00:00Another England player grabbing headlines in 98 was David Beckham, at 23 the hottest
00:06property in the Premier League with Manchester United, but still establishing his reputation
00:11at international level.
00:14Having seen first-hand the ruination of Gascoigne, Hoddle was perhaps oversensitive to the distractions
00:20caused by the media obsession with Beckham's private life, as the fiancée of Spice Girl
00:26Victoria Adams.
00:30Although Beckham was the only Englishman to have played all eight qualifying matches,
00:34the coach questioned his focus and refused to start him for the first two group matches.
00:41After losing the second match to Romania, Hoddle finally picked Beckham for the third match
00:46against Colombia, and he responded by bending a free kick into the net for England's second
00:52goal and lifting them into the round of 16.
00:56But in the next match against Argentina, Hoddle's fears about Beckham's focus were realised when
01:02he was antagonised by Diego Simeone.
01:07After being brutally fouled, Beckham was on the ground and flicked back his leg in a mild
01:11but unnecessary retaliation.
01:16Simeone took a dive and Beckham was red carded, leaving England to battle to a draw with ten
01:22men before losing on penalties.
01:26Beckham was shattered while Hoddle's reaction was to say the young star should not be blamed,
01:31and then promptly blamed him.
01:34I don't think it's a time now to make scapegoats in David Beckham or to blame anybody.
01:40I think David's the first to admit that it's a silly mistake that he's made on a football pitch.
01:46One that I felt wasn't violent conduct, but it was something that at this level he's got to learn
01:51that we can't afford to do them things. Not just David, but any player that's playing in a tournament
01:56this big, you can't afford to do it. You're going to get punished and we have been punished.
02:03Beckham even received death threats from fans who blamed him for the defeat,
02:07and years later he said he believed Hoddle's criticism fuelled some of the frenzied anger directed at him.
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