Beckham: rumours of a move to Milan are about more than England

This comes from Jonny's I Told You So file! I wrote this on the 17th October 2008, and hinted that Becks' move to Europe was about an escape route from MLS, not keeping fit during the America's off-season, as was reported at the time. This is my piece (unedited) from October:
The growing battle for David Beckham's signature in the January transfer window has more at stake than just the England midfielder's fitness.

Becks needs a return to Europe to compete for his England place. The tabloids ask "how can he truly remain competitive and matchfit playing in LA?" Milan remain in the boxseat to capture him on a three-month loan deal.

It's just that his loan switch will be about more than a new lease of Life with the Lions.

It's also about Major League Soccer's fight for survival and its future in a competitive market through an economic downturn.

While Becks rises like a Phoenix from the ashes, Major League Soccer is foundering. It's losing its vision.

Having managed Beckham's LA Galaxy, Ruud Gullit's comments about MLS crystallise the reasons why the former England skipper needs to come home.

Gullit, who lasted nine months in LA suggested there's a conspiracy among other American sports to keep soccer down, and that no amount of David Beckhams can turn it into a major sport in the U.S.

"I think they are afraid of football because it is so popular everywhere around the world," Gullit told Reuters. "I think they will just control it so it doesn't become more popular than their American sports."

Gullit said that as a result, Beckham is fighting an uphill battle to sell soccer to U.S. fans.
"So it is very hard for him," Gullit said. "They will never allow that, and in some ways I can understand it as well.

"I have my doubts if they really want to make it popular. Some sports have already had a bit of a dive, so they don't want American football to become less popular, or basketball or baseball."

The truth is Beckham thought the door was closed on big time football long before it was. Losing his place in Capello's Real Madrid team co-incided with McClaren's insistence that he wasn't part of England's plans.

We all know what happened next: a recalled Becks-inspired Real won the Primera Liga and McClaren fell to the overwhelming clamour to bring Becks back. The fly in the ointment was he'd already signed for Hollywood.

Beckham is one of the fittest players of the modern era. The end of his career is not in sight, and his value to any team is obvious; he's good support for a creative partner in midfield and he remains the setpiece meister!

You could see why Manchester City were the early favourites. Abu Dhabi Babby wants to mark his arrival with a big New Year Splurge, and he's one of only a few people who could afford Beckham's wages.

But as Thierry Henry articulated in his time at Arsenal, a modern team wins titles with the strength of its subs bench.
Could there be a better sub to lift the crowd and trigger an equaliser from a set-piece?

So no surprise that big name suitors like Milan are chasing his signature (or with Beckham, his autograph).

Will one of the big boys back home tempt him home?

With Beckham, impossible is nothing.

EXCLUSIVE: Cock-up Charlton's Curbishley replacement was under their noses!

The day Alan Curbishley bowed out of Charlton Athletic after fifteen years, was the day the club went into a downward spiral in which they're still spinning out of control. But it could've been so very different.

There's been a succession of awful managerial appointments at The Valley and next season, there's the real prospect of another relegation - to the third tier of English football.

But the answer to their future was literally right under the Charlton board's noses!

I can exclusively reveal I sat next to Roy Hodgson in the Director's Box at The Valley, that very day.

Two-and-a-half-years later, as Charlton stare up at the rest, four-points adrift at the foot of the Championship, letting Curbs slip out "the front door" was a cock-up enough - but watching Hodgson take his chance with Fulham so comprehensively, makes Charlton's mistake dimensional!

Their visionless board didn't know what they had - how far they'd come - and what to do next. 

Hodgson was the perfect replacement for Curbishley.

Curbs, together with Steve Gritt entered the stage as something of a comedy duo. They were the first joint managers in the English game. He and Gritt had zero experience in management. The club had no money and, worse, no ground.

Slowly, painfully, they put a side together and the first signs that something was stirring came at Ewood Park in February 1994, when Jack Walker's millionaire Blackburn, who won the Premiership the following year, were beaten by the penniless Addicks.

Curbishley, on his own after Gritt was sacked in 1995, then dragged Charlton away from all the dreary years of post-War mediocrity.

I'd been telling anyone who'd listen that to kick-on from years of patient, excellent progress, Charlton needed to appoint a manager for the bigger stage. Hodgson, a Londoner, with his Inter and Swiss credentials would've been perfect. He was clearly looking for a Premier League job in London. He got one.

The progress of Fulham couldn't be in more stark contrast to Charlton. 

The board, without a clue what should follow Curbs were keen on a man with no Premier League experience. Billy Davies was a strange Plan A to pursue - but when he wouldn't come to The Valley, Plan B (for Backfoot) was Iain Dowie, acrimoniously hired from relegated rivals Crystal Palace. When that didn't work out, Plan C (for well, make your own jokes here) was Les Reed. 

Appalling.

Charlton's board are so clueless, they must be going through the phone book looking for coaches now: Pardew? Parkinson? it's Pearce next!

They had it all in 2006: an excellent manager: okay, as a team they'd gone back a little over eighteen months, but only from higher to lower mid-table. The stadium was playing to full houses and had been developed very nicely over the years. They were ferrying fans in for a fiver from further afield, fuelling a fanbase.

And it's no exaggeration to describe their part of London as the country's region of opportunity. The City and The Olympics on their doorstep. So much opportunity! Where do you start?

With Spurs struggling at the time, they had a genuine chance to grow the club in the south-east and Kent, behind Chelsea and Arsenal as the region's third biggest club.

THEY'VE FAILED BADLY.

At New Year, Charlton are hurtling towards the third tier; Hodgson's Fulham who negotiated a miracle escape from relegation last season, are in the Premier League's top-half.

"Most managers leave by the back door, I'm getting clapped out of the front door which is how I would have wanted to go", a moved Curbishley croaked at the time. Players from both sides formed a guard of honour as the stadium rose as one in appreciation. They didn't know it at the time, but the poor fans were saying goodbye to the Big Time.

Charlton's board can't apologise enough to the supporters for how badly they've mismanaged the Addicks ever since. They've run their Premier League club more like a Provincial Golf Club. Now they're handicapped, four-under-par the field. They're going to miss the cut.

This looks like damage which could take a decade or more to rectify.

Soccermongery's all about your feedback, so write away, right away!

Also on Soccermongery: January Transfer Window Comment and Podcast Laugh: Jose Mourinho sings the Blues

Big 4 massive debt will produce change we can believe in!

Most of the Premier League's twenty clubs are up for sale - URGENTLY! Keith Harris, who's sold five top-flight clubs in his time admits to having two hopes of selling Everton:

No Hope and Bob Hope.

Toffees chairman Bill Kenwright instructed Harris of merchant bank, Seymour Pierce, to find new investors after admitting the club couldn't keep borrowing. They've yet to finance the new stadium at Kirkby.

Harris explained it's not a rich city and Everton's cause isn't helped by sharing it with Liverpool either. Which brought him onto Liverpool and the subject of this piece: Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United really do play in the red!

Harris is concerned that the Reds' huge £350million debt with two stricken banks Wachovia and RBS, are due for repayment in a few days. They've an option to renew for another six months - but time is running short for Liverpool owners Messrs. Hicks and Gillett, to transfer the debt from done-for banks to other super-rich individuals.

Manchester United are £two-thirds of a billion in debt, following the Glazer takeover although United is probably the most multi-layered football business in the world, so it should be okay. They've just got to keep winning!

Chelsea's debt is owed to Roman Abramovich and is interest-free, so they're either here to stay or will fall like a house of cards.

So as the swirling winds of economic turmoil threaten to blow the tops off football's leading houses, it's time for a lofty prediction!

Football's great believers and idealogues will start winning trophies at the expense of debt-laden monsters.

Who couldn't have been immensely impressed by Wenger's kids in the League Cup this season? And by the time they're 21-year-old first-teamers, Liverpool's debt will have been re-structured and some of their best players may have been sold off.

Arsenal with "only" £260million of debt, and that to pay for the Emirates (at 5% per annum) are well-poised to dominate - if they can keep patient with Wenger's average team right now.

That's "good debt" compared with the other big three. It's secured against the world's bigget matchday revenues, increased sponsorship opportunities and secondary rights sales. Looking good, Arsenal.

I take them to win the title either next season or definitely the year after. And once they do, they can dominate for a while.

Aston Villa can take advantage too. The very best chairman - supportive, committed, low-profile. A manager who's been there and done it, as both a player and a boss. Huge supporter-base. Non-controversial. Aston Villa have also done it before!

As football evolves from a debt-led orgy of win today to a more egalitarian lesser-leveraged future, football's great planners and dreamweavers will win the day.

We may never return to a period of such austerity that allowed Nottingham Forest to jump from 3rd in Division 2 to Champions of Europe in two years, but one thing is for sure, football men with football ideas will have more chance of producing winning teams without always being trumped by Big Spending Giants.

In the spirit of Brian Clough, the sport may be about to become much more competitive. As football fans, can we raise a glass to that? Yes We Can!

Soccermongery's all about your feedback, so write away, right away!

FA Cup Village Football - and pictorial proof that I Love The FA Cup!

The magic of the FA Cup as seen from the News Of The World's backpage. I'd like to have been at this cuptie!

Arsenal played from left-to-right, Barnsley from right-to-left and Chelsea, coached by Ray Wilkins, played sideways.

The replay kicks off when the DJ upsets Steven Gerrard.

It's live and exclusive only on ITV, Setanta, Chelsea TV, Arsenal TV and the BBC. Village football rules apply. Chopper Harris and John Fashanu are vying for recalls.

Actually, arranging the scores like this is a canny way of burying bad news if you're Mark Hughes. He could tell Abu Dhabi Babby that Manchester City drew nil-nil at Stoke instead!

By the way, I love the FA Cup. Here's proof (it's me kissing it!)

Also on Soccermongery: January Transfer Window Comment and Podcast Laugh: Jose Mourinho sings the Blues