Let’s face it, the great David Beckham experience was pretty much a flop. Now don’t get me wrong, he did provide great some great moments, there were a lot of LA Galaxy jerseys sold, there was a peak of some non soccer interest in the league for a bit, but the overall experience wasn’t fully met. US soccer fans and more importantly, LA Galaxy fans were hoping that when Beckham came he would turn around the Galaxy and make them a playoff team, but adding one good player to a bad team wasn’t going to do that and when you are working with a strict salary cap, two good players just won’t cut it in a league that has a lot of parity.

I firmly believe Beckham’s main interest in coming to Major League Soccer was to chase the almighty dollar and grow his personal advertising to benefit himself, anything more than that like getting the Galaxy to the playoffs would be a bonus. Now that his personal soccer career has improved far from what he thought it would be at this time, he now acknowledges he needs to stay at AC Milan so that he can still be under consideration for the English national team for World Cup 2010 qualifiers, this wasn’t the story about two years ago. Remember he turned down a deal with Real Madrid where he was sitting on the bench because he wasn’t the player he used to be, so coming to Major League Soccer was to be his swansong where he would end his career.

Remember this quote by Becks when the deal was announced that he was coming to America, “”I’ve played now for two of the biggest clubs in the world and played at the highest level for 15 years, and now I think that I need another challenge,” he said. Well it seems like he needs another change and that’s to stay in Italy. Major League Soccer would be doing themselves a disservice if they turned down a deal by AC Milan, now I’m not saying to take $10 or $12 million for the transfer fee, but if they do get a great offer they should take it and use it for other players to better their league.

By having to make room for Beckham and Landon Donovan, the Galaxy in fact hurt themselves in the long run since they weren’t able to get other good players to fill out their roster and make them a playoff team like they used to be a few years go. The soap opera needs to stop and one player certainly won’t make or break the league as the league’s play has been better over the last few years and attendance in some markets has increased and not to mention the new Seattle franchise has already started off on the right foot by announcing that they will be profitable in their first year.

Jason Pedersen writes for JustSoccerJerseys