Jermaine Beckford will add clinical edge to Newcastle promotion hopefuls
He may be 26 and he may be playing his football in the Third Division as most of us see it - but Jermaine Beckford could well be about to become a fondly thought of Toon number 9 very soon.
It's a number 9 shirt that has been vacant since the departure of Obafemi Martins in the summer and one that many thought would be handed to Andy Carroll.
However, if Beckford is the consistent goalscorer that can finally give this team a bit more bite then be it.
Already I've heard a few people draw comparisons with the arrival of Andy Cole back in 1993 and if Beckford can have half of the impact of Coley then he'd have done very well indeed.
These are different days now and there is a totally different feel to the promotion season of 92/93 on Tyneside at the moment.
Back then every game was like a carnival atmosphere and weekends would turn into 48 hour parties with Newcastle Breweries pubs cashing in by replaying the matches on big screens around the watering holes of Tyneside in pubs packed to the rafters on a Sunday afternoons.
All of it was long before the days of swanky mobile phones and when people could only contacted by a public pay phone that would often go unanswered with many a Sunday dinner ending up in the dog!
Oh yes, such fond memories of halcyon days of a team that oozed attractive football compared to the XI of today that churns out results.
As far as goals have been concerned in this team, box to box midfielder Kevin Nolan aside, in attack they've been shared around.
Whether Beckford is Premier League class is something nobody knows yet.
But if Beckford is the man to fire the Mags back to the top flight, you won't find too many people complaining.
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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I am hearing rumours today that Aston Villa have tabled a bid for Beckford, which could involve a player swap deal. With Maybe even harewood heading in the opposite direction.
i would love to see Beckford in the Newcastle Team he has loads of pace and that somehing which the Newcastle Team has not Got we got some great players in the making coming thorugh e.g Andy Carrol and Nile Ranger and i think with Beckford we have a bit of speed in the team which they despartley need but nothing Mike Ashly i can see us buying no 1 !!
We certainly lack movement up front, and as much as I rate Carroll and Ranger, I don't think either will be prolific goalscorers. Beckford is the type of striker we need and while he is not proven at this level or beyond, I think if we were to get him it would be a great coup for around the 2-3 mil mark. However Hughton's recent comments do not fill me with confidence, and we've had so many false dawns in recent transfer windows, won't believe we have any chance of getting him until I see him at SJP with the shirt on.
Errr... does nobody realise its actually the midfield which we need to sort out? We have loads of strikers and with ranger/carrol/ameobi/nolan have enough firepower to score regularly. The midfield is desperately lacking in pace and creativity (jonas excluded) where are the signings for that area?
He could be good for the championship, but will he score the goals in the premiership?
Michael
if we sign great... for now. He looks like he can cut it in this divison but will he in the premiership? If we are nt careful we are going to end up like west brom or someone who have alot of very good championship players capable of winning but when they reach the premiership just arent good enough. I think we have a few of the already ryan taylor, danny simpon maybe (didnt cut it at blackburn or man utd), pancrate, lovenkrands. Then you have the players who didnt impress last year but are playing well this season such as Coloccini, enrique (although he looked better towards the end of last season), Nolan, Guthrie, Smith, Jonas, ameobi and the question will they be good enough if we go up this season to keep us there and would beckford and kilgallon ( i know hes going no where at the moment but maybe in the summer) by in that catergory or would they be good enough for the premiership?
I'm unconvinced he's Premier League class. Wouldn't Shola (for example) also score a bucketload in League One? And we know his PL record.
Plus surely the CB position MUST be the priority?
I reckon that Villa will offer Harewood to Newcastle for 1.5 mill in order for themselves to buy Beckford from Leeds.
AshHole and Owlheed are away in Vegas getting themselves bummed whilst shafting Newcastle's chances of signing anybody once again.
if we get beckford i will be very suprised, lets get this straight C hughton is nothing but a yes sir no sir man thats why he got the job ashley will buy no-one we are apoor side in an absoloute diabolical league and i have never known supporters and more so clueless jump on the bandwagon journalists who vastly overate players. You did it with superflop Chopra, and now we have a striker called Mrs Carroll who isnt any better than say alan gowling or billy rafferty wake up and be honest for as change stop making players something they are not (Harper) mr loyal yeah yeah nowt to do with picking up a wage for doing nothing lets get rid and get a manager who is a Man