The Ewood Park ace is in massive form and is ready to step into Becks' England boots. But will he need to hone his skills at a bigger club than Rovers?
David Bentley, the Blackburn Rovers ace, can already do everything that David Beckham does - and more.
And, more importantly, he has age on his side and is playing at the top level. I have covered Blackburn's last two home games and been left in no doubt that this boy is - as his surname suggests - total class.
He starts on the right wing, switches to central midfield, where he dictates the play, and then pops up on the left flank to supply pinpoint crosses for the likes of Roque Santa Cruz and Jason Roberts to feed off. Even Benni McCarthy can't fail to break his current barren spell if he gets enough games alongside Bentley.
The word is that Bentley will be on his way out of Blackburn soon as he has been told by England's new boss man, Fabio Capello, that he needs to be playing in the Champions League regularly if he is to become a fixture in the England team.
And that is exactly why Beckham has to be yesterday's man. He has sacrificed his football career for the filthy lucre - as if he needs any more of it! Even if he wanted to get back into the game at the top level, who could come anywhere near matching the massive £120m contract he is on in LA?That equates to almost £500,000 a week and our top earners in the Premier League have only just broken the £100,000-a-week barrier.
Silly money in anybody's book, but football at the very top level, and most other places for that matter, has to be about winning and being the best at the end of the day.
Bentley is definitely the best around at the moment and is the type of player Capello should be looking to build his team around when we are talking about 2010 and the next World Cup. It's OK, Capello, Wayne Rooney and the rest are saying that Beckham will be good for that if he can keep himself fit. But it just ain't going to happen. Fit or not, two years of Sunday League football is not the way to prepare for any international fixture, let alone a World Cup.
So let's give Becks his 100th cap, say thanks for the memories and wave him a fond farewell as he jets back across the Atlantic to Celluloid City.
That done we can concentrate on bringing on the Bentleys, Joleon Lescotts and others of their ilk as we bid to end 42 years of hurt (44 by the time we get the chance to win something again) and put England back where they belong - at the very pinnacle of the football tree.
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