Becks In The Routine

‘ARE we supposed to laugh or cry at the Times’s front-page picture of three hooded Manchester United supporters trying to set an American flag on fire?

Becks is now off sex for a few weeks

Overlooking the idiocy of it all, there’s the ludicrous fact that a bunch of United fans are up in arms at the idea that their club may be sold to Malcolm Glazer, a very rich American entrepreneur.

This is Manchester Untied, the global brand that invites fans from Torquay to Tokyo to don its shirts and tune in to see the multi-national side run around on the telly.

This is the club that went on a tour of Brazil – to the detriment of the FA Cup – and then on a jolly to the USA, in a bid to make themselves even bigger, even more branded.

And now some of the club’s fans don’t want their club to be sold out… Laugh? We would if we could stop crying.

Better than looking at the ridiculous protest is to instead see the Sun’s back page and thereon check out what’s been happening to United’s marketing legend of old, David Beckham.

There he is on the Old Trafford turf, this time dressed in his England kit, writhing in agony at the pain caused by a largely self-inflicted wound to his ribs.

He’s injured. So he’s out of England’s World Cup qualifier in Azerbaijan – his place, according to the Sun, being taken by Shaun Wright-Phillips.

In all, the fractured rib means Becks is out of action for the next six weeks.

Only, he might not be because Becks’ current team, Real Madrid, want him to play next week in their vital Champions’ League match against Dinamo Live.

A Real insider is quoted by the Sun as saying: “Coming back from an injury like this depends on the player.

“If he is a hard player then he should be able to play after a week – and Beckham IS a hard player.”

And if you want confirmation of that, just ask Wales’s Ben Thatcher, with whom Beckham was involved in a 50-50 blind chase for a ball that neither seemed to be looking at.

Beckham’s subsequent lunge at Thatcher – for which he was yellow-carded – leads to the Guardian’s headline: “HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER”.

Especially since the yellow card – injury or not – earned him a suspension from Wednesday’s match in a far-flung part of Europe.

Beckham’s petulance also allows the Times to list what it believes are the 50 worst tackles, elbows and stamps to have scarred football.

And the No. 1 worst foul ever? Well, no contest there – it’s that nice Mr Harald Schumacher and his uncomplicated assault on France’s Patrick Battiston in the 1982 World Cup finals.

It was a bout of ABH that didn’t even concede a foul, let alone a yellow or red card. But then, the unconscious Battiston was one hard bastard…’

Posted: 11th, October 2004 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink