New Beckham Book

There is a new book out about David Beckham and his time in MLS. The current issue of SI has an excerpt from the book (a few pages long) which makes Beckham look pretty bad. Landon in particular blasts the guy for being a terrible teammate. As many people know, I am not a fan of Landon, but what he says in the book about Beckham, Gullit, and others in Beckham's camp is exactly what Abel Xavier said after being let go by LA last year. Every wrote him off as being some crazy old guy who was upset his career was basically over. Well, now he doesn't seem so crazy. What are some of your thoughts? Is he a good teammate, a good captain, or is he in it for the money?

I agree with everything Landon said, and I hate Landon. Becks never had his heart set on the Galaxy, only on LA.

Here's some reaction from Beckham himself:

“But I’m going to turn it on a positive spin because that’s what this needs. But in 17 years, I have played with the biggest teams in the world and the biggest players and not once have I been criticized for my professionalism. It’s important to get this cleared up and I will be speaking to Landon either this evening or over the next couple of days.”

Really? Because I recall him being critized by many of his Real Madrid teammates back in 2004 including Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos about Beckham putting commercials ahead of practice. He would often skip practice to go to a photo shoot, commercial, or whatever else he felt was more important than practice. He was also heavily critized by his manager Carlos Queiroz.

The full article in regard to the quote from above can be seen here:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/news;_ylt=AtmSFHXJnJX55_9VTCd.qcU5nYcB?slug=ap-mls-beckhamreturns&prov=ap&type=lgns

I think there is probably a lot of truth to the book, based on the exerpt that was released online, and the responses of Donovan and Beckham. However, when I read journalism I like to go by the "Rita Skeeter Rule" (named after a Harry Potter character), which says basically if the author sounds like Rita Skeeter then it's probably about 20% bs. For non-HP fans, this basically means if a criticism piece is so one-sided that the person getting criticized couldn't possibly read it without getting furious at the author, then it's probably about 20% bs. From the exerpts I read, Beckham or Beckham's party were not quoted or defended in any way, so we only got one side of the story. Maybe there is a defense, but I doubt it, considering Becks just found out about Donovan's comments now. And by "defended" I'm not talking about parts where Donovan praises Beckham's ability on the field; I'm talking about a response from Beckham himself, or his possy.

Just saw one of Beckham's world-renown "I am committed to the Galaxy" quotes... gave me a good laugh.

Have to say i don't mind the guy, i know a guy who works for Unicef, he wrote to Fergie/ United and asked if they would donate some stuff to them, never heard a thing back not even a reply, wrote to Becks, within 2 weeks there was boxes and boxes of shirts, balls, boots, signed stuff etc. Good for him i say! I can see why people get arsed because he isn't interested in Galaxy, he still plays decent-ish football, i bet Owen signing has got his back up a bit, if Owen can Becks can kinda thing, at the same time he should never have killed his career and signed with Galaxy in the first place, i bet a lot of that had to do with Vicky and her wanting to live the LA glam lifestyle

My respect for him has diminished a heck of a lot since he's been here. I agree, he shouldn't have come in the first place.