Though Beckham was awful at euro 2004, he has a habit of following up poor performances with good ones, i.e sent off at france 98, then has best season of his career with the Man U treble, or all those shite free kicks against Greece in 2001 before he pulled THAT free kick out the hat. Beckham will once again brush any criticism with his football and his service for England in the near future should not be doubted. However I see Paul Scholes premature international retirement as a disaster for the England central midfield. I rate gerrard and lampard highly and I thought we went into euro 2004 with 4 of the best passers in the game. Keepin possesion should not have been a problem right? When the pressure was on when England were ahead against both France and Portugal, both gerrard and lampards inept distribution led to the continuous waves of attacks from the opposition which led to the eventual undesired result. Englands deep defending and counter attacking system obviously meant it possesion be difficult to maintain, but I believe scholes has the vision technical ability, to have led by example and given the defence a break. I pray, this pair who are likely to hold down the central midfield now, will develop their obvious talents with the mental strength to keep the heads when the situation arises in the future, which with Mr Eriksson at the helm, will happen.
2006 HAS to be our year!