"It's the natural thing to do when you see your own fans in someone else's stadium."
Well, that reaction to an England goal in Istanbul would be bad news for everyone - especially any England fans.
And if it is bad news for them it will be bad for the FA in their attempts to convince UEFA that England is beating the hooligan menace. Of course, players have a right to make a spectacle of themselves when they score, but such outlandish jubilation is counter-productive when playing international football abroad in a competitive arena.
As is the kind of petulance that earned Beckham a booking in Macedonia, and a dismissal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup.
Such incidents have a galvanising effect on opposing supporters and provide them with a common cause against which to rant and rave.
Providing the opposition with this kind of ammunition in Istanbul would make a difficult task even more onerous.
It's therefore Eriksson's duty to impress upon his players the value of controlling their emotions against the Turks.
They should practise this new form of self-control in the comfort and security of Old Trafford tonight.
After all, Eriksson himself is able to provide an icy example of Swedish cool.
The adrenalin may be pumping on the inside, but on the outside he adopts a kind of detached indifference that we've not seen in an England coach since Sir Alf Ramsey.
Beckham could do us all a big favour if he promoted a similar public face and was able, in time, to restore a bit of grace and dignity to the world of football.
In the shorter term, England need to survive a volatile 90 minutes in Istanbul and anything that Beckham and his team can do to defuse a potentially explosive situation should be encouraged because tempers, tantrums and tears will have only one end result . . . Turkish delight.
