In football, fans tend to confuse fame, wealth and arrogance with poor on-field performance. This is understandable -- in football, it's difficult to qualitatively judge a player's worth outside of counting clearances and goals scored (sometimes even the latter isn't enough -- see Emile Heskey getting selected for England over Michael Owen). When Ashley Cole made the fatal back pass allowing Kazakhstan to nick a goal, he was soundly booed. It was a terrible error -- but Ashley Cole is no Titus Bramble. The boos came because he is popularly considered to be a rich, self-interested twat who'd no sooner jump ship for higher pay than wear an ill-fitting white suit with the missus.
While Beckham doesn't come in for quite the same level of vitriol, his US Weekly lifestyle has led many, Steve McClaren included, to over-criticize his on field efforts, usually at their own peril. Don't get me wrong. I think George Best summed it up best when he said, "He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right." But he can be a useful cog in a well-greased football machine and he has a good attitude, puking and red cards aside. And, most importantly, his style of play is perfect for Serie A.
The Italian top flight, while not the in-depth chess match described by both its proponents and critics, is a league of calculation, conservative attacking play, and intelligent, consistent defending. It is a league where midfielders are given the chance to breathe, to think. David Beckham, while hardly versatile (see my rant on this topic over at Soccerlens), is a midfielder that can do a lot of damage when he is given time to think about his crosses. He is not a young man, but at thirty-three there are worse things than getting headhunted by AC Milan. We tend to forget that Stanley Matthews took Stoke to League One at the sprightly age of forty-five.
The other reason Beckham should go to Italy is because MLS is a terrible, terrible league. It is boring, the quality of play is all over the shop, and the league table is too horizontal. If Beckham were to leave now, Don Garber and everyone involved in the travesty that is MLS will be forced to do some serious soul-searching about the mess they have created. My interest in Toronto FC is on life-support, but it has less to do with our terrible form, but rather that our terrible form still leaves us five points out of a play-off spot with no relegation in sight. A soccer league without competitive incentive is nothing but a travelling circus, and Beckham's departure will send that message to talented footballers from Montivideo to Madrid.
By saving his career from sliding into the ether, Beckham might do more for American soccer than he did by coming over from Real Madrid in the first place.
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