David Beckham believes Manchester United’s struggles in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era have gone on for “too long” and wants things to change at Old Trafford “pretty quickly”.
Speaking on Talk of the Devils podcast, the former winger was empathetic to the situation his boyhood club found themselves in the wake of Ferguson’s retirement.
“I think it has been a difficult time over the last five or ten years, but it was always going to be when the boss left the club,” Beckham contends.
The 49 year old believes it was not simply that United lost their legendary manager, however.
He also references the departures of integral players like Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville as huge losses to the club’s identity.
“It wasn’t just that, we lost players like Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane and Gary Neville, all of these players that had been at United for so long; you lose part of that and you lose part of the club. So it was always going to be a difficult time. But we’d like it to change pretty quickly because I think it’s gone on for too long now.”
The erosion of standards in the United dressing has been one of the most stark contrasts to the Ferguson era and Beckham clearly feels this was engendered by the loss of the leaders he came through the ranks with at Old Trafford.
One is left pondering just how a moody forward like Marcus Rashford would act if he was forced to share a dressing room with a captain like Roy Keane; or a winger like Antony would conduct himself if he had a fullback such as Gary Neville overlapping him.
One of Ferguson’s biggest strengths, amid a sea of them, was his ability to identify players with the correct attitudes – ruthless winners whose sole focus was Manchester United, not a new clothing deal or the latest Tik Tok trend.
Far too often in the last decade has Old Trafford been a beacon for players who are attracted by the wage packet on offer, rather than the red shirt. Or lucky enough to find themselves at home at a club their talent level does not match, and simply do not want to leave, despite languishing on the bench for the majority of their prime.
This type of mentality, or lack thereof, is a pernicious one; the sort which infects a dressing room and makes good players bad and bad players terrible.
Beckham is spot on in his assessment that it was not simply the loss of Ferguson which threw United into disrepair, but equally the loss of Ferguson’s lieutenants who helped distil the great Scot’s philosophy throughout his dressing room.
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