Fair play to David Beckham, he made beating those Estonians look easy. And the most likely reason for that is that beating those Estonians was easy. Don't swallow the 'no easy games in international football' guff when England have managed to net Estonia as well as Andorra.
Consider the facts. Estonia were beaten from the moment Joe Cole's goal went in. A team that had failed to score in its six previous matches were never likely to be much good at chasing a game. So 'Beckham Delivers' (©Daily Telegraph) must have referred to the icing-on-the-cake goals, the second and third. And, true enough, Beckham did deliver. He sent over a cross for Peter Crouch that actually bounced before the striker headed it past Mart Poom, something you don't commonly see away from pub leagues and park pitches, and he sent over a cross that enabled Michael Owen to pass Gary Lineker's record for goals in competitive matches, in a game where the level of defending was considerably looser than would normally be expected in a friendly.
This is not to knock Beckham in his moment of supreme vindication, nor to be so churlish as to suggest Estonia were so poor that anyone could have scored or made goals against them. Considering he was injured for most of the game Beckham's contribution was notable and Croatia on Saturday certainly didn't possess anyone on either flank who could slice open Estonia's defence as easily.
That Slaven Bilic was delighted with a 1-0 victory in Tallinn puts England's 3-0 win into an even more glowing perspective than all Beckham's eulogists put together, especially as Wayne Rooney, Owen Hargreaves, Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand are still to come back if required. Now that England are back in the group, as Steve McClaren puts it, we can all take our holidays, watch a little cricket and tennis (or boxing, in Rooney's case) and look forward to a decent performance in the friendly against Germany in August.
Stop right there. Did you notice what just happened? More to the point, did you notice what didn't happen? I failed to mention, and so did McClaren when interviewed after Tallinn, that England could also call on Aaron Lennon, Shaun-Wright Phillips, Andy Johnson and others of that ilk. After a year in charge of England, McClaren's new mantra has been quietly laid to rest as Sven-Goran Eriksson's old one is dusted down and pushed to the fore.
McClaren might still have a preference for young, quick players who can go past people, but for the moment he will stick with old, clever, reliable players who can make their experience count. The young Turks have gone back to the future. Now that Owen has returned, and not just Beckham, England for the foreseeable future will look pretty much the same as England did in the last World Cup. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Naturally, should England play as they did in the last World Cup, qualification will soon be off the rails again at the start of next season and McClaren could be out on his ear by Christmas, though there is now every chance that despite the personnel being almost identical such a bleak scenario might not happen. For this McClaren deserves credit, oddly enough, for even though he has presided over some truly dreadful performances he has managed to rejuvenate the same group of players so that England no longer resemble the overrated underachievers who crept home from Germany last summer.
McClaren might have stumbled through his first year, getting as much wrong as he got right half the time, but as with every other aspect of a qualification campaign it is only the final result that matters. Let's give McClaren plenty of credit, for a start, for getting the best from Beckham. Eriksson would never have managed that because Eriksson would never have demoted him as captain. It is true Beckham resigned the captaincy of his own volition, thereby pre-empting McClaren's first big decision, but he would never have done that had Eriksson been staying.
The new manager was left with a choice about whether to have Beckham the player in his squad and, correctly in most people's eyes, he decided there were better alternatives around. A year on, that does not seem to be so conspicuously the case, yet it is not simply because Lennon and Wright-Phillips failed to train on.
Beckham's own improvement, in attitude as much as performance, also has to be considered. Once England rejection led to LA Galaxy, and LA Galaxy led to Real Madrid exile, Beckham was left with a point to prove. It is commonplace to say he thrives on challenges like that, but he also seems to need them and he was never going to get such a kick up the backside under Eriksson.
McClaren must now be hoping the same determination to prove everyone wrong carries Beckham through the logistical difficulties of playing in the United States. It probably will, even if Beckham talking about the 2010 World Cup on the strength of one victory over a team ranked between Hong Kong and Syria was a reminder of why McClaren dropped him in the first place.
Beckham might have sounded a touch presumptious too in predicting he would be involved in the finals in Austria and Switzerland - England cannot afford to be that confident of qualifying yet - though on current form only David Bentley stands a chance of displacing him on the right wing in the next 12 months and the events of the past 12 months have probably rendered the former captain undroppable. One day soon Beckham will probably be heard, quite possibly in an American accent, thanking McClaren for setting him some new life goals.
'David has reacted exactly the way I thought he would,' McClaren now says. 'He's gone away, been hurt, come back. He took a conscious decision in the New Year. He's doing extra work, he's fitter and stronger and he knows what to do to maintain that standard.' One day soon McClaren might be heard thanking Beckham, possibly in a whisper, for having the sheer professionalism to make him look a good manager. 'We've got better as we have gone along,' McClaren admits, 'though we were a young team at the World Cup and I always thought the core of that side could go a lot further.'
There might be some history being rewritten here, there might be some credit being taken where it is not due and there might even be a note of complacency creeping in already, but it scarcely matters. England are still in contention, McClaren is still in his job. Having established a few credentials as a survivor, McClaren is in charge of an improving team, with everything to play for. In international football, you don't need a whole lot more than that. For all the criticism he has received, McClaren might be about to get more out of his players than Eriksson managed. Which is to say, something. But that's for next season. Now it's time for a break.
