Beckham: Man Utd's Rooney must curb temper
(tribalfootball.com)
Updated: 2005-09-09 16:25

England captain David Beckham again spoke of his confrontation with Wayne Rooney yesterday during the defeat in Northern Ireland.

Rooney was lucky not to be sent off for elbowing winger Keith Gillespie and told both Beckham and Rio Ferdinand to 'f*** off' as they tried to restrain him from abusing the officials.

It was not the first time Rooney has failed to keep his temper in check playing for his country.

Last November he had to be substituted before half-time of a friendly in Spain.

Only last week he shocked the nation when he screamed 'You f****** beauty' into the TV cameras after scoring for Manchester United at Newcastle.

Beckham admitted: "As captain, it is my job to try to calm down players but Wayne has that fiery side to him and that's what makes him the player he is.

"Most great players have got it but you have to keep it to a certain level and luckily he's at a club like Manchester United with a manager who can keep that under control.

"But sometimes it goes that little bit over the edge and Wayne's disappointed about what happened the other night - as we all are.

"But there are no fingers being pointed because the defeat wasn't about anyone losing their head, it was about the team not performing.

"I'm definitely not going to try to change Wayne because if you take away that passion and aggressive streak from his game you'd lose some of his best qualities.

"Some of the big teams and players will try to exploit it but sometimes that's a good thing because then it's up to him to make them eat their words.

"I had the same things when I was younger and I'm just acting now in the way that other senior players tried to calm me down.

"I'm older now but I still get the same provocation. I still want to react in certain ways because that's the sort of player I am.

"It's also the sort of passion Wayne shows and when it's a frustrating night it can come out."

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