The Class of 92 Page #11

about him who don't know him,

but mental toughness, he's as tough

as anybody you'll ever, ever, ever meet.

The early years were tough, I must admit.

Being an East London boy

and moving up to Manchester.

Eric Harrison was so strict, and so scary.

And my dad was strict, you know.

If I didn't do something right, If I couldn't

do something and I was lazy one day,

my dad would be on me

like a ton of bricks.

And then I had Eric Harrison.

He turned round to me a few times in a game

and said, "Seriously stop doing..."

He didn't say "seriously",

he said something else,

but he said,

"Stop doing those Hollywood balls!"

I remember in the youth team,

he used to have Eric Harrison

banging on the door at him,

calling him all the names in the world

for playing stupid Hollywood passes,

and he kept doing it.

He'd bang at him and he'd get hammered

and he kept doing it and doing it,

and then he ended up being

one of the best long passers in the game.

You'd make a run and he would put it

on a sixpence for you,

just you wouldn't have to break stride.

I mean, his 10-yard passing

to his 60-yard passing

was just something I've never ever

seen before, never seen since.

So I knew that I could,

90% of the time, reach the target.

But when I didn't, I knew

that I was going to get shouted at by Eric.

We all got given car deals with Honda.

So we all had these Honda Preludes.

I'd waited for so many months for that car,

so many years.

You know, all the players had

had their car before me.

I was literally...

I think you had to play 21 games,

and I was on 18 or 19 for, like,

six or eight months, which was killing me.

Because I was so close.

I went down to Honda, ordered my car,

you know, came out with my Prelude.

I was so happy with it.

Becks had a black one.

He paid extra for leather seats.

I used my FA Cup bonus.

I used every penny that I had.

He paid extra for these special alloys.

And the dealer, he said to me,

he said, "You know that you have

to give this car back after a year?"

And I was saying, "Yeah,

yeah, it'll be fine."

We'd just use each other's cars.

Every day we would use Becks',

'cause he had these leather seats.

And he would go mad.

Because we'd got our football boots on,

so we're dirtying his car.

And he's, "Lads, lads,

don't scuff the leather, whatever you do."

I can't actually remember saying it.

But it sounds like something

that I would say.

As soon as he said that,

every day, we would stand outside his car,

"Are you ready, Becks?"

"We're ready to go over."

And he would have to drive over,

and we would just ruin his seats...

Just ruin, you know,

put our studs over the seats.

It got nicked in the end, the car.

But it looked great while I had it.

The goal he scored against Wimbledon, he

practised that in training every single day.

Every single day he'd do that.

Just booting balls from the halfway line.

I call it booting, he was striking them,

from the halfway line, towards the goal.

Striking the ball, he was incredible.

EGGS:
I was injured that game.

One of my mates said,

"Becks just scored from the halfway line."

So I'm thinking, "Slight exaggeration.

"Probably scored like, maybe on the angle

from 40 yards or something like that."

I remember Eric Cantona just shaking

his head and I'm thinking,

"That's Eric Cantona, and he obviously

thinks the goal was pretty good."

The manager turned round to me and said,

"Lucky that went in."

'Cause I think I would

have been pulled off.

Even if he hadn't scored this goal,

it was good idea.

That was when I really all went like that

and the publicity went like that.

It must have been zoomed

all around the world, that goal.

The last person to do it

would have been Pele, I think.

And even he didn't score it.

And do you know something,

he wanted to be a star.

He wanted to have leather in his car

when we had cloth.

He wanted to have the best speakers

in his boot for the best music.

He wanted to propel

himself beyond football.

Fashion was important to him.

Music was important to him.

Doing things more than just becoming

a football player were important to him.

EGGS:
I mean, Becks

was obviously a huge star

and just got bigger and bigger and bigger.

But in regards to, in the dressing room,

not a lot changed. Becks was Becks.

He had a lot going on.

You know, a lot of attention.

He'd scored the goal against Wimbledon,

he was now going out with Victoria.

They were a massive story, so everything

that they did, there was pressure on him.

You know, what he's achieved is incredible

in terms of his global appeal.

I mean, it's phenomenal.

To think that that's a football player,

who can kick a football well.

So I went to visit this obscure little

Japanese school in the middle of nowhere,

and I went in and was introduced

to the school assembly.

And I could see they hadn't

the faintest idea, frankly, who I was,

I'm not really sure they could have pointed

to where Britain was on the map.

And so finally, in desperation,

I uttered the words "David Beckham",

and then there was immediate ripple

of recognition, and then you were away.

A point of connection was established.

Becks had always been

comfortable with that.

Right from the start really,

where I wasn't as comfortable with it.

And I felt that it was

affecting my football.

Becks did it in a way

that it didn't affect his football.

And luckily for me, sort

of they left me alone,

and then Becks sort of

took it on to the next level.

GARY:
I thought,

"How could he cope with this?"

And he always did. He always did.

And you were always worried as a friend,

that... when would this have an impact?

We played really well.

We were playing great.

And then I remember

being absolutely hit from behind.

I over-reacted,

just kind of swung my leg up

in a stupid way.

As soon as I'd done that,

I knew that I was off.

I knew that I'd made a huge mistake.

COMMENTATOR:
Oh, it's red!

Oh, no!

At the time I didn't realise

what would come after that.

I never thought that I would have

to go through what I went through.

I remember being sat in the changing room,

no one was obviously in there.

All the players came in

and I realised that we were knocked out.

None of the players said a word to me.

The only people that spoke to me was Gary,

Scholesy, you know, the United players.

And then Tony Adams came up to me

and put his arm round me.

He said, "Do you know what, son?

Everyone makes mistakes. Forget it."

I remember walking out

and seeing my mum and dad stood there.

And I was 21, I think, at the time, 21, 22.

And I remember literally falling

into my dad's arms, just... And I...

I haven't sobbed like that

for years.

But I don't know,

my emotions just got the best of me.

Immediately I phoned him, the next day.

Because I knew the press were...

I mean, the press were ridiculous.

The boss called me and he said,

"Don't worry, son,

"it's over, you'll come back,

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