Steve McClaren has travelled around 5,000 miles to watch David Beckham play in a charity match against Vinnie Jones’ Sunday league team, Hollywood United.
The team is mostly made up of ex-pat amateurs with a sprinkling of old pros like Frank LeBeouf and Alexi Lalas, and celebrity players like former Sex Pistol, Paul Cook, and actor Anthony LaPaglia. Not exactly a stern test of Beck’s fitness then.
There’s also some uncertainty over whether McClaren had discussed the LA trip with the FA and the whole thing has been condemned as ‘farcical’ by ex-England captain Terry Butcher.
McClaren assumingly needs to get an idea of Beckham’s fitness before the friendly against Austria on November 16th and our final qualifying game against Croatia five days later – but how much will he have learned after the Galaxy beat Hollywood 10-4 (even if Becks did score two and set up three)?
Is McClaren’s ‘escape to LA’ key to England’s final preparations or could he just be using up the expense card before he’s out of a job? – Let us know what you think