It’s been one of the worst kept secrets in English football, but it’s official now that Jermaine Beckford has completed his free transfer to Everton. Leeds had cancelled his contract on Friday which is an unusual step. Regardless of the fact a player has agreed to join another club, clubs usually keep the registration until the very last day of the contract. Often this runs until June 30th but both parties seemed to agree to part the ways earlier than required.
Questions are liable to raised in regards to Beckford’s abilities, as he’s jumped 2 divisions after firing the goals that helped return Leeds United to the Championship. Yet taking a risk on such a player who has scored 85 goals in the last 3 seasons for Leeds is hardly risky. There’s no fee involved and the wages that Everton will be paying him will be more than he earned at Leeds but nowhere near the top end of Premiership players. 
Beckford’s star has certainly been rising over the last few years, he struggled at Leeds after joing the club from Wealdstone in 2006, but he’s quickly become one of the most feared strikers in England outside of the Premiership. His goal at Old Trafford certainly gave him column inches world wide and made sure that people outside of the U.K. became aware of his potential. By joining Everton, he’s at a club that will give him the support and guidance he’ll need.
Moyes has been searching for more striking talent to back up his current crop of attacking options. No-one doubts the abilities of Louis Saha and Ayegbeni Yakubu but both are not getting younger. Saha has developed a reputation of being injury prone but has managed 68 appearances for Everton in the two years he’s been on Merseyside. Yakubu, for all his early promise at Portsmouth has found goals hard to come by since he joined up with the Toffees.
I’ve always thought troubled Everton for the last few years is the lack of depth in the striking department. They would usually have two first choice strikers, but then the back up would fall away. Victor Anichebe has struggled for goals when he’s had the opportunity of being giving a chance for Everton and James Vaughan seemingly suffers from a rotating knee injury that have blighted his early promise. Both have simply had some bad luck.
One thing Beckford will bring to the club is pace, he is lightening fast and he gives the striking options more weight. Moyes will be delighted to have captured him in face of some healthy competition and it increases the clubs options. As I mentioned earlier, people will point to his lack of Premiership experience, but sometimes you’ve got to take a risk on players. Some will relish the opportunities that will come their way and of course it will take time for Beckford to settle in to the top flight, but that’s only natural. 
Everton will be hoping to avoid another slow start to the season which derailed an excellent campaign from being even better. Surely they’ll get the breaks they need next season and with one or two additional signings, they’ll be back up there again. No doubt, they’ll be also hoping to avoid a repeat of the Joleon Lescott transfer saga and strengthen a side that can consistently push into the Europa Cup qualifying places.
How do you think Beckford will do? Leave me your comments and you can find me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/paulbestall
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jose
June 1, 2010 at 4:38 pm
this guy is the truth. when everton sells him, man they are going to hit the jackpot. and in case the doubters are saying like little girls, he scored goals against league 1 defenders the epl is tottally different. wait and see.
sucka99
June 1, 2010 at 8:39 am
my god, that picture of Moyes makes him look 80 years old!
get that man some Noxema or Ponds Cold Cream
Cossie(LUFC)
June 1, 2010 at 5:39 am
Good luck to Becks in his new career with Everton. I have a lot of time for David Moyles and if anyone can turn Beckford into a 20 goals a season Premier League srtiker then he can. Yes he has attitude problems and is a selfish player but in a striker that is a good thing. I saw his last performance for Leeds on the final day of the season when his goal clinched our promotion. I think that was the best I have seen him play as regards for the team. He was made captain and it seemed to lift him, he tackled, played left side of midfield when we went down to 10 men and gave his all.
I think Everton have a no lose situation with him. If it pans out you will have a £10M striker, if it doesn’t thenthere will be plenty of Championship clubs happy to take him off your hands
Good luck for the new season
El Tel
June 1, 2010 at 4:19 am
As a Leeds fan I wish Becks all the best and I really do hope he does well at Everton (even though we didn’t get a fee doh!).
However I do think there is a real risk he will crash and burn at this level. He’s scored a lot of goals for Leeds but his chances to goals ratio is very high and he won’t get the same number in the Prem. As stated in previous comments he can have an attitude problem and if he’s not scoring this will come to the fore and he’ll become unpopular with his team mates and fans alike.
Like all strikers he needs confidence and some goals in the first ten games could make all the difference – if he’s drawn a blank then I think he’ll disappear into the Everton reserves.
Gary Talarino
May 31, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Many good points in your article that I agree with.
I am very excited to see Beckford ply his trade in the top-flight. He’s had an incredible journey over the last half-decade, from part-time manual laborer to a striker with a club challenging for a place in Europe. I’ve heard plenty of things about Beckford being a bad teammate at Leeds, but what I do know for sure is that this kid scores goals. He’s certainly no Tevez on the field regarding his work rate. However, when he gets the chance in front of goal, he puts them into the back of the net (a la Adebayor and Arshavin). SAF and Harry will confirm.
With the inevitable injury coming to Saha, Yukubu and/or Anichebe next season, Beckford should get his chance, and I see at least 10 goals for him in 2010/11. He didn’t cost Everton a thing, and even if he got a raise from his 10k/week at Leeds, that’s still cheap for a quality striker. At the very worst, he’ll bring a better return for the Toffees than Michael Owen did in Manchester, and his agent didn’t even have to put together a marketing brochure for a club to sign him.
bookmakers
May 31, 2010 at 6:58 pm
He really needs to get his act together for this season