Power shift has Beckham calling all the shots in new world order

Pizza Hut Park may sound like a nightmarish option for keeping the kids entertained at half-term but it is exactly the kind of place that Steve McClaren is about to become a lot more familiar with.

Pizza Hut Park is where Los Angeles Galaxy play FC Dallas tomorrow, and next season the England manager will be obliged to show his face in some of the more unusually monikered stadiums of Major League Soccer on the trail of his side's new saviour.

David Beckham will be the first England player in history to require his manager to leave Europe to scout him and, make no mistake, McClaren will be making that journey.

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Whether it is LA Galaxy's Home Depot Center or Colorado Rapids' Dick's Sporting Goods Park, the England manager will be on the road - Jack Kerouac in a Football Association blazer on a tour of middle America and its football stadiums named after local DIY chains.

Beckham's performance in the victory over Estonia on Wednesday night has left England in an extraordinary situation. Restored to his place against Brazil last Friday nine games into the McClaren regime, Beckham now finds himself undroppable despite the fact he is signed up to play League One standard club football for the rest of his career. To get a measure of the MLS you only need know that FC Toronto's 32-year-old Danny Dichio has just won goal of the week. For a second time this season.

There will be no debate over Beckham's inclusion in the squad to face Germany on 22 August and then Israel on 8 September - the only question will be getting him there on time and in shape. In Beckham's absence, the rest were given their chance but after his first season in charge, McClaren will face the last five games of his Euro 2008 qualification campaign with virtually the same first XI who played in the last World Cup.

"If David was playing in the park with his mates, I'd still have him in the England squad," Frank Lampard said, "because when he delivers balls like that they make goals and that is vital."

The circumstances of Beckham's return to England could not have been more dramatic - or more suited to the life story of the man - but for the second time in little more than a year, you cannot help feeling that he has made a misjudgement.

When he resigned from the captaincy on 2 July after World Cup elimination he did so in the conviction that McClaren would continue to pick him. When he signed for LA Galaxy in January he did so in the belief that he would never pick him again. Now, just as he reaches the final flourish of his career, he has contrived to make life more difficult for himself by moving 5,500 miles from Wembley.

McClaren refused to discuss the implications of Beckham moving to LA although he has joked in the past that it "won't be a bad trip".

The England manager may wish to resurrect that coaching clinic with the Seattle Seahawks that was intended to show his openness to new ideas but was cancelled in the wake of defeat to Croatia in October. It will be down to McClaren to lead the way in convincing the rest of us that the MLS is actually a league to be taken seriously.

"I said at the outset we want David Beckham the player and that's what we got over the last 10 days," McClaren said. "What he can produce on the field - that's where he answers his critics, where he answers everybody. His last two performances have certainly done that."

It is a personal opinion that the international exile has done Beckham good, that the certainties he thought he could rely on in life have been challenged and he has been forced to re-launch his international career afresh.

However much he has always presented himself as the humble patriot just thrilled to be playing for his country, the hints were that he did not train with the intensity he had once demonstrated. And come the last World Cup, he certainly did not play that way.

Unfortunately for McClaren, his decision is not likely to be viewed by history as a shrewd bit of man-management, more the desperate last throw of the dice by a manager trying to save his job. On Wednesday night he said he had come to realise that he needed players upon whom he could rely to respond on the biggest nights.

"I said before that we were going to pick a team on [the basis of] experience," McClaren said. "I wanted players who can handle playing for England, who want the ball, take the ball and deal with the ball under severe pressure and who have that quality and passion and attitude and who want to play for the shirt.

"You've seen that over the past three performances, even the B international. We have to keep this, we have to follow it up. I said to the players we've got five games left and we have to produce that in every game."

Beckham has handled his return to the team with dignity but he has also set the stage for an almighty dispute over his availability to play for the national team. Expect talks between the LA Galaxy and the FA, expect Fifa regulations to be threatened and an England manager trailing around the highways of Carson City to pay his dues to the footballer he once thought he no longer needed.

McClaren was asked on Wednesday whether he was worried about Beckham dominating the other players. The England manager said he was not worried but there is no doubt now where the power lies in this relationship.

Beckham has the fans on his side, even those among the senior players who doubted him last summer are falling into line and when he reaches 100 caps against Estonia on 13 October - as he surely will - Wembley will no doubt genuflect in front of him.

McClaren owes his job to the new Beckham phenomenon but if he wants to keep it, he will have to prevent the player's return from engulfing the whole qualification campaign. Especially now that he has in his squad the only man in history who can turn up at Pizza Hut Park and make it feel like the centre of the football universe.

What happens next for England

There are four teams still in the running for qualification in Group E: Croatia, Israel, Russia and England, and the top two will qualify. If the remaining fixtures go according to form, Croatia will qualify as group winners. England will qualify second - even if they lose to Croatia in the final match - provided they win their next four games. A more likely set of results would see England beat Israel and Estonia, take four points from two meetings with Russia, and be left needing to beat the Croats at Wembley to qualify.

P/W/D/L/F/A/Pts

Croatia 7/5/2/0/16/4/17

Israel 8/5/2/1/17/7/17

Russia 7/4/3/0/11/1/15

England 7/4/2/1/12/2/14

Macedonia 7/2/1/4/6/7/7

Estonia 7/0/0/7/0/14/0

Andorra 7/0/0/7/1/28/0

Remaining fixtures: 22 August: Estonia v Andorra. 8 September: England v Israel; Russia v Macedonia; Croatia v Estonia. 12 September: England v Russia; Andorra v Croatia; Macedonia v Estonia. 13 October: England v Estonia. 17 October: Russia v England; Croatia v Israel; Macedonia v Andorra. 17 November: Macedonia v Croatia; Israel v Russia; Andorra v Estonia. 21 November: England v Croatia; Israel v Macedonia; Andorra v Russia.