David Beckham has given his thoughts on why England’s ‘Golden Generation’ failed to live up to the hype.
For many years, England fans often wondered why the country’s so called ‘Golden Generation’ failed to deliver anything.
A squad that consisted of Beckham and the likes of Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard only managed the quarter final as their best result in a major tournament. They even failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 under Steve McClaren.
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In 2017, all three of Gerrard, Lampard and Ferdinand appeared together on BT Sports where they spoke about some of the reasons why they think their generation wasn’t as successful as many people expected.
Ferdinand said: “It was down to the obsession with winning. I didn’t want to see Frank have an edge on me. I didn’t want to speak to him about anything he’d be able to take away to facilitate his team winning.”
“When I was with England with Stevie, when we were battling for the Premier League, I didn’t want to sit around him and be around him because I just didn’t want to hear about what Liverpool were doing.”
And now, Beckham has had his say, and he seems to disagree with his former Manchester United team mate, Ferdinand.
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Beckham told Gary Neville’s The Overlap that the battles between rival clubs did not affect the England team’s performance what so ever.
Beckham said: “It’s because we weren’t good enough on the day, simple as that. I’ve heard numerous people come out and say, well, there was cliques and some players didn’t talk to other players.”
“I don’t care if players didn’t talk whilst they were eating dinner, whilst they were eating lunch, while they’re in the changing room, the moment you get on that pitch, I don’t care if Stevie G’s in a better position than me I’m gonna give him the ball. Simple.”
He added: “You’re footballers and you’re professional. It’s not about cliques, it’s not about Liverpool players not liking United players.”
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The current England squad has finished forth, third and second in their last three tournaments under the leadership of former defender, Gareth Southgate. But recent results in the Nations League has worried many, with the team failing to win a single one of their four matches this month.
With just two games left behind the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Southgate has a big job on his hands to restore confidence in his side.
Topics: David Beckham, England, Football, Football World Cup, Gary Neville