The Theo Walcott-David Beckham question

                                        AP Photo/Darko Bandic

The first mark of Theo Walcott madness today in London? I was wandering down a random street and casually glanced at a souvenir stand that sells those awful knockoff football shirts that look nothing like the real thing and probably come apart the first time through the wash. Someone had obviously gone through the England shirts that morning and ironed on a bunch of “No. 7s” on them all. Get em’ while they’re hot …. literally.

Expanding on Walcott a little more (you’ll have to forgive me, he’s the man of the moment), both Arsene Wenger and Wayne Rooney have made comments to try and keep the hype down. Rooney should know best how an English teenager can get all puffed up and suddenly be expected to carry the island nation. Having personal experience in the area, it’s only natural for the Manchester United forward to try and stop this youngster from going through the same struggles.

But perhaps even a bigger issue at this point is the future of David Beckham, as Golden Balls sat on the bench while Walcott starred last night on the field until replacing him late with the outcome assured. Check out this Soccernet article, in which Beckham is quoted as basically saying he doesn’t expect to play every game and just wants what is best for England.

Frankly, this is pretty classy from a guy who has had such a large impact on his country’s international play and still has quality football left in him. With England’s struggles lately, you can hardly blame Fabio Capello for trying to put in the speed/danger of Walcott on the right to try and spice up the England attack – which he obviously did.

But let’s take a look at this. Is there really no place for Beckham to regularly impact a game in some way? Say what you will about the man’s pace and defense, he still serves up on of the best long balls in the game and is lethal on free kicks. While England may have had some problems before Walcott’s breakout, plenty of their offensive chances still came from Beckham’s free kicks (many would say too many).

But you can’t ignore the feeling that comes up after Frank Lampard or someone else takes a set piece – Becks would’ve done better.

Perhaps it’s a little more time in the second half when England is a bit stagnant, because even though his skill is becoming more and more isolated, it’s still there.

Or maybe Walcott and Beckham have to be exclusively interchangeable – it’s one or the other, and you have to sacrifice Beckham’s long balls to allow Walcott’s speed to work in on the right side with the rest of the England lineup. Even if that’s the case, it’s still a shame we won’t be seeing those aerial balls spinning in on a dime very often in the near future.

What do you think, are Beckham’s days of starting for England over? Is Walcott going to get hyped up too much?