The UF crew whinges about GoldenBalls....

If it's Tuesday, then Lingering Bursitis gets on his high horse. What is it about Tuesdays - the quality of food in the company cafeteria? Steven Gerrard failing to text him sweet missives good night? His declining liquor supply? nope, nope, and nope. He's worked himself up into a froth over...David Beckham, England's soccer captain, and the latest scorn of his ire. We had an impromptu UF round table during the day, with most of us chipping in, to make him feel, well, alone in the corner. Only thing I recall editing out was the piling on of the poor editor. Find out why Becks is not the problem...

"Now watch my free kick hit the broad side of this stadium...."First of all, the link that started Bursitis lingering in an unhealthy way. Beckham approves of Usian Bolt's decision to gloat about winning the gold.

Lingering Bursitis:

He's a limelight-hogging child who doesn't know when his 15 minutes is up.

Bigus Dickus:

And why does that bother you? Do you read people and watch TMZ? I see none of that crap....so it does not sway my opinion.

Lingering Bursitis:

It bothers me because the longer he lingers in the English football system, the longer it'll be before we can finally rebuild our joke of a national team around someone else, someone younger, hungrier, and far more deserving. He wanted to play in Los Angeles and do the Posh Spice reality show life, so he should get on with it. England needs a new talisman... if he plays much in the run-up to the World Cup, or even has a sniff of making WC 2010's squad, I'll be livid.

Moonshine Mike:

We've chastised athletes for being limelight-hogging children at
times, but they are playing a game and having fun. If they want to do the hogging, and he likes it, then go for it. I'm not into the person who doesn't want the limelight and gets chased by it. The Beckhams want it, and I want him.

Do you know how many women have gotten more interested into soccer because of Becks? the more, the merrier, and if it takes a bit of sexing up the players who want to be sexed up, rock on.

Lingering Bursitis:

Disagree. He's stunting the development of English sport by continuing to hang around and have unfair influence over team selection and the manager, with whom there's a massive conflict of interest, and thus we can't seem to put a good XI together.

I'm tired of him clogging up the game, and being everywhere. It's someone else's turn. He last had relevance to me in 2004 (at least relevance in terms of his playing ability matching up to his brand awareness).

Whoo hoo! A fellow incoherent maniac who agrees with me!

Spectator:

I think it's clear that Bustitis secretly hearts Becks.

Lingering Bursitis:

Spectator, he was recalled because the new manager was also his manager at Real Madrid.

Their BFF tendencies go a long way. He lobbied continuously for an England spot even though MLS was in its off-season and even though he was playing in Los Angeles, a place not exactly known for its soccer (oh, and they used him as a winger too, basically there to cross the ball every 5 mins and make a long pass here and there).

The longer he's there, the longer someone else is denied the opportunity. We're building around him because he's our senior-most player, the one everyone's supposed to be looking up to. With him in the lineup, we continue to stagnate. Capello promised us an overhaul, but we're seeing players and XI selections that Boring Sven would have made. Same old bullshit if you ask me.

Moonshine Mike:

That's Capello's fault then. Blame him and not Beckham.

Lingering Bursitis:

Beckham lobbied for it and got his way. With him in the lineup time and time again at age 33 or whatever (aka not going to really play in WC '10 or Euro '12), we'll never have a hope of overhauling the rest of the midfield, the defense, etc etc.

David James is 36! Is that really who should be giving valuable playing time to on the eve of World Cup qualification?

ian:

Capello wasn't exactly BFF with Becks at Real Madrid. Or was it just the board that forced him to drop Beckham after the LA move was
announced?

Likely Lad:

based on the quotes from back then, he really seemed to despise old goldenballs. but then they recalled him, he scored on a free kick in his first game back and they went on to win the title. capello was about to get fired. becks saved his job.

Bigus Dickus:

If he got in because of that then we are fucked with Capello.

autoglass:

Bursitis, you are absolutely incoherent about Beckham. You can't see straight. He makes you absolutely mental. You have to see that.

I agree with Bigus. He works hard, made himself a good player without great talent to build on, and he's a good teammate. He plays for England because he can still serve balls in better than anyone...which happens to be the chief way that England score these days.

I don't love the guy, I respect him and his game and his attitude. You, on the other hand, blame him for the Georgia-Russia conflict and the price of gas. You view him as evil incarnate. It's very amusing.

Lingering Bursitis:

Wonderful effort, guys, simply wonderful. Yep, I blame World War 2 on him too.

I had no idea my position was so unpopular. The longer he plays for England, the worse England gets. Is that so off-base?

Moonshine Mike:

It's not off base, but your reasons sound less like that. Also, it's Capello's fault. Becks could of lobbied until Posh took off all of her clothes, and a strong coach can ignore it. Therefore, Capello either has a weakness for skinny models with balloons, or he is not the answer for England.

Lingering Bursitis:

Zidane knew when he couldn't do international football any more, and he was still romping in Serie A, etc. Plenty of talismanic national figures for other countries knew when to move on, or their management came to a tacit acknowledgement of that. Beckham chose money and a lower-quality league in the MLS, so he could be the big fish, the guy winning ESPYs, and he's simply not good enough for England anymore. His quality of play has dropped off significantly, and yet he still hangs around.

Capello is at fault for picking his buddy, sure, but Beckham could stand up and do the right thing and let his country find the next him, if there ever will be such a thing. Instead, he wants more personal accolades, and he's ruining his country's chances of rebuilding.

Lineker was a god. So was Peter Shilton. They both knew when it was time to go. Beckham doesn't have the same capacity for self-analysis. It's all about him, the Brand, the mediagenic god. Meanwhile, he wonders what England's doing wrong.

Fan's Attic:

Didn't Zizou retire from football altogether right after the 2006 World Cup...playing his last game with Les Bleus?

And, frankly Bursitis, you're wrong. Beckham is still a quality player for England. He may not be what he once was, but even you can see that he brings it to the table. He plays quality balls and set pieces, works hard and gets a number of assists. In the last game he was the assist man for the first England goal, which you said you accepted albeit begrudgingly.

Your despise for him is wound up in a number of things. Yes, he is a fame-whore, but who wouldn't be if given the opportunity? You hate him because he played for Man U. You hate him because you feel he is bringing down your country's national team. I don't know if that's true, but I can see your point.

However, you level all blame at a single player who has played well since returning from exile. You should look further. If he really is holding back the Three Lions, maybe you should start ranting about Capello. He selects the team. Maybe you should look to the rest of the under performing squad. How about no forwards that are worth two shits these days? An inconsistent defense. No creative midfielders.

There is more than one man responsible for the ineptitude and likely the majority of any blame cannot be laid at Becks' feet. He just wants to play. I admire that.

However, the mere fact that we are having this discussion with Libgering Bursitis is pure insanity. We keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results from him. We should just leave him be in his personal bubble of Beckham hatred.

sven:

Alright, I'll wade in on this one too.... I understand where JT is coming from. The England squad has woefully underwhelmed the past few years and Beckham (whilst said underperform predates him) is certainly emblematic of the sorry state of the national side.

Seeing him back in the squad only seems serves as notice that England refuses to embrace any sort of change and continues to stumble forward myopically, favoring the old guard (which has failed) instead of attempting to move forward with younger, less established talents because of the untested/unknown qualities.

And, let's be frank. Becks, despite his good attitude and commitment, has several gaping holes in his game that, now as he gets even older, as even less-defendable when you hand him a slot in the starting XI. Sure, he passes the ball great, but would England not benefit from a right-sided midfielder who also has pace and can get stuck in?

I don't hate the man, but I wouldn't dare defend his inclusion in the starting XI... and probably wouldn't even include him in the squad. It's time to move on.

Lingering Bursitis:

Zidane knew when his time was up. So did Gullit. Van Basten. Voller. Klinsmann. Pick any legend from any other country. Beckham doesn't know when to let go. I admit that Capello is at fault for always selecting him, but Beckham represents a much larger problem. Perhaps I'm being a fool in laying all the blame on him, but it makes for better television, doesn't it? A lot of the England team are far too comfortable. They underwhelm on a club level (Gerrard included... he's lost a step or two), and yet they keep getting picked. Capello is responsible here, but Beckham can play his part, especially considering that he's the talisman of the side. Can he not step down, or step aside? His future for England is purely limited to material, trivial reward. He's not going to lead us to a World Cup in 2010. He's too old.

We need to rebuild now, and Beckham needs to step down. Lineker managed it, so did Shilton, or Butcher. They were our heroes, but they all knew when their national contributions had reached a logical impasse. Us not making Euro '08 should have been it for David. Instead, he still trots out, giving mediocre performances (and pointing to him being "an assist man" for his cross... yeah, he crossed that ball, but couldn't someone else have? It's like selecting an outfielder in baseball because he can throw a man out from Right Field who's trying to score. It's a special skill, sure, but if he's not hitting well and fielding well otherwise, you can't keep justifying his selection on the merits of one isolated talent, can you?

Beckham needs to step down. The longer he waits to do so (as Fabio's obviously not saying no anytime soon), the longer I shall continue to hate him. We need to throw away the England blueprint and start over. Beckham isn't the future of the team, so why is he still there?

The modeling and product placement bullshit, that's not the crux of the issue. Sure, it doesn't help when he's on TV all the fucking time, but still... it's about England for me.

He's not the player he used to be, he's a long way below that. He patrols the wing, takes free kicks (hasn't scored one of those in a while, has he?), takes corners and largely does nothing else. Oh, he works hard. So does Dirk Kuyt.

Precious Roy:

It's going to have to come from Capello. Becks is only about 6-7 caps short of Moore for second all time and about 20 short of Shilton. He wants the record. I think after he gets to second he might reassess how likely it is, but he's not stepping aside.

England would do much better to start putting out Walcott, Agbonlahor, Bentley, Young, etc. Currently, how hard is it to game plan to beat England... Wait a minute, you guys are suckering me in to talking about England again.