Keep him as a squad player. He's a useful impact sub

Steve, Beckham made his own comment on what he thought about his top-level future by joining LA Galaxy. Between 1998 and 2002, he was a major force: but a bit like Tim Henman, only ever very good, and never great. Then he did his metatarsal, and has never been the same since. He wouldn't be capable of the kind of rampaging, Roy of the Rovers performance he produced against Greece now: his fitness isn't up to it.

He also never really performed for us at a major finals: in my opinion, Euro 2000 was the closest he came to doing so, but a staggeringly incompetent manager stuffed everything up at a time when Becks, McManaman and Scholes were all in brilliant form. But once he lost his edge, we became far, far too reliant on him: at international level, you need wide players who skin defenders and get to the byline. Having someone who knocks constant long balls into the box just makes you incredibly predictable against class opposition.

He'd be useful now to bring on with 20 minutes or so to go if we were losing: we know what he can do from free kicks. But IMO, that's all he's good for now - and is nowhere near good enough to start games for us any longer.

Posted By: thebigfeller on November 19th 2007 at 14:03:39

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