Bye bye Beckham

David Beckham seems confident that he 'proved his fitness' in England's lifeless friendly defeat in Paris, but the only thing his display really revealed is that his international career is nearing its end.

Sure, the 32-year-old ran around eagerly and delivered a handful of crosses and corners with that trademark banana bend of his, but the days when he can make a telling influence on a game are clearly behind him.

In his prime, Beckham was able to play such a central role for England because he played to our strengths - delivering pinpoint crosses and set-pieces. Fabio Capello is clearly trying to implement a change in style and Becks simply isn't condusive to that continental masterplan.

That said, it's perhaps unfair to focus on Beckham when the rest of England's players showed they're not yet ready to comply with Don Fabio's revolution either. Yet again, our galaxy of Premier League talent showed they are unable to pool their undoubted skills into a slick, cohesive unit at international level.

Four days after a terrific all-action display against Liverpool, Wayne Rooney was totally anonymous up-front, ditto Joe Cole and Ashley Cole was utterly dire - putting successive crosses into Coupet's gloves or over the bar. None of the six substitutes made any impact.

After some brief flickers of promise in the first half, the second period saw England regress to the bad old days. No shots, no periods of possession and no threat whatsoever. Six changes by Capello undoubtedly didn't help (and revived horrible memories of multiple substitutions during equally tedious frendlies under Sven) but it was dispiriting how horribly familiar it all was.

Capello was 'happy' with what he saw as 'improvements' from the Switzerland game. Privately he must be aghast as he begins to realise the size of the job he has taken on.

What did you think of Wednesday night's game in Paris? Is Beckham's England career finished? Give us your views below.

By Mike Dale

Comments

[terry]

buzz do you know anything about football or are you just another man u fan in disguise glad you dont pick the team !!! neville had his day along with becks. a cole
hargreaves & rio not good enough
mind you no wes brown? have you come to your senses on that one an earlier quote from you!!

[buzzinator]

do we rekon new faces should come into the squad such as ashley young, lennon back in, micah richards in , get a new keeper green? or robinson bin doing good lately.there are a few faces we should keep, the defence is good terry wont get dropped hes getting back into form now neville will be back for the WCQ in september.

go with only 1 defensive midfielder owen hargreaves and then 2 center midfield, becks can work from CM gerrard there also.

then the upfront completely reformed with attack midfeilders left and right ashley young and aaron lennon then ashton deserves a chance as a lone striker also we all know how lethal peter crouch is up there by himself.

BUT DEFO KEEP BECKS

BENTLEY IS TOO SLOW AND HE HOLDS ONTO THE BALL FOR TO LONG THEN HAS TO RUSH INTO THE CROSS.

[buzzinator]

green

Gary.N Rio.F L.king A.Cole

Owen.H
Becks Gerrard

A.Lennon A.young

D.Ashton

[Toots]

Well I think he is too old.

Even the lovely Victoria looked embarassed in Paris the other day,

David let the younger man show himself.

[Lloyd]

Too late for Beckham now, by 2010 he will be 34, which, even if he gets back into real football and gets match fit again is too old to be captaining a side that should really be pushing for semi final places, quarters at least. Rio is definitely not the answer as captain, neither is Rooney, who is supposed to be captain next game, both have skill, neither have the guts or the vocal chords of a captain. Terry or Gerrard for captain.

[John]

England without Becks is like England in the 60,s Without Bobby Moore.
Rio as Captain??,Who came up with That One,he can,t Play let alone Lead a Team,Last Nights Performance Proved That,Becks might be Older,but he has Far More Passion Pulling on The 3Lions Shirt Than Rio Ever Will.
This is From A Scotsman by the Way.GlasGow Rangers Fans Would Love to get Becks in A Gers Shirt. if England Wont Support Him Then SCOTLAND Would Welcome Him with Open ARMS.

[henz73]

sorry to disapoint all england fans but i don't give a t0ss about friendly's that are staged mid-season...players have club commitments that they are more concerned about!!!! with there club managers calling all the shots...qualifiers and tournament are a diffrent story...give fabio time as he did not create a conquering milan side in 10 games!!!!
As for beckham why should he play a bit part player at a premier league side, because it would be only the top five clubs or qpr that could afford his wages..and he would not get that many games to improve his fitness..he will be more focused playing in america that some other pampered players england have got sitting on their club benches all season...
i'm also sure if he wants to continue his internation carrer till 2010, he could afford the best fitness coaches in the world to work for him!!!!

[mand88888]

i agree wes brown is useless what is he in side for .beckham should have been capt for night i remember john terry saying he was going to give captains arm band back to becks on getting his hundredth cap not, Rio all me me me who is extremely overrated. we failed to qualify with most of that team. we are too flat at the back you can see as soon as we play anyone decent lets hope we do get some others in we have rooney stevie g, jt ,j coe and lampard are a good nucleus. no wonder carra got fed up not playing
we need people like that fighting for the cause not people on ego trips. we need to sort it out soon
bring back tony adams & terry butcher I'm sure they could still do better!!! joking aside capello has his work cut out

[paul]

ref to buzzinator not man u rio and wes brown you must watch a different wes brown to me and do you actually go to games listen to the fans comments he is not england material he jogs back to defend watch next time muppets like you only see tv games england wont get anywhere until we get new players in
we failed to qualify with those players i agree capello is tops only as good as his players though relying on certain players having a good game to carry others through

[A fan from the north]

If it is true that Fabio is 'happy' even though England got beat it has got to be very worrying. How can we ever be happy in defeat when we set out to win the game with what was supposed to be our best team.

[buzzinator]

Paul your message about wes brown and that england should get rid of all their players apart from a small handful was ridiculous.
firstly if you follow man utd then you know that since neville has been out brown has done a great job.
secondly the whole england team is amazing it just needs someone like capello to sort them out and make it work.
and thirdly saying that man utd are a disgrace. ha what a laugh you idiot have you noticed their top of table 5 points clear and playing amazing?

if you want to say something make sure you know what your talking about please....

[rose]

Beckham is doing better than all of us, what is the big deal he has done his time, let someone else shine, he has gone to LA lets face it his an old guy for this game
Beckham has had his time big up to him

[Tony Woodhall]

always the same picking on DB lets be fair he done more than most last night lets look at Gerrard good for Liverpool but ? and when its him and Lampard {we all know their egos dont allow them to play well together but the press dont keep picking on them and as for Owen ?Crouch ?COME ON LETS CHEER INSTEAD OF KEEP KNOCKING OUR PLAYERS

[paul]

i agree with most of comments well done to beckham on reaching 100 caps he should have led england out what an achievement for him, instead of rio who simply isnt good enough.brown is a waste of space he shouldnt even get in man u team ask the fans who watch them week in week out!
he justs jogs back when possesion is lost, i follow man u and they are a disgrace.
i would only keep rooney, stevie g, joe cole & j terry
rest can go at least they try
we had nothing get in some new young blood and soon please

[Joe]

I wish people would stop getting at Beckham, all he is guilty of, is giving 110% for his country. If the rest of the muppets gave half as much as Becks, we would be world cup winners. James is useless, how many chances does he need. Ashley Cole was diabolical, and IMO vastly overated. Well done Becks on you 100 caps, I hope its not the end

[mathew townsend]

DAVID BECKHAM SHOULD RETURN TO THE PREMIERSHIP GET MATCH FIT AND GET BACK INTO PLAYING TO A HIGHER STANDARD THAN AMERICAN FOOTBALL. THEN LETS SEE DAVID BECKHAM LEAD OUR MEN OUT INTO THE WORLD CUP 2010 WITH THE CAPTAINS ARMBAND!

[mathew townsend]

lets leave beckham alone now. why do we blame him for losing. lets blame the other crap for once. why is robinson not back in goal. james makes good saves, SOMETIMES but the rest he is making mistakes. just remember whenever beckham makes a mistake people try to finish him. just think what england would have achieved in the past without him???? exactly, nothing.

[Hugh Ritchie]

Iam not an England supporter but I thought it was a down right disgrace the way David Beckham was treated on reaching his 100th cap he should have at least have laid the team out as what they had as captain was a joke and mind you I support Man. Utd
Capello has still his knife in Beckham and anyway it is laughable that the English International Manger has to have sub-titles running along bottom of the screen.In closing I thought the result was great.
hugh Ritchie

[Ron Abram]

Why don't you get off Beckham's back?! He was the only England player who actually delivered a pass on target all evening!
Instead, we should probably be talking about David James. For a pretty intelligent man, he continues to make some incredibly stupid decisions. Had he not given away another penalty, it may well have been a different story.

[Steven, Berwick]

Utterly dire. Same old, same old England. We've got some decent players so why can no-one find the magic formula?