Beckham is ready to complete makeover

It would somehow feel just perfect if tomorrow, back at home where nobody ever doubted him, he should embellish his role in a great English footballing revival by steering them into the World Cup finals.

The tale of England's year-long journey from deflation and embarrassment to buoyancy and pride may have been scripted by Sven-Goran Eriksson, but nobody has helped more to flesh it out than Beckham.

"A childhood dream," Beckham called the prospect of leading England out at Old Trafford and his infectious, almost child-like zeal about the task ahead against Greece provided a real source of reassurance.

Watching him at the team's headquarters yesterday as first he had the media eating out of his hand with his relaxed air and then happily provided his zillionth autograph of the year amid the small crowd of well-wishers waiting outside, you could only reflect how impressively he's matured in the off-field role which so many felt would be beyond him.

Yes, he still gets mercilessly caricatured and, no, he really is no orator. Yet there's a simple and refreshing honesty about his pronouncements.

He talked about wanting to lift a country's spirits, about how he felt responsibility to be a role model for his younger players and how, though he'd probably never quite get used to all the extraordinary hoopla which surrounds him, he just loved his "life, football and what happens around me".

And you believed him. When he reflected on "the great team" he would be leading, it sounded as if he might break into song as he offered the line: "Whatever anyone says, whatever is written, the players come together and we bond together and we'll always stay together whether anyone's right or anyone's wrong."

He has become the embodiment of the all-for-one, one-for-all spirit in Eriksson's squad.

Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard had stepped out of line, but taking a leaf out of the Fergie book on the value of closing ranks, Beckham deflected any suggestion of tired old problems resurfacing as he declared the episodes "sorted out and forgotten". Togetherness, he reckoned, was the watchword now.

Ultimately, though, the judgment of Beckham as captain has to rest on how he leads on the field.

Within the squad, there were a few raised eyebrows when Peter Taylor handed him the job before the friendly against Italy last November because all they saw was a man who, for all his prodigious work rate, couldn't translate his rich form for club into similarly sterling fare for country.

Why they have been forced to rethink is not that Beckham has become a more forceful dressing room personality, nor that he says he is ready to embrace the responsibility of opening his door to any troubled squad member who needs a sympathetic ear. As yet, we understand, nobody has seen the need to take up his offer.

No, why his team-mates are impressed is simple. It's that since given the armband, Beckham's performances for his country have risen to the elevated standard where he now punches his weight.

Think of the key victories at Anfield, Tirana, Athens and Munich and recall how influential he was. Think of how he'd scored just one goal in 37 appearances before Eriksson arrived and how he's subsequently netted another three in just eight.

I think he really came of age as captain in Tirana when he ignored all the hate on a quite intimidating night and drove England on to victory over Albania, though he considers the real turning point to be the defeat of Greece in June when he had to dodge cigarette lighters being hurled at him before another of his dead ball party pieces sealed the 2-0 win.

"That was a great performance," he reflected. "It was 70 minutes before we scored the first goal and we showed real patience as has been the case in most of our games.

"We need another performance against them like that because they're going to come here and try to spoil the party."

Beckham muses on whether the Greeks will go for broke in attack but the signs are that new coach Otto Rehhagel was so chastened by the 5-1 drubbing in Finland that avoiding similar humiliation will dictate his team's approach.

It took England 73 minutes to score in Tirana and 88 minutes before they finally calmed nerves against Albania in the return match at Newcastle with a second goal. Patience may again be the key.

So, no David Seaman, no Sol Campbell and no Michael Owen, but no worries. Beckham believes the spine of the team can be reshaped tomorrow without a noticeable dip in quality.

It is, he believes, time to show England possess the strength in depth they will need to make an impression in next year's finals. "France do it and so can we," he noted.

He attributes the birth of England United FC wholly to Eriksson and the way he talks about him borders on the reverential.

It is one of the Swede's many great services to our game that he, in turn, made clear from the start his complete trust in Beckham. For how much easier must it have been for Becks to give of his best, feeling that the backing was unconditional and total?

Now that backing comes not just from one manager but a nation.

When Beckham talks gleefully about the simple pleasure of having fellow motorists now giving him a thumbs-up at traffic lights, we shouldn't forget how recently it would have been a V - or W - sign.

Peter Taylor says he gave him the captaincy because he saw how even when he was being forced to suffer out of all proportion for one foolish moment in France, he still battled on uncomplainingly and turned up to play for England as if it meant everything to him.

Now that spirit deserves to be rewarded. If Old Trafford ends up tomorrow celebrating the most important stage yet in the transformation of Eriksson's England, there will be a special thumbs-up reserved for a local hero who will have completed an equally warming and startling makeover.