Becks looks like boss in waiting

 

SUITS YOU, SIR ... David Beckham shows his frustration on the touchline in Bloemfontein

 

HE was sat on the England bench, jacket off, chin resting on his up-turned hand, brow furrowed, locked in concentration.

What needed changing? Where were the opposition weaknesses? How could the midfield close down the spaces? Endless questions were running through his mind. And how come Frank Lampard's goal was disallowed?
So incensed was he by that he confronted the referee on the subject as he left the field at half-time.
As the camera panned in it was easy to forget that this was actually NOT the England manager.
No, it was in fact David Beckham, 35, injured midfielder and ex-skipper who had been brought along for the ride by Fabio Capello and given a chance to see what it was all about from the other side of the fence.
Beckham has been learning fast and though he has always said he wasn't interested in management, looks to have got the taste for it at this World Cup.
So what about it, Becks for England boss?
Last night you could get a lengthy 25-1 on Goldenballs succeeding Capello. But is there not a case for the FA taking the plunge?
There is already a facebook campaign running to make Beckham manager and you wonder if it would really be so stupid.
English football is at a low ebb. Things can hardly get much worse.
We've tried everything to get a performance out of multi-million pound players who regularly produce the goods in the Premier League but can barely put one foot in front of the other while wearing an England shirt.
Fabio Capello, with a proven track-record in club football, was given a £6m-a-year contract as manager to transform England's fortunes after the disaster of the Steve McClaren era and the Italian has palpably failed.
Becks has no coaching badges, no managerial experience and has never courted the job. So on the surface he would seem a high-risk successor.
But he could be just the magic ingredient to lift our national team out of the doldrums in the wake of Sunday's shocking World Cup humiliation.
When the decision was made to appoint one of the world's greatest ever players, Diego Maradona, as Argentina boss it was met with howls of derision back in his homeland and around the world.
The move was dismissed as insanity and, as the Argies struggled through their World Cup qualifying campaign, his critics grew ever more vociferous.
Maradona bounced around in his technical area pointing in all manner of directions, yelling and shouting at anyone within earshot, and didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing.
But in the finals in South Africa, Argentina are playing with freedom, enjoying their football and Maradona has fostered a bond between himself and his players which appears unbreakable.

He's been there and done it all. There is nothing his players will come up against which Maradona has not experienced himself.
Maradona said: "I may have an advantage or two over other people because I can transmit every moment in the World Cup.
"I played in Spain in 1982, then we won in 1986 and they said we were dead and buried in 1990 and we came back. I even won in 1979 if you remember that... the World Youth Cup.
"So all my life, I have picked up lots of experiences. And this is what I am giving back with my heart and my soul.
"When I talk to the players in their rooms, I can say 'this happened to me in the past'. I can tell them the real facts."
Becks cannot, of course, point to any World Cup wins. But he has experienced great highs and lows in his football career, has won the Champions League and league titles and his celebrity status rivals that of Maradona's.
He could take every ounce of pressure off these fragile England players who are apparently crippled by fear - and would happily take on the responsibility.
His very presence commands instant respect. He knows what makes English footballers tick and what works for them.
Yes, he may have had too much power as captain under Sven Goran Eriksson. But he has matured and will have learned what was good and bad about his relationship with the Swede.
Whenever the FA's bid to stage the 2018 World Cup looks to be floundering the answer to saving it and keeping the country in the hunt is always to turn to Beckham.
They pussy-footed around with numerous ambassadors and different initiatives. But eventually the bid team discovered that without Beckham they had no chance of winning the vote.
Now the England football team are in a hole and the FA are waiting to see how the wind blows before deciding what to do with Capello.
Like with our World Cup bid, the answer may be right under their noses again.