Boo Boys Bait Beckham

David Beckham made his home return for LA Galaxy last night and, as has been widely reported, was roundly booed and jeered whenever he touched the ball (see HERE).

A lot of the vitriol was aimed at Beckham from the LA Riot Squad supporters section and led to the English primadonna confronting the fans at half time.

All I can say to them is a big WELL DONE.

Beckham has shown total and utter disrespect to the Galaxy, their fans and the MLS. When he made the move to LA it should have been a long term commitment. That’s why he signed the contract he did and arrived with all the misplaced razzamatazz.

Just because he seemingly wants to save his England World Cup place by playing in a higher profile league doesn’t justify his actions. When he made the loan move to Milan, the Galaxy bent over backwards to help him out, fully expecting that he would be wanting to return to see out his contract.

All the toing and froing about whether he would stay in Milan or not has damaged his credibility and reputation in my eyes. He knew, or should have known, what he was getting into when he decided to make the LA move. Bailing out should never be an option.

The game was a friendly, ironically against AC Milan, and the stadium was full of anti Beckham banners. When Beckham confronted the fans at half time his action were farcical, as he looked like he was trying to jump over an advertising hoarding but couldn’t even manage that!

Of course when a fan takes up his calling out, it is the fan that’s punished.

It was disappointing to hear Galaxy manager Bruce Arena make a statement acknowledging that the fans have a right to voice opinions but must do it in an appropriate manner. I feel they did. It only got nasty when Beckham goaded them by going over to them. He’s the one that should be fined for his inappropriate actions. There has been no public chastising of him for his actions that I’ve seen so far anyway.

Beckham is a hasbeen. He was a technically gifted player but his best days are behind him. He is over rated and living on his past name and glories. When I saw him play Vancouver in late 2007 he was a shadow of his former self.

I’m not a Beckham hater for the sake of it. I was well impressed with him in his early days. When he made his early appearance for Man U against East Fife in a friendly in 1995 he was outstanding and his skills were there for all to see.

He is not bigger than any Club he plays for though and is certainly not irreplacable. Man United seem to have done just fine after his departure.

He has given the impression that he no longer wants to play in LA. Whether this is the case, only he can say, but with his actions and all the comments that came out of Milan during the whole saga it’s no wonder that the fans are irate.

The only person that can cool this whole thing down now is Beckham himself. He needs to come out and state where he feels his permanent future lies.

If he doesn’t we’re going to be reading about this saga for weeks, if not months, to come.