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It's not looking good for him for the World Cup after what has just happened to him in the AC Milan match tonight!!

which fucking is ???????????????????????

Tore his achiles tendon didnt he?

either achilles is torn or broken ankle/foot

Thought I'd keep the suspense for a bit longer Fred!!

Oh fucksticks !!!!!!

he's past it anyway.

yep

dont be so fucking juevenile

Lennon's recovery seems to have hit the rocks as well.

Theo Walcott, time to step up.

Oh well - at least if he is properly injured it will stop a lot of the media circus.

Is Walcott consistent enough? Ashley Young for me

eh?

just yanking your chain !

I would have him in my squad all day long

If ever you wanted someone to come off the bench for the last 30/20 then he is your man.

Walcott has not/will not play enough games to even warrant a place

I'd rather Milner than Young, Walcott, Lennon and SWP

He's clearly in Capello's thoughts though. I'd probably put a few names ahead of him yes- Milner, Young, SWP perhaps, but Fab seems to fancy Walcott, going from recent selections.

Beckham is replaceable. Now if Rooney was to get injured.....then we are fucked

Its not his lack of games that is the problem its the fact he's been shit this season in the games he has played, though he has been getting better recently. If he can regain his form he's the best right midfielder / winger that we've got but its a very big if at the moment.

Beckham will be a big loss if he can't go to the WC. Even if he doesn't play much we could do with him there as part of the squad.

Wouldn't be in my squad. At the big tournaments he hasn't been anywhere near as infuential as a player of his "stature" should be.,

Feel for him really. Not only is he out of the WC but he may not even play again let alone for England. At his age it's a huge injury and might take him 9 months to even kick a ball again.

Suddenly we've gone from having loads of options on the right to having what seems like a limited selection. Milner is my choice as I can't see him playing in the centre for us.

Posh must be gutted that she's missing out on a free holiday to south africa

Milner for me every time.  I wouldn't take a fully fit Beckham, he has precious little influence on games these days.

I'm sure she could probably stretch to a South African version of a Travelodge if she saved a bit.

Milner will do a decent job anywhere in the midfield, and Ashley Young is different gravy when he's on song... I'd be considerably more concerned if it were virtually any other player than Beckham

I don't mind Young but he's been pretty pants this season.

It was a poor attempt at humour tbf :(

Beckham or no Beckham it doesn't really matter.

The other 10 can all be replaced. Its all about the Rooney.

i agree with that davey boy

Rooney is certainly the most important, but we don't have like-for like replacements with the same quality in most areas.  A back four of Johnson-Ferdinand-Terry-Cole is far more solid than one of Brown-Upson-Lescott-Baines (although right-back is debatable).

I've never thought he's international class but my pick for the right wing is Stewart Downing. Stay with me on this one.

Well not strictly him on the right, I'd have him and Ashley Young as the wingers. They have been instrumental for Villa and have already formed a quality partnership, for want of a better word, down the flanks.

Young's right-footed, Downing left, they swap over at will, confusing the fuck out of full-backs and giving them the chance to get to the byline and whip a cross in or cut inside and shoot/cross at a different angle.

I'm not suggesting Downing and Young are the best wingers - I'd say SWP is probably a safer bet on the right - but if they are in tandem they can work wonders. It would give our perennially wonky midfield some crucial balance too. Plus, England always seems to struggle when it comes to crosses into the box. That's something we can't afford to do with Rooney now so lethal in the air.

Downing and Young for England.

Haha, stay with you? You might wanna check if someone slipped something in your evening beverage me old chaaaaap!

I could of swore i said that on page 1

I can't believe some of the comments on here "ah well Becks is out" No Beckham is not the player he was but he is still one of England's most influential players when he comes off the bench. I am absolutely gutted for the bloke. There is no other player who wanted to play for England more than David Beckham. Perhaps he dropped a bollock when he moved to the USA but he has made sure he was getting games at a big club to get a spot in the England squad. Becks would have given his left nut to play for England, there are not many players apart from maybe Rooney now who show that love and commitment towards playing for their country. Absolutely gutted for Becks that his England career something that means so much to him has ended this way. Without doubt I am sure Becks would have retired from international football after this World Cup. Maybe though Becks will prove us wrong once again and make the Euro 2012 squad although that is very unlikely. Shame his England career had to end this way.

If that's a snapped Achilles that could be career over, at the top flight at least.

Shame, definitely someone we could have done with for the world cup squad.

Whats this got to do with swindon?!?

This makes me sad

Could a mod please move this to the "Other Football Stuff" to stop Sippo getting all irregular  ;)

When I snapped mine a couple of years ago I knew then, that I wasn't going to make it as a professional footballer.

Hear hear. Although  being unironic, i saw a photo of his lovely neck tattoo the other day, that just gets better with age.... no really.

Mucho Gracias who ever did that !


Happy now Sippo ?

My heart missed a beat...

Just seen a clip of Roy Keane talking about this.  He made two very salient points:

1 - football teams, including national teams for international tournaments, get injuries.  Part of the job is to deal with it.

2 - David Beckham has played in three World Cups.  Maybe we shouldn't feel sorry for him.  He's done better than any of us.

To add my own third point - David Beckham would have had little to no impact on England's World Cup campaign this year.

Jesus christ, do you want to bum him or something?

He was one of our better players in his day. now he isnt and wont really be missed.  I dont feel sorry for him. He's played in 3 world cups, won major trophys and is now worth a few hundred million.  I've nothing against him personally, but sympathy? fuck off. 

I do feel sorry for the guy, I'd be gutted if it was me.

The thing that annoys me most about al lthis is that the media feel the need to bring us the views of Gary Lineker, Alec Ferguson, Roy Keane etc. Why?! There's a clip of Lineker on the BBC site talking about how bad this kind of injury can be, saying what the likely consequences will be. Amazingly, Lineker doesn't seem to know that much about torn achilles tendons, or about David Beckham's specific case. In fact, he comes out and says something close to the exact opposite of what the doctor treating Beckham has said. I just don't see why people would want to hear Lineker's medical diagnosis - just because he was a footballer it doesn't mean he knows everything about sporting injuries!

good point, the worst for this was the winter olympics, steve cram the fucking be all knowledge on curling and ice hockey.

On SSN yesterday I listened to the combined thoughts of O'neill, Keane, Ancellotti, John Barnes, some sports physio bird and the actual surgeon that was going to operate on him.

You'd think think England had just lost Gerrard, Ferdinand, Lampard and Rooney from the squad in some sort of freak achilies snapping collision

No he is not the player he was obviously. But you tell me a player apart from Becks (and maybe Rooney) who shows more passion about playing for his country and I will call you a liar.

How does he show such passion?  He turns up, works fairly hard but so do most of them. Its not like he's nnever had a shit game for england is it?

Like i said I've no issue with him either as a footballer or a bloke and I'd have taken him to the world cup. But lets not delude ourselves that its a major problem, becuase its not. Its equvalent to losing Downing. Losing Rooney is a major problem.

My issue is the "cult of Beckham" worship is fucking gay

I think the key question here is whether Gazza will be going to the memorial service for Beckham's England career?

He's going to be fine after all.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/cruise-to-heal-beckham-with-dianetic-mind-poultice-201003152556/ (http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/cruise-to-heal-beckham-with-dianetic-mind-poultice-201003152556/)

I hope he dies.

Gazza
Gazza.

He is dead, get over it.

Or am I thinking of MJ?

I dont think Cappello really rates him.Now he can pay him all the compliments he likes knowing he wont have to play him.Fucks sake he hasn't been a major influence on the pitch for England for about 6 years when he's started a game and definitely not as a sub for the last 10 minutes.Does anyone really think he has the ability to change a game against any decent international side?He's never delivered in a major tournament and wont be missed at all.Now we can take someone who can play for 90 minutes if necessary.Just hope something now happens to Gerrard,who should not be regarded as an automatic choice,so that Milner can start in the middle of the park.

I love Beckham, the only non England / Swindon shirt I've got is a Real Madrid shirt with his name and number.

Sure he's past his best and wouldn't even be my first choice for England, but you can't fault him for his attitude, work rate, dedication, passion and all that shit. Just look at all the travelling and games he's been playing to try and keep his place in the England squad. Plus he was practically in tears when he went off at the last World Cup and when he quite the captaincy role - no other player cares anywhere near as much as he does.

I don't begrudge him all the recent subs appearances either, he'd of easily broken the England appearance record if it wasn't for injuries and that fucking twat McLaren. But I wouldn't write him off just yet, he'll be working his bollocks off to get fit again and get back in contention for the England team, even though its probably game over.

Beckham dropping out creates a space in the squad.

Owen Hargreaves played 45 minutes tonight....

agree with the rest of your post but this part is completely his own decision. it shouldn't be regarded as a positive. having to travel and move on loan to get a decent standard of football doesn't show any extra detemination or commitment, it just proves that going to america was a complete balls up for any hopes of playing proper football and holding down his place in the national side.

Except, if I remember correctly, when he signed up for Galaxy he'd been dropped from the England squad and dropped by Real Madrid with his contract up in the summer with no extension on the table. So there wasn't really a place in any team for him to hold on to - a bad decision in hindsight but it was forced on him to a degree.

hmm not to pick bones but i'm not sure about this part either. i think its overdoing his sense of patriotism, and undermining the commitment of other england players. i bet rooney, gerrard, all of the others in the squad want to win for england just as much as you or i, or david beckham. they are all english and i don't think i buy into the argument that being a pro footballer in any way diminishes your sense of pride for your country, let alone your sense of pride when actually playing for your country.

don't get me wrong, i like beckham, but for me he's not done anything to deserve this tag of being head and shoulders above anyone else in terms of national pride, and a few tears from a man who admits he's easily prone to them, don't convince me otherwise.

surely it wasn't forced on him at all and he should have taken the opportunity to stay in europe, he could have hand picked from a host of top sides who were eager to have him

I find myself completely agreeing with OF on this.  While pride, passion and determination are positive, they should actually be the very minimum we expect from all of our players, so to be lauded for those attributes is quite shallow praise.  I don't think David Beckham has displayed a sense of national pride above any other player, but he has maybe been a bit cleverer than others in the PR department.

As for the Galaxy move, it wasn't forced upon him, but seems now to be a knee-jerk reaction to being dropped by England and Real Madrid, and a bit of the "celebrity/wife" thing chucked in.  He'd never admit it, but career wise I think he would do this differently - there would have been plenty of big clubs in Europe who would have offered him a lot of money to play for them.

I also stand by my previous comment - he would have had little to no impact on our World Cup campaign. 

Why was moving to LA a mistake?  He's madea shit load of cash out of it, gets some sun and still managed to hold down a place in the England squad despite clearly being half the player he was - which is damning indictment of the real quality of wingers in this country right now (pacey but forgetting the art of delivery).  Fit, he'd still be in the squad.

I think he does care about playing for England, and no, that's not an amazing plaudit for an England player.  I do think most of the current squad don;t give a shit about it in the way he does and we want them to, Rooney aside.  Even Gerrard is based more on a desire to play well rather than giving that level of a shit.  The rest showed under McLaren that it was a job they do.  He may have been dour and tactically bereft, but he was probably at least expecting a few Terry Butchers or Stuart Pearce's to turn up from time to time.


Oh, and Beckham being out will not hurt us, we still probably won't get past the Quarter finals.

Moving to LA was a mistake if he wanted, as seems pretty obvious now, to prove he was still a top class performer.  This was never going to be possible in the piss-poor league he went to.  Inarguably it was not a financial mistake, nor did it harm his public profile, but from the moment he moved there doubts over his credibility as a top class footballer arose.  From a footballing perspective, he would have been better off proving he wasn't past it at another european club, maybe a club with a lower profile than ManUre or Real, but still playing in a top league.

And yes, quarter final exit for England once again.

In his contract, he has an option to buy a franchise of an expansion team in the MLS. It suggested he might get a New York franchise. He is integral to the league there and totally locked in with Anschutz and AEG. MLS franchises are becoming licenses to print money.

At best, his alternative would have been an additional 18 months pissing around on the bench at Milan or Tottenham "proving himself at the top level".

Some mistake. I'd like to be making mistakes like that.

I don't disagree that he did well personally out of the move.  My point was that, from a footballing perspective, he shot himself in the foot, so to speak.  He couldn't prove he still had the ability to cut it at the highest level in the MLS, hence the debate over his abilities.  If, as you infer, he ended up on the bench at Tottenham, it would have proved that his days at the top were over.   If he went there and took Tottenham to the Champions League, he would have answered his critics.  By going across the Atlantic, he lost the chance to prove himself after serious doubts had been cast.

Furthermore, going on what he has since done with the moves to Milan and the commitment to England, I think he has pretty much admitted through his actions that this move was a mistake for his football career.

he wont get a New York franchise, they already have the New York Red Bulls playing out of the Giants stadium, and the way American franchises work Beckham would have to pay ALOT of money to the Red Bulls to locate another franchise anywhere near NY.

I don't know, I was just reading up on it and apparently there is a chance there will be another New York franchise using the New York Cosmos name. Though I'm sure there was talk of Beckham's franchise being in Las Vegas.

How do the teams make a decent profit in the MLS?

Most attendances / capacities seem to be around the 20k level so it can't be from ticket sales. Is it the merchandise and TV rights? Must be some money coming from somewhere when there is a $40m fee for a new franchise before any of the other costs. Makes most of our PL, and even Championship, clubs look cheap in comparison and a far better investment.

Hes being lined up for the Louisana Loafers, or the Pennsylvania Pricks

Cincinatti Show Ponies