Beckham by David Beckham

Author:David Beckham [David Beckham]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780061738838
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2003-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

9

The Germans

‘Go out and enjoy yourselves…We’re a better team.’

It doesn’t seem to matter that soccer is a team game. When things go wrong, someone always has to take the blame. Take England, for example: in the World Cup, it was me in 1998 and Dave Seaman in 2002. At the European Championships in 2000, Phil Neville was the player who was made scapegoat for us not living up to the public’s expectations. For the media and for some supporters, it seems there always has to be a hero or a villain. I’m not saying that people don’t have every right to have their opinions about the England team. Sometimes I wonder, though, whether they realize that what they say or write about us does get through. Players may tell you they don’t read the papers or listen to the radio but, believe me, we know when we’re getting abuse and, however strong we try to be, it leaves a mark on our confidence and attitude.

Of course, picking out—or picking on—an individual isn’t just something that happens when it comes to international soccer. There was a spell in the autumn of 2002 when United weren’t doing as well as we knew we should be. There were all sorts of reasons for that, to do with injuries, suspensions and the team as a whole taking a dip in confidence and concentration. I was having my own problems, which I’ll come to later on. Some people seemed to decide it was all Ryan Giggs’ fault. Nobody in the dressing room, players or staff, saw it that way. But a section of the Old Trafford crowd weren’t happy and, naturally, the papers and the radio phone-ins picked up on that. It came as all the more of a surprise to the players, and I’m sure to Ryan himself, because United supporters have been fantastic down the years, and especially loyal and encouraging to the home-grown boys.

As soon as it became a big story, most United fans got behind Giggsy. He might have been experiencing a dip in form, but no-one with any idea about soccer thinks he’s anything but a world-class player. And, more to the point, no-one with any feel for United would even begin to question an amazing career at the club just because the team as a whole wasn’t firing like it should. I wouldn’t, for a minute, say supporters don’t have the right to speak their mind about United; after all, they pay the players’ wages and those of everybody else working at Old Trafford. The players have to live up to the fans’ highest expectations of them, it’s their job. Having a go at one player like that, though, I don’t understand. It just makes things more difficult for that player and for the rest of the team. In general, I’d say the Old Trafford crowd is more patient than most. They know the game and they know the players. Real United fans knew Giggsy would be back flying, as he proved during the last six months of that season, on our way to winning the League.

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