Beckham Backlash

ARSENE WENGER WAS in Ireland on Wednesday, watching France beat the Republic 1-0 in Dublin. At the end he was not enthusing about Thierry Henry's winner, though; he was flabbergasted by the scoreline he had just seen from Belfast.

'Northern Ireland have just beaten England?' the Arsenal manager said. 'How can that be possible?'

At precisely that moment Sven-Goran Eriksson was being asked the same question by about 100 different people in about 100 subtly different ways. He did not come up with any answers - most of his replies tended to emphasise the vague and highly debatable notion that England had played well for 41 minutes before somehow being undermined by Wayne Rooney's temper. But perhaps we were asking the wrong man.

Even if Eriksson knows any answers he is looking unlikely to share them with us. His biggest problem is not that he is a Swede, or that he earns too much, or that he thinks Rooney should play as a solo striker one week and a left winger the next. By far the biggest problem with Eriksson is that he cannot see anything wrong with David Beckham.

Not many other managers would choose Beckham as a holding midfielder. When Eriksson was quizzed about the defensive disarray in England's 4-1 friendly defeat by Denmark he accepted there might be a need for a sitting player in front of the back four. He mentioned Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard as possible candidates. He mentioned Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Scott Parker and Nicky Butt. But he never mentioned Beckham. Perhaps Eriksson is devious, but the stronger possibility is that it just hadn't occurred to him.

What happened next, you will recall, is that following discussions with 'senior players' on the eve of the Wales game, England switched to a 4-5-1 formation with Beckham at backward point in the midfield. The decision to play Beckham there is unlikely to have come from any senior player but the captain himself, and it is equally unlikely Eriksson impressed any of the rest of his squad by going along with it. Certainly Lampard and Gerrard would hardly have voted for Beckham as quarterback when most of his passes cut them out of the game.

Eriksson made the choice not just for one game but for two, when the evidence from the first was far from convincing. It may be overstating the case to say that Beckham is calling the shots for England and that neither Eriksson nor the FA dare stand up to him, although such a scenario would certainly provide an answer to Wenger's question. It would explain why England have lost morale and momentum so drastically in the past fortnight and would offer an explanation as to why players such as Lampard and Gerrard have taken to gently questioning Eriksson's authority. Lampard did not like it when Eriksson said he had made a slow start to the season, and Gerrard was not being complimentary when he pointed out that he had played in three different positions against Wales.

The suggestion is not that Eriksson has lost the England dressing room, but that he has lost the respect of senior members of the team by continually indulging his captain.

Until a week ago the main grumble in the England squad was simply that Eriksson regarded Beckham as undroppable, even though some of his performances have been below par. It is not commonly known outside the England camp just how privileged Beckham's position has become. He frequently has his own bodyguard and security arrangements, and often travels back to the team hotel by a different route to the other players. 'David likes to be treated differently and he is,' a member of the England squad has said privately. 'He lives in a world of his own, whether he is with England or not.'

Not many England players envy Beckham his self-imposed bubble of celebrity, but they are beginning to resent his special relationship with Eriksson. Especially as it is semi-officially sanctioned by an FA keenly aware of Beckham's value at the gate. If Beckham plays in friendlies the FA make more money. The captain's status allows him to make, or at least be involved in, decisions on and off the pitch, and some of the players do not like that. It is not just Rooney who finds it hard to take direction from Beckham.

Eriksson is not necessarily thrilled by it either, but the assumption until a couple of weeks ago was that he was going along with it for the sake of a quiet life in the knowledge he could be out of here after the next World Cup. If he is now allowing Beckham to pick the team and choose the formation, one can readily understand why England are no longer the happy band of campers who started this qualification cycle.

'It is a big worry that we have started the season badly,' Eriksson confessed in Belfast. 'We have played very many good games with these same players, and against Ireland every one of them played in exactly the position they play for their clubs.'

This is not strictly true. Beckham was generally considered a failure when Real Madrid played him at the back of their midfield and has played almost every game under Wanderlei Luxemburgo on the right. He has just moved back inside, with Real switching to a Brazil-style 4-2-2-2, but not on his own. He has always had Guti or Julio Baptista alongside him. Putting it bluntly, Real do not appear to have as much faith in Beckham's defensive ability as Eriksson, who in this instance does appear to be treating his captain differently to the rest.

'I don't know why we are struggling, but I do know we have two games to get it right,' Eriksson continued. 'We have to get them fit in soul, brain and body for those games.'

THAT IS A tall order after what has just happened. Once lost, dressing-room respect is notoriously difficult to win back. England are unlikely to cut off their nose to spite their face to the extent of failing to qualify for the World Cup, but if the next two matches are successfully negotiated it will be no achievement of Eriksson's. And the Beckham question will remain.

The England manager does not have to axe his captain to win back credibility, but returning him to the right wing would be a start.

It is not just England players who are mumbling about favouritism - others have noticed. One blogger on an Arsenal website had this to say about the events of the past week: 'England are just a bunch of brain dead Sky-famous journeymen, mismanaged by a Swedish conman who can make even Wayne Rooney look bad. Sven is not a motivator or a tactician, he's a groupie. One day he and Becks will get married and go to live in Tuscany.'

An extreme view, perhaps, but most people can see that Eriksson's England future can be counted in matches rather than months or years. The succession is being debated, and for some reason only English candidates are being seriously considered. Each England manager is usually the diametric opposite of whatever was considered problematic in his predecessor - the squeaky-clean Kevin Keegan after the loopy Glenn Hoddle, the tactical genius that was thought to be Eriksson after Keegan owned up to being clueless, and so on - so it would appear what is being held against the present incumbent is chiefly his foreignness. That's what it looks like in the papers and Wenger, for one, is starting to get annoyed.

'I lost all appetite to watch the England game once I read the critics,' Wenger said. 'We are all managers and we accept criticism about football decisions. I can't accept criticism because someone is Swedish or French. You should be chosen because you are competent, not because you have the right passport.'

Howard Wilkinson, strictly speaking the last British passport-holder to hold England office, knows all about criticism in international football. 'It's like a big circus,' the last title-winning English manager said. 'The manager is in the middle of that circus. Sometimes he's a lion tamer and sometimes he's a clown.

'You can't buy players, that's the point. You have to work with what you've got. Unless you are blessed like the Brazil manager, you've got to find a strategy that gets results. That doesn't happen overnight, but some people seem to think it should.'

The Wilkinson test might be a good screen for future England managers - Sam Allardyce, lion tamer or clown? - but the immediate problem for Eriksson is that he has sat passively on his chair for too long to pick it up and start waving it around.

The rampant egos in the England dressing room do need taming, though, and one wonders whether names such as Curbishley, McClaren and Allardyce carry the necessary clout.

The fact of the matter, if we are talking succession, is that the list of English candidates is not much more inspiring than it was five years ago. It is just that the mood in the country has shifted back to conservative.

After bravely breaking the mould by appointing Sven, the FA should not abandon the idea of a foreign coach just because the first one did not work out. Let's not revert to knee-jerk xenophobia quite so quickly. Not when Luis Felipe Scolari, World Cup-winning coach and Eriksson's nemesis in the last two major tournaments, might be available. Give Big Sam a call, by all means. But don't let's fool ourselves that Big Phil would not be better.


Who next for England?

FELIPE 'BIG PHIL'
SCOLARI (25-1)

56, Portugal coach

Other than Jose Mourinho, who is not interested, the outstanding candidate. Contracted to Portugal until next summer's World Cup, he earns half of Eriksson's £4m a year. Has said: 'One day I'd like to manage a Premiership side. I respect England.' Took Brazil to 2002 World Cup victory, Portugal to Euro 2004 final and would love the chance.

MARTIN
O'NEILL (12-1)

53, taking sabbatical

The least foreign foreigner and well respected within the English game, having won trophies with Leicester City and taken Celtic to the 2003 Uefa Cup final. Is currently taking a year out to care for his wife who is receiving treatment for cancer. Has his backers in the press and may fancy the job if Sir Alex Ferguson continues at Old Trafford.

ALAN
CURBISHLEY (11-2)

47, Charlton manager

If the FA go for an English coach, you can probably rule out Steve McClaren (too close to Sven), and Sam Allardyce might not easily win the respect of the senior players. Curbishley comes highly rated by Sir Alex Ferguson. 'Some people have already got friends pushing their case, but I'm not one to do that. Who knows, perhaps I should.'

GUUS
HIDDINK (20-1)

58, PSV Eindhoven coach

Knows how to extract maximum gain from players, as proved when in less than two years he coached South Korea to the 2002 World Cup semi-finals, a stage better than Eriksson managed. Took PSV to last season's Champions League semi-finals. Has also coached Holland - another World Cup semi-final in 1998 - and Valencia.