The Class of 92 Page #12

you're a Manchester United player,

"we'll look after you,

everyone's supporting you,

"don't even worry about anything.

"Go away, have a few weeks holiday,

get some rest,

"but when you come back

to Manchester United,

"you know you've got the support

of everyone."

David was the first England player

to receive that level of abuse

for a mistake that someone had made

on a football field.

It was sickening, it was vile,

it was bordering on criminal,

some of the things

that he had to put up with.

I had quite a few death threats.

I had bullets through the post...

Delivered, no address on them,

just hand-delivered through my letterbox.

It happened to my brother in 2000,

two years later.

My brother gives away the penalty

against Romania...

I got absolutely abused.

Abused publicly, abused in the media.

And I found it really difficult.

My wife came home from work one day,

the gates were on fire

with an England flag on the gates.

You take your wife out for a romantic meal,

and you go to the toilet before the meal,

and you get threatened

to have your lights punched out,

and then you go out

and you have to take your wife home.

I had journalists turning round to

my granddad, turning round and saying,

"Do you realise

what your grandson has done?"

You know, for me

to have heard that,

that made me feel worse than anything else.

PHIL:
To be honest with you, what I

suffered was 10% of what he went through.

It affected me so much,

it knocked my confidence,

I needed to get some kind of

happiness for football back in my life.

So I started to pray before matches.

I prayed that I'd make

my wife, my children,

my mum and my dad, my sister, my brother

proud of what they were seeing

from me out on the pitch,

and that's all I did.

I said the same prayer every week

for the rest of my career.

And he had the same attitude with Beckham,

when he was sent off with England,

with me when I was...

sent off in Crystal Palace,

and the club had the same attitude.

I played for France this time.

Manchester United asked me

to sign a contract.

And I was banned for nine months.

In France, completely opposite attitude.

You have to build, you know,

circle the wagons.

When someone's getting it,

everyone protects them.

That's a family.

That's what you call a family.

You do the same for your sons,

your daughters, whatever...

That's exactly what we did

at Manchester United.

When things happen outside the club,

it's like everything just closes.

You know, nothing gets

in, nothing gets out.

The manager protects you.

REPORTER:
When will you allow Mr Beckham

to talk about the incident

during the World Cup?

Well, he doesn't need to talk about

anything. He's a Manchester United player.

He can talk about Manchester United.

In French we say "merveilleux malheur".

Sometimes it happens,

something bad to you, but you use it.

And the way you will take,

it will be even better

than the way you will have taken

if it didn't happen.

(SCATTING)

Oh, the new kit's out.

Sad day.

Not a sad day.

Is that the new kit? Oh, Scholesy.

First time you've not been in here

for how long?

20 years.

Giggs is still there, though.

Ashley Young's.

Should I sit where I used to sit?

Are you sat in your seats?

- Yeah.

- Sat in my seat, yeah.

They're sat in their seats,

they've done me over.

You're sat next to the keeper,

aren't you, Gaz?

Here.

BOBBY CHARLTON:
What's going to happen

over the next two weeks,

if we're successful,

could be the most momentous 10 days,

you know, in the club's history.

Maybe in any English team's

history as well, you know,

because the Champions League,

the FA Cup, the Championship.

It's there for us.

Yeah, with the Tottenham game

it was the first game of three cup finals,

that's how we...

It's 10 days, three games.

You win them, history. It's...

You know, sounds simple,

but that's what it was really.

The fact that we had to beat Tottenham

kind of meant more to me

than probably most of the other lads.

COMMENTATOR:
The league title,

their starter for three, is within reach.

Manchester United have put themselves

within touching distance,

can Tottenham Hotspur, of all people,

open the door for Arsenal?

SCHOLES:
Up to half time I could have

scored three, four, five goals,

I had that many chances

and, you know, blew it.

GIGGS:
Of course, United being United,

you have to do it the hard way.

Go 1-nil down.

You know, that's not in the script,

you know, what's going on?

I had a great chance with my head

and skied it.

And all of a sudden you kind of think,

"it's not going to be our day,

"we're going to blow it

on the last game of the season."

And then you just look for heroes.

Tottenham seemed to bring out

the best in Becks.

He used to always score great goals.

Whatever stadium you are in the world,

when the ball comes to him,

you know because he's practised so hard

throughout his career,

he's going to produce that same technique,

same quality.

COMMENTATOR:
Giggs to Scholes.

Scholes to Beckham.

It's in! It's 1-1!

It's David Beckham!

It was a great goal, great technique,

everything what David was about, really.

Becks doesn't get the credit

for some of the goals he scored.

He got robbed in the FA Cup semi-final,

because I scored the goal,

everyone forgets about his goal,

his 25-yard bending it past David Seaman.

The Tottenham goal was just...

(BLOWING RASPBERRY)

Only Becks can score it.

It's like a whip-ping,

it's just a ridiculous goal.

- Then you scored.

- Yeah.

Just before half time.

And then it just sort of lifted everything.

- I missed a load of chances as well.

- We had so many chances, didn't we?

- I had about four or five chances.

- Did you?

Great chances, yeah.

I got a bit of a roasting at half time,

I remember, for that game.

"How many chances

do you want to score here?"

Nothing was going right for us.

Scholesy obviously had a few chances.

It'd never happened before,

that we'd actually won it here,

at Old Trafford.

Did you set the goal up, Gaz?

Yeah. A left-foot hoik.

It was a wonderful hoik.

It was a cultured pass

into his path, I thought.

My left-foot hoik down the channel

to Coley, that he scored from.

Yeah, it was a big long ball, wasn't it?

A fluke.

If Scholes or Beckham had done that pass,

honestly, it would have been

talked about forever more.

SCHOLES:
You leave a big divot, though.

SCHOLES:
A big nine-iron.

And the fact I hadn't looked

before I played it.

It was a wonderful pass. it was Platini.

It was just a hoof down the channel,

and Coley just dinked it over.

And then it's 2-1, and you're thinking,

"Right, we're at it."

But then we were hanging on

towards the end because we just...

We still needed to win.

And I remember being in the centre circle

when the whistle went, I fell to my knees

and kind of held my hands in the air,

and I turned around

and Butty, literally, comes along, lifts...

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