Were Everton Right To Cash In On Jermaine Beckford?

With all the palaver surrounding the sale of Mikel Arteta to Arsenal late on deadline day the transfer of Jermaine Beckford to Leicester City seems to have slipped under the radar somewhat. With Everton’s current parlous financial state more than well documented a £4 million profit for a player signed on a free transfer just over twelve months ago certainly represents a good piece of business.

Yet it is arguable as to whether Beckford did actually get a fair crack of the whip at Everton? Some of the problem, undoubtedly, was that David Moyes didn’t seem to have much confidence in him, Beckford actually only completed 90 minutes once during his stay at the club. Moyes’ penchant for only playing one striker was also a contributory factor. If you are expecting Beckford to hold the ball up and bring other people into play then you are certainly going to be disappointed. Without wishing to be too rude he can trap a ball further than most people can kick it. He certainly looked a much better player when he had a strike partner, and that, unfortunately, for both Beckford and Everton was rarely the case.

There is no doubt that Beckford has his obvious weaknesses, but in fairness those weaknesses aren’t anywhere near as glaring as a striker who can’t score goals and one who can’t keep himself fit, without wishing to name names, yet you couldn’t fail to notice that sometimes he more than looked out of his depth. On the other hand Beckford didn’t appear to be managed that well either, utilising and implementing his strikers to the best of their abilities has never really been Moyes’ strong point.

It certainly couldn’t have helped his confidence that he seemed to be in and out of the team no matter what he achieved, or didn’t, on the pitch.

The other factor that tends to creep into the equation though is the possibility Moyes saw something in Beckford he didn’t like? Talk to any Leeds fan and they will be more than willing to tell you that his attitude leaves a lot to be desired. Turning up after kick-off for the FA Cup tie against Reading, when he was earmarked to start, after being stuck in traffic certainly didn’t endear Beckford to the fans or his manager. Particularly when you take into consideration Phil Neville had travelled the exact same route and didn’t seem to have any such problems making kick-off.

First and foremost Beckford is a goal scorer. You can’t escape the point that given the correct service Beckford will score goals at, he is essentially a ‘Poundland’ Ian Wright. He scored some quite brilliant goals last season for Everton, the injury time equaliser against Bolton being a case in point. His return of 10 goals in his first season was certainly admirable, yet he really should have scored a hell of a lot more.

There are obviously things he needs to learn and improve on, putting pressure on defenders and following the ball in for a start, but it is certainly a big jump from playing League 1 football to the Premiership. He was never going to get the time on the ball that he was used to atLeedseither. You could also argue that in the long run that there is a chance that he just didn’t have enough else to his game apart from being the aforementioned goal scorer. Maybe the drop down to the Championship will do him good? He will certainly get more game time and without a doubt score more goals. Perhaps it was just a case of the wrong player at the wrong club and at the wrong time?

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Or have a look at the ten strikers that we think will lead the race for the Golden Boot next season