were four strikers – Owen, Rooney, Crouch and Walcott. Out of the four, Rooney and Owen had well known injuries – so were not in tip-top condition. They were not even fit enough to play normal premiership games! So with two strikers with question marks, that leaves two – Peter Crouch and Theo Walcott. Peter Crouch was then the up and coming Liverpool striker. 6 feet 7 inches tall and lean like a long distance runner – nothing like the build needed to be a top-flight striker - I had my doubts as to whether he would be able to deal with very strong and powerful defenders and strikers from countries like Ghana and Angola. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see England play against descent opposition. That leaves Theo Walcott. Theo is an untried and untested 17 year old that has not even played a premiership game in his life. Why any manager would chose a fresh-faced 17 year old that hasn’t even played national football to play in the number one football tournament in the world will remain a mystery to me. That is considering top-flight players like Darren Bent [Charlton] and Jermain Defoe [Tottenham] – amongst many others. Typical Eriksson stupidity and still some people had the audacity to even dream of getting anywhere near the cup. On top of that were their WAGs [Wives And Girlfriends]. I have nothing against them but their conduct in Germany was typical of slappers married to footballers – stereotypical footballer’s wives, airheads married to footballers but know nothing about football. The boys were not doing us proud and their partners just added insult to injury. At least they [the WAGs] had fun!
Back to David Beckham, he is blatant example of one being a victim of one’s success – celebrity success and not footballing success. He has proven that just like failure, success comes at a price. He has demonstrated that one can just become too big for ones boots. In his case, his place in the English football squad. Take it from me; David Beckham has played his last game for England – and quite rightfully so! You don’t expect someone as big as Beckham to play under the captaincy of another English player. Under Eriksson, Beckham was literally God. For England to move in a new and more serious direction, they needed to make certain changes. Beckham was not the only one to be dropped, Sol Campbell and David James suffered the same fate. In my view they were the necessary heads that needed to roll if England meant business. There is a ruthless message there somewhere. In the English squad exists raw and untapped talent. John Terry and Steve Gerald are better captains that Beckham will ever be but they pale into insignificance in terms of celebrity status. Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Philips are more agile hence better in the mid-field than Beckham. Beckham just remains the best crosser in the world but the game of football requires more skills to be in the possession of any one player to be looked upon as one of the greats. Look at Zinadine Zidane, look at Ronaldinho, Look at Rooney, look at Raul, and look at Samuel Eto’o to mention a few greats. All these mentioned are true footballing greats but Beckham outshines all of them put together in terms of world celebrity status. It was very hard to drop Beckham solely because he was world famous. Even Real Madrid bought him for his status and not his skills. His meteoric rise to fame has nothing to do with hard work but a perfect succession of favourable events that came together to give us the man. Not even Wayne Rooney, Aaron Lennon or Theo Walcott will get close to the God-like status of David Beckham. Taking a trip down memory lane – he signed up to the very famous Manchester United and was in their first eleven in 1995 aged 20. He got his first call for the England football squad on 1st September 1996 and won the PFA Young player of the year the same year. By 1997, with his career on the up, he started dating Victoria Adams – Posh Spice! With their dashing good looks, media interest was sky-high. They both liked the celebrity status and milked it for all it was worth. When they got married on the 4th of July 1999, they were established front-page celebrities. He was still at Manchester United [1998-99] when they won the treble – Premiership League, FA Cup and Champions League – and in 1999 he was runner up to Rivaldo for both the European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year. He was also runner up to Luis Figo in 2001 for the FIFA World player of the year. Because of his celebrity status, his relationship with Ferguson began to suffer. Fergie believed David was being distracted by both his wife and his celebrity status and sold him as a result. Under Eriksson, he was given a free hand to do as he pleased. He could do no wrong. Because of his god-like status, the interest in English international games was sky-high. But it was Luke-warm after Luke-warm experience. England was getting carried away with the interest and not delivering the goods. I am sure there were one or two players that were not happy but not big enough to criticize Beckham. No matter how badly he played, he managed to play the celebrity game perfectly. Attending or throwing A-list parties – with or without the wife, mixing and mingling with the stars, endorsing this or that product, wearing this or that outfit and many more. All this in addition to his footballing duties. No competing athlete can afford to live such a lifestyle. You need to train, sleep and get fit. The minute you stop, your fitness drops. Imagine Linford Christie or Michael Johnson doing the same in their heyday – simply impossible. In the end Steve decided to get rid of beckham. As unfair as it might seem to the millions of his female fans and those that know very little about real football, it was the best decision.
With Beckham out of the way – eventually, things are looking good. On the 17th of August this year, England played a friendly with the Euro 2004 winners Greece and thrashed them 4-0. There was a new captain in place – John Terry, and Jermain Defoe was called back to camp, so was George Bent. John Terry, Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch [2] all scored. Amazingly, Crouch has now netted 8 goals in 12 games. I do not rate him as a player but god he scores for England! Mind you this might be beginners luck and we have all seen it before. Eriksson’s era was punctuated by great highs and equally great lows and I hope this is not just a high before a low. What I can say and most sincerely feel is that McClaren has made changes that have proven to me that he means business. Too early to call but I believe that we have ushered in a new era in English football.
