Beckford Transfer - Latest
By Rich Baggott
January 8 2010
After three days of celebrating the success of the victory of Manchester United last weekend, all media attention has now turned to the fate of wantaway striker, Jermaine Beckford with rumours, discussions, thoughts and forums all over the internet hardly talking of anything else.
Last night, one website reported the striker had actually signed for Newcastle United but that news was not supported by statements from either club and has fizzled out this morning. The quote apparently from Beckford of "I'm off to Newcastle" should really have told most people that this was nothing more than an American Soccer site getting over excited, reading the various headlines and making assumptions the deal had been completed. Not like the Americans to make decisions based on rumours and speculation and no concrete evidence!!
The news at the moment is that there is no news! Simon Grayson has expressed disappointment that confirmation of a transfer request had been made public but it remains unclear where the source of this newsworthy gem has come from? Was it Leeds, Beckfords agent or Newcastle? The official statement from Leeds United did not indicate disappointment at the publicity as one may have come to expect but did go to the lengths of including the date, 30th December for some reason?
Grayson meanwhile is carrying on business as usual in his media statements. Beckford is available for selection and hopes the fans will continue to back any team he picks, although whether this is a bluff to interested parties or not remains to be seen. The match on Saturday is one of the few reamining fixtures not yet affected by the weather and if Beckford does play, it will be interesting to see how Elland Road react to their former hero still wearing the white shirt.
Grayson has now conceded that Beckford will not sign another contract with Leeds, and will either go now or at the end of the season, but he will be going.
What is fairly common knowledge is that Leeds value Beckford around the £2m mark and are issuing strong words that he will not go for less than his value. Newcastle are said to have upped two earlier offers to £1.5m and Aston Villa are also said to be interested.
One thing we can be sure of, a lot of the publicity, statements and deliberately leaked rumours are just part of a major game of bluffs and double bluffs between rival clubs and agents, each with their own agenda. As fans, we are just the pawns in a massive game of Chess!
Your move!
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So I say get rid now and invest in a striker that could fire us up the Championship - IUf Beckford is not going to be here next year, lets start building for life in the Champtionship - If a striker cannot do the business in this league, we can hardly expect them to do it for us next year.
the team will be stronger imo-pete
IM MEMORY OF THE BEST CAPTAIN AND GREATEST MANAGER IN OUR HISTORY--RIP BILLY AND DON
2013 PREDICTION LEAGUE---5TH
I cannot see SG playing Bex on Saturday as the ER crowd will be hostile!!
Time for him to leave and for SG to bring in another hero.
Quote:Big BB
Hope this is now settled quickly.
I cannot see SG playing Bex on Saturday as the ER crowd will be hostile!!
Time for him to leave and for SG to bring in another hero.
No one should be hostile to him while he's still prepared to play for us, it's counter productive. If he's still here let him keep banging them in until he goes, then be as hostile as you like! (I don't mean you personally B
Gives them a few more days to play hardball.
Ashley just needs to dig a bit deeper into his pockets and pay us £2million and give Wealdstone £500k on top as their 20%!
£2.5million for a striker that has scored 78 goals in 120 odd games is a bargain. Bex can fire them all the way back to the Prem and the £35million+ Ashley can look forward to then.
Cheap deal IMO