Never an ideal world though is it, players develop at different rates, some outgrow the club and will look for a move. That's why I'd never hesitate bringing quality in just because "xyz" might be good enough from the youth team and it would halt their development.
Down south,if we brought in quality no one would complain, Just seems we ship in has beens or might bees. I keep on saying we need quality,not quantity, Unearth a gradel,a snoddy etc.
He scored over 30 goals a season in our league 1 team. He scored more than 10 goals in his first and only season in the prem and didn't exactly start every game did he, it was only when he went to Leicester for a stupid fee and on huge wages it seemed to go to his head a bit and he still scored 15 goals that season which isn't exactly bad. At Hudders he averaged a goal every second appearance (and again he wasn't starting every game). He flopped at Bolton but that could be for multiple different reasons (I seem to recall injury problems for him there as well) or maybe he just didn't work out there which happens to some players at some clubs (and he still managed 10 goals that season). Since going to preston he has scored almost 20 goals in half a season. If you call that teams nullfying his threat then I'm not sure what your expecting from a striker to be honest. Jermaine Beckford is a natural goalscorer, what we need is a natural goalscorer. Now I'm not saying that Beckford is the answer and I'm not saying we should sign him but there are certainly worse (and that includes pretty much every striker currently on our books).
So if he's so brilliant, why has every club he's ever been at dropped him? I suspect there's a bit of unacceptable dressing room-wrecking ME! ME! ME!
He hasn't been dropped from every club he's ever been at though. We never wanted him to leave, Everton sold him because they got a stupid offer from leicester. Huddersfield wanted to keep him but wages/transfer fee was too high and I'd suspect Preston will be trying to sign him. He's been dropped from Leicester and Bolton, I'd imagine he got dropped from Leicester for being lazy and at Bolton he had injury problems so was sent out on loan. And even when he was struggling he was still scoring goals as stated before. Again I'm not saying we should sign him, but if he was say one of 3 or 4 striking options for us up front then I wouldn't be complaining.
'We' didn't want him to leave? When did we ever get the choice? The club made the decision. They dropped him. Goals aren't everything, it would seem. Everton? Dropped him. Again, goals aren't everything. Huddersfield? Dropped him. Once again, goals aren't everything. As you mention, same for Leicester & Bolton. Preston? Let's see. Keen when someone else was paying his wages. Suspect it'll be 'goals aren't everything' again. Consistent theme. Scores goals, but stays nowhere. Any idea why? I'll still guess at ME! ME! ME! every time.
We offered him an improved contract, that implies we wanted him to stay. We didn't drop him, he was captain in his last game for us and got us promoted. He didn't feature much for Everton in the first half of the season (maybe because he has just jumped two divisions and Moyes was rightly cautious about playing him every game) and then started most games in the second half of the season. He also ended up their joint top goalscorer that season with Loius Saha. They were planning on keeping him but got a ridiculous offer from Leicester. Huddersfield didn't drop Beckford at all, he went there on loan for half a season and played 20 odd games averaging a goal every second game. Last time I checked that ain't that bad. Again, they wanted to sign him but Leicester wanted yto recoup the transfer fee they paid for him, he also on stupid wages at that point. Leicester and Bolton seem like the only clubs who weren't interested, goals aren't everything clearly and I'll be the first to admit it. His Bolton career was hampered by injury though, who knows they may still try and give him a contract for all we know. I would wager you that if he doesn't sign for Preston then he will sign for another championship club. They seem very interested in signing him and he doesn't have a contract with another club so I highly doubt he'll be holding out for ridiculous wages. This consistent theme your talking about is non-existent.
To be fair, we did drop him for about 6 weeks and only brought him back in for the final 2/3 weeks of the season (2009/10). We offered him a new contract, yes, but we also offered Matt Smith a new contract - they mean very little. Knowing Bates, it probably was his way of trying to get some money out of someone. I don't think he's done 'badly' anywhere else (Bolton aside) but he's 31 - he is a good finisher, but his only trick is pace, and that's not going to last forever. Take that away and what has he got? Don't tell me you've forgotten how appalling his touch was.
Sorry Whitejock but I have to disagree - a lot of my friends support Huddersfield and they all wanted him to stay. They simply couldn't afford his wages. He was only backup for Everton and had a brilliant season in the Prem. Does no-one remember his goal against Chelsea for them? The only reason he was sold is they were cash strapped and got something like 5 million offer from Leicester. I don't think he wanted that deal and didn't want to leave the Premiership and at that point lost his passion a bit (although 15 goals for Leicester isn't a bad return). He did struggle at Bolton genuinely and there's no doubt about that. However a few injury niggles and the fans never appeared to appreciate him. He's ****ing tearing it up again now. Edit: I'd like Leeds UTD to sign him - not for nostalgia and not because he was a legend for us. Simply because he scores goals, we know he can score goals and we desperately need a goalscorer.
You're making the same mistake that Josh made - the fans might have wanted him to stay, but the clubs didn't. I repeat: every club has let him go - goalscoring machine or not. It just does not smell right at all. His record screams out "I AM A PROBLEM THAT NO CLUB WANTS TO KEEP". I still think the problem has been his ego. I have no inside knowledge - it's the only scenario I can think of that fits every one of his exits.
Any proof of that? Not disputing it but I do find that slightly unbelievable, even knowing how silly Leicester were with their money that season.
Nah just going by what Footy Manager had him on. May be way off will have a look to see if there's any proof.
Saying that, first article I found on google when I searched "jermaine beckford leicester wages" was this: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/L...olton-player/story-19473789-detail/story.html "The two clubs agreed a fee of around £1 million just over a week ago and Beckford has agreed personal terms, which means he will take a wage cut from the reported £30,000-a-week salary he receives at City"
