Charlton's New Owner...US Criticism of Beckham

Guardian/Lawrence Donegan

David Beckham rides roughshod over LA Galaxy to get his own way

Cosying up to Tottenham Hotspur shows questionable loyalty to his employers and their fans *

Four years into their star-crossed relationship with David Beckham Los Angeles Galaxy have yet to win a Major League Soccer Cup but in their dealing with their most famous, and famously restless, player the club have finally found a spine.

The Englishman, recently honoured by the BBC for his lifetime contributions to British sport, is nearing beatification in his homeland, a state of being that grants all kinds of privileges, the most obvious being that whatever Beckham wants he invariably gets.

In the latest instance the former England captain wants to move to Tottenham Hotspur on loan – a proposition that has been presented in the time‑honoured fashion by "sources" close to the player as a done deal. Harry Redknapp struck a marginally more cautious note than those who already had Beckham on the next flight out of LAX but even he could not resist the temptation to help speed things along. "It is up to Galaxy whether they will let him go on loan," the Spurs manager said this week. "He'd be a good influence to have, the type of lad you want at your club and he'd give the whole place a lift."

Viewed from a distance of more than 5,000 miles, at the Galaxy's headquarters in Carson, California, such comments will have been viewed as breathtakingly presumptuous or, more bluntly, a prima facie case of "tapping up" (imagine what Redknapp's reaction would be were Real Madrid's José Mourinho to muse publicly about having Gareth Bale come over to the Bernabéu to "give the whole place a lift").

Yet if there was anger in LA, there was very little surprise. The club have been here before with Beckham; in the winter of 2008, when he agitated for a three‑month loan move to Milan – later extended to six when the Englishman let it slip after a friendly match at Ibrox that he would like to stay in Italy until the end of the Serie A season to enhance his chances of playing for England; and again last winter, when he went to Italy for an encore only to return two months later with a ruptured achilles.

That injury led to Beckham missing all but the last seven games of the 2010 MLS regular season and three play-off games. His contribution on returning was marginal – two goals and a handful of assists – as the Galaxy fell short once again in its quest to win the MLS Cup.

This latest failure has stiffened attitudes at the Galaxy, who have been rewarded for their significant investment in Beckham (the MLS changed its salary cap rules to accommodate the Englishman's $5.6m annual salary) with a temporary boost in shirt sales and Tom Cruise appearances in the main stand but with no trophies and a boatload of bad publicity.

In terms of his actual contribution on the pitch, Beckham has played in only 48 of the 106 regular‑season games that have taken place since his arrival and in terms of minutes spent on the field has played just 40.4% of the time.

Change is on the agenda at the club these days, if not in personnel then certainly in approach, not least when it came to indulging the desire of their most high‑profile names to spend their winter playing for other clubs.

Like Beckham, Landon Donovan had hoped to go the Premier League, to Everton, where he enjoyed a successful loan spell last year. Given his contributions to the Galaxy (he has been top scorer in five of the past six seasons), the American might have felt he had earned the chance to go abroad again but when he was refused permission he accepted the decision with good grace. "While I enjoyed my time at Everton last season, I feel that it is important to continue to rest and recover this off-season as opposed to going on loan. I have been playing nearly non-stop for the past two years and I believe that this decision will allow me to perform at my best for the Galaxy," he said.

Beckham's approach could not have been more markedly different, as first he, in the aftermath of receiving his award from the BBC, made clear he wanted to move to Spurs, and then his advisers, in a series of statements issued in recent days, sought to portray the US club as merely an obstacle rather than the ill-rewarded recipients of Beckham's half-hearted services over the past three years.

"We are waiting on the LA Galaxy's decision," Beckham's spokesman said yesterday – a strange remark given the club appeared to give their decision in a statement on 21 December, saying: "We are not aware that David [Beckham] is looking to be loaned to any other team and we are fully expecting he reports with the rest of his Galaxy team‑mates in late January for the upcoming season."

The Galaxy press office has been noticeably silent in recent days on the subject, leaving a vacuum which has been filled with a flood of anti-Beckham sentiment in the States.

Sports Illustrated said it was time for the player to "show a little loyalty to the Galaxy shirt"; "Beckham resumes his lead-clown role", ran another headline today, while the Galaxy's former general manager Alexi Lalas noted that while Beckham had given a lot to American soccer "he's also taken a tremendous amount out of Major League Soccer".

At this stage in his career the Englishman is used to dealing with adverse publicity, just as he thrives on making fools of those who set limits on his footballing ambitions. But what of those who will not give him exactly what he wants? The LA Galaxy, their fans and Major League Soccer are about to find out.
Has Beckham made a difference?

Success on the pitch

The Galaxy missed the play-offs in Beckham's first two years but reached the MLS Cup in 2009 and the Western Conference final in 2010. The club also picked up the Supporters' Shield this year. But Beckham was not on the pitch for long enough to influence that success. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Galaxy have a marginally lower winning percentage with Beckham in the team than they do without him: although the Galaxy scored 1.69 goals per game with Beckham and 1.27 without him, his presence also seemed to coincide with far more goals conceded – 1.73 per game, as opposed to 1.12 without him.

Club attendance

According to ESPN, the Galaxy's home attendance grew from 20,813 in 2006, the year before Beckham's signing, to a peak of 26,008 in 2008. Since then, attendance has slid to an average of 20,416 in 2009 and 21,436 in 2010. Attendance at road games went from 19,929 in 2006 to more than 28,000 in 2007 and 2008, but that, too, has since dropped to 18,525.

Impact on TV ratings and league attendance

TV ratings in the MLS haven't improved in recent years, nor has attendance. While there was a slight increase in total average viewers per game from 263,000 in 2006 to 289,000 in 2007 during Beckham's first season, that dropped back to 253,000 by 2008. Since 2007, the league's average attendance is down 95 fans per game – from 16,770 to 16,675.

www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/jan/04/david-beckham-la-galaxy-tottenham-hotspur