Beckham Retires

[southbank1871]

Waddle is a cock who says things just to cre8 a headline.

[Silver Fox]

Massive fan of Becks and wish him well in his luctrative retirement.

I see Chris Waddle has just come out and said Beckham wasn't in the top 1000 players in Premier League history. Bitch please.

[Silver Fox]

Jealousy is so unbecoming

[Ouroboros]

Massive fan of Becks and wish him well in his luctrative retirement.

I see Chris Waddle has just come out and said Beckham wasn't in the top 1000 players in Premier League history. Bitch please.

Fakking hell. Waddle was one of my childhood favourites but he wasn't as good as Beckham.

It's hard to dislike Becks despite the associated circus. Repeatedly throughout his career things went awry and he turned it around with hard work and determination. Fair play.

"David Beckham is Britain's finest striker of a football not because of God-given talent but because he practises with a relentless application that the vast majority of less gifted players wouldn't contemplate."

[Ouroboros]

He's got a point. One-paced one-trick pony who can't really do anything except foul players and shoot from a distance. That's basicly it.

I think you might have Beckham confused with some other guy.

[Big Foot]

He's got a point. One-paced one-trick pony who can't really do anything except foul players and shoot from a distance. That's basicly it.

I think you might have Beckham confused with some other guy.

Paul Scholes by the sounds of things

[Wax Jacket]

Beckham's a money-grabbing clotheshorse but as a player he was a gr8 professional who knew what he was good at and stuck to it. he totally deserved all his England caps for that reason basically - there were no false promises with him and he left nothing out there in terms of his potential. not as good a player as some people are saying but gr8 at what he did. imagine how good a right back he might've been after his pace went.

[6ft Kerplunk]

there were no false promises with him and he left nothing out there in terms of his potential. not as good a player as some people are saying but gr8 at what he did.

^^^ this bit sums it up for me. He got everything out of his ability and fairplay to him for doing that even when he was getting almighty abuse after France '98. Can't stand the whole Beckham brand thing.

[soggy biscuit]

He's got a point. One-paced one-trick pony who can't really do anything except foul players and shoot from a distance. That's basicly it.

I think you might have Beckham confused with some other guy.

Steffen Iversen?

[creative_username_1]

Which of his hairstyles was your favorite, though?

[From Despair To Where?]

Also like the fact that, despite his celebrity, he has tried to give his kids as normal an upbringing as possible in the circumstances and hasn't pimped them round the celebrity circuit.

Err... his 8 year old son has a modeling contract and does ads for some kind of eau de cologne.. perfectly normal upbringing, indeed.

Lots of 8 year olds have modelling contracts, whther it's Versace or Littlewoods. His parents are pretty photogenic so it's no surprise he has one.

Point is, the Beckhams, despite being one of the most photographed couples in the world don't whore their children around like a fashion accessories. As I said, they try to give them as normal an upbringing as possible in the circumstances and to be fair to them, they do a pretty decent job of it.

[NTRoyal]

Why does it supposedly count against Becks that he wasn't great at some things? In his prime he was the best at what he did, and worked very hard to keep himself at that level. Football needs more pros like him, instead of the cockend 'gifted' types who have lots of natural ability but an awful attitude and no work ethic.

Also of his generation he will be the only England player to go down as an all time great.

[Maguire]

there were no false promises with him and he left nothing out there in terms of his potential. not as good a player as some people are saying but gr8 at what he did.

^^^ this bit sums it up for me. He got everything out of his ability and fairplay to him for doing that even when he was getting almighty abuse after France '98. Can't stand the whole Beckham brand thing.

His rehabilitation after 98 was extremely impressive. Turned around pretty much every fan who was booing him round the grounds after his red card and by 2001 acheived hero status by dragging us into the World Cup almost single-handedly.

So what if he didn't "have a trick". He wasn't a right-winger, he was a right-sided midfielder and a fooking good one. Superb shot, brilliant dead ball expert, brilliant range of passing and crossing of a standard that Jimmy Kebe and Garath McCleary can only dream of.

Moved abroad (when lesser men would have just gone to Chelsea or something), worked extremely hard to present himself well and became a superb ambassador for not just English football but the country itself (and God knows we have few enough of those). He may not be an Olympian but it's hard to imagine London 2012 happening without him.

Basically I'd wank him off he walked into my flat right now.

[soggy biscuit]

Also of his generation he will be the only England player to go down as an all time great.

Alan Shearer is only 4 years older than Beckham

[Royalclapper]

Good player in his prime but a bit predictable and eternally overrated. Not so bad for the first few years when he was just a decent and highly photogenic son of Leytonstone who had achieved his dream of being a Man Utd player.

Fergie knew the commercialism had done his playing career and shifted him on with his usual astuteness. Always comes across as someone who would help out if he could which puts him above many with that kind of status. Waddle is just being an arse.

[NTRoyal]

Also of his generation he will be the only England player to go down as an all time great.

Alan Shearer is only 4 years older than Beckham

I would but him in the 'Golden' Owen/Gerrard/Ferdinand etc generation, Shearer retired as these guys were coming through. And out of that bunch he is the only one who would deserve any credit IMO.

[Handsome Man]

Shearer had too many spells where he wasn't much cop, and retired to coasting it at Newcastle far too early. He isn't in the same class as Owen or Beckham.

I loved Chris Waddle - he was my favourite player - and I can only think of two reasons for his mental outburst today:
jealousy because Beckham wasn't a hunchbacked Geordie stereotype with appalling hair;
memory of the way Tommy Docherty dismissed him on the Jonathan Ross show as somebody whose first touch was longer than most people would kick it.

[Maguire]

I also loved Waddle as a player tbf.

[AthleticoSpizz]

The catalyst of all the press's football poncery off and on of the field...gotta give the boy credit

[croche]

beckham the brand > beckham the player