His widdle feewings hurt that LA Galaxy “teammate” David Beckham would rather play for some old club over in Italy, Landon Donovan lashed out with some harsh statements for the long-time England captain, who has already been warned by US Soccer to expect a hostile reception from fans when he returns. He even goes as far as saying that Beckham should be benched. The Guardian reports:
"All that we care about at a minimum is that he committed himself to us," Donovan said. "As time has gone on, that has not proven to be the case in many ways – on the field, off the field.
"Does the fact that he earns that much money come into it? Yeah. If someone's paying you more than anybody in the league, more than double anybody in the league, the least we expect is that you show up to every game, whether you're suspended or not.
"Show up and train hard. Show up and play hard. Maybe he's not a leader, maybe he's not a captain. Fair enough. But at a minimum you should bust your ass every day. That hasn't happened. And I don't think that's too much for us to expect. Especially when he's brought all this on us.
"I can't even say he's a good team-mate any more. He's not shown that. I can't think of another guy where I'd say he wasn't a good team-mate, he didn't give everything through all this, he didn't still care.
"But with Beckham, I'd say no, he wasn't committed. Let's say he does stay here three more years. I'm not going to spend the next three years of my life doing it this way ... I don't want to have soccer be this way. I've got to confront it somehow. If that's the way he's going to be, fine, then hold him accountable. Bench him. Just say, 'We're not going to play you, we don't think you're committed'."
His statements are more than a little bit bang on, though being from Landon Donovan, still somehow kind of annoying.
And, well… I’m not sure exactly what ol’ Landon thinks this whole Beckham-to-MLS gig was all about in the first place. I mean, if Tom Cruise and Will Smith were saying that Becks wasn’t giving it his all to get to their fancy dinner parties, or wasn’t trying his damnedest to get his wife on TV, then maybe I’d be as aghast as he is. But Beckham’s commitment to soccer? At LA Galaxy? Yeah, I can completely see how he might not really be feelin’ that.
"When David first came, I believed he was committed to what he was doing,” Donvan later added. “But somewhere along the way – and in my mind it coincides with Ruud Gullit being let go as coach last season – he just flipped a switch and said 'Uh-uh, I'm not doing it any more'. My sense is that David thinks it's a joke."
Whoa camel. Someone playing for AC Milan, who is a key player for England—though lately mostly as a substitute—thinks that MLS is a joke? That can’t possibly be right, can it?