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Retiring Beckham has been a good servant to football

It has been a big week for news in the football world with David Beckham announcing his retirement from playing, Rio Ferdinand from representing England, Frank Lampard becoming Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer and Roberto Mancini being fired at Manchester City after losing to Wigan in the FA Cup final.For Beckham, he’s had a fantastic career and he’s been good for the game and it is nice to bow out with a league title in France with Paris St. Germain. In fact Beckham became the first English player to win league titles in four countries, England, United States, Italy and France. He will also go down as one of the wealthiest footballers, having marketed himself very well over the years.He became even more popular in the United States when he moved to Los Angeles Galaxy and he was able to deliver the goods for them. It’s been many years since I played there and things have changed, gotten better, and it is nice to have someone who can sell the product and Beckham was probably the best choice at the time. As for one of the all-time greats, if you look at his record you would have to put him there from players in his era, because every era is different.People have to understand that what might be great today might not be so great 20 years ago, so you have to put players in their era. His biggest assets were his passing of the ball, his freekicks and his shooting.On the topic of shooting, I see that Frank Lampard has become the all-time leading scorer for Chelsea with 203 goals in 12 seasons there since signing from West Ham. And he did it as a midfielder which makes the achievement all the more impressive. Again, I suppose you have to consider the era that he is playing, today the game is a bit different, people seem to think it is faster, but I can tell you they don’t allow you to kick opponents as much. For him to score that many goals from midfield, that has to say something, but you can’t take what he’s done and put it up against what was done 20 years ago.Having said that, you've got to give him credit for taking the goals, he’s probably the most prolific midfielder in world football today. Give him props, he has been a fantastic servant for club and country and it is nice to see that he has signed a one-year extension to his contract at Chelsea. It’s good for him and good for Chelsea and you don’t get rid of people like that. Hopefully he goes right through and finishes his career there. West Ham bring them up well and once you leave us you can go and play anywhere!Wayne Rooney might be on his way out of Manchester United, having expressed his desire to leave. If he’s not happy it doesn’t make sense keeping him, no player is bigger than the club. Discontent within the team can be bad for the team. He has been linked with Arsenal, according to media reports, but Arsene Wenger has denied making an approach.Arsenal’s priority right now is finishing in the top four to qualify for Champions League next season. The race for that spot between Arsenal and their neighbours Tottenham is going right down to Sunday’s last games when Arsenal travel to Newcastle and Spurs host Sunderland. Just one point separates the teams but Arsenal are in pole position and have their fate in their own hands.Tottenham have only themselves to blame, they were in a good position and lost some silly games that they shouldn’t have lost and may have to suffer the consequences of those bad results. Lets wait and see what happens on Sunday.I wasn’t totally surprised to see Manchester City fire their manager last weekend after the loss at Wembley. They didn’t have a good season, early exit from the Champions League and losing their league title to Manchester United and they really should have beaten Wigan in the FA final. As we have said before, cup finals are different and if you don’t turn up on the day any team is capable of beating you.If City had won the FA Cup then the manager would probably still have a job. Firing him was probably something that was on the cards, but it is the owners’ money and they have the right to do what they want. They can be strange people sometimes. Managers should be given time to settle, like United have done with Moyes by giving him a six-year contract and time to get it right.All the Premier League matches take place tomorrow, but Bermudians will have a keen interest in one match in particular this weekend, Bradford City’s second visit to Wembley in three months for the Division 2 promotion playoff final with Northampton. Lets hope it turns out to be a good day for Bermudian Nahki Wells and his teammates this time.In the League Cup final they were beaten by Swansea, a team much better than them, but in their division they are one of the top teams. They’ve had a good season, Nahki’s had a good season with 25 goals, and lets hope he’s able to deliver the goods and show people what he’s capable of. I hope he goes out there and scores and helps Bradford get promoted.Some players never even walked out on Wembley, let alone playing there twice in one season. I hope they make the most of it.