Becks can manage!

Friday, 02/07/2010

Eric Harrison, the youth coach that brought through Becks and the rest of 'Fergie's Fledglings', the core of the so-called 'golden generation' of English football, has backed calls for David Beckham to manage England.

Harrison worked alongside Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in overseeing the emergence of the likes of Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Beckham.

Since his retirement from football, he has coached at Beckham's Soccer Schools and believes his protégé could one day make the leap into management.

Harrison told Shoot: "It’d be quite a while in the future, cos he’s not a qualified coach. But if he did all his badges, gained the relevant experience, proved himself worthy of that role – he’s got every chance. I don’t think you can jump straight into a national team job, though Maradona is an exception – he is very good at motivating players and I’m sure David would be, too."

Harrison feels that Beckham could relate to the players and vice versa, better than Capello did this summer: "I’d love to see him as England manager one day, because there’s nobody more passionate than David and I think his half-time team talks would be something to listen to. He’s been there, he can share his experiences from the ups and the downs, and the players could relate to him."

He did, however, temper this view by revealing that Golden Balls has never mentioned a desire to go into management.

"We’ve had loads of conversations about his future and he’s never talked about going into coaching, let alone management. The fans would love it, there’s no question about that – he’s one of the most popular players to ever pull an England shirt on."

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