Former Manchester United midfielder Luke Chadwick has defended his old team mate David Beckham against surprise criticism from Piers Morgan.
Chadwick admits he feels it’s strange to hear Beckham being talked about as overrated, following Morgan’s bizarre Twitter rant about the former England international earlier this week.
Celebrity Arsenal fan Morgan claimed Beckham was over-hyped and fame-seeking, and that he wouldn’t even have made the Arsenal bench in their famous 2003/04 Invincibles season.
But Chadwick, who played alongside Beckham at Man Utd, told CaughtOffside that he feels the 46-year-old was up there with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes and Frank Lampard as one of the best midfielders of the Premier League era.
“It’s quite a strange thing to say, that David Beckham wasn’t world class, in my opinion. Anyone who’s played alongside him, or against him, or anyone who’s watched him can’t really say Beckham wasn’t world class,” Chadwick said.
“He had great ability, incredible technique, and great work rate as well. He was such a hard worker in every game, and every day in training. He wasn’t just goals and assists, he had so much to his game.
“In my opinion he does rank up there with those three. I think it would be unfair to say Gerrard, Scholes or Lampard were that far ahead of him. I think out of the four of them Beckham had the best technique with the way he could strike the ball. He’s right up there with the best to play in the Premier League, and he did it at Real Madrid as well.
“I think sometimes we forget how good he was because he was such a world superstar with all the stuff going on with him off the pitch. But you think of that England Golden Generation, some of the players we’ve mentioned there, Beckham was the captain of that team, he was obviously highly regarded because of how he led by example and played the game.”
Beckham won six Premier League titles, the Champions League, and other major honours in his Old Trafford career, and also earned 115 caps for England, captaining his country at two World Cups.
No one should be too bothered with what Piers Morgan says. We all now he’s not rated at all as a journalist and had to leave the Good Morning Britain show in disgrace.