A Piece Of Cake

A Piece Of Cake

Jamie Barnard on how Jermaine Beckford's collapsed deadline day loan move from Leicester City to Huddersfield Town could still happen...

 

With just forty minutes to go until midnight, the transfer window misted as Sven Goran Eriksson breathed a sigh of relief. Walking through the doors of the King Power Stadium to put pen to paper on a four year deal was Jermaine Beckford. Eriksson had his striker.

 

To convince Beckford that he was the long-coveted cherry on the cake would be no easy task; the reality was that he was the Fifth Amendment to Eriksson’s recipe for success. Shane Long, Jason Roberts, Nikita Jelavic, Yakubu and Nicky Maynard, subject of a mad nine-million pound bid at one point, had all been pursued. Advances spurned, Sven Goran Eriksson’s list of failed overtures had never been so long.

Arriving on a four-year deal from Everton, with eight Premier League goals to his name, Leicester City fans were hoping that Beckford was the man to fire them back into the big time after seven long years away.

Fast forward a year and things have changed. Leicester’s leave of absence is eight years. And Beckford looks to be on the move again.

Nigel Pearson is now the man holding the keys to the King Power Stadium and, for Pearson, Beckford’s face doesn’t fit. With just minutes to elapse before the summer transfer window crashed shut, Pearson pulled the plug on a loan move to Huddersfield.  Beckford wasn’t being thrown out with the bath water. Not yet at least.

But the fact remains that Pearson had shown his willingness for a parting of the ways. Had Pearson found a lone replacement, with it would have likely come with his rubber stamp. Should he find a loan replacement, with that will come his seal of approval for Beckford’s re-unification with Simon Grayson in West Yorkshire.

For Beckford, at Leicester it simply hasn’t worked out. A meagre nine league goals in a year are scant consolation for the hefty price Eriksson paid for the cherry on that cake. And that the cake went stale leaves a bitter taste for many Foxes fans. The squad that Eriksson left behind synonymous with the offerings of its football; unfulfilling, bloated and imbalanced.

Jermaine Beckford typified everything that was wrong with Eriksson’s dynasty; overpaid yet underperforming.

After waiting over a month for his first goal, Leicester fans were shot an icy-cold stare for lauding the managerial decision to end an abject individual performance devoid of any effort, commitment or class, ten minutes after half time at Upton Park last October. In a league match away at Reading he was so ineffective that he didn’t even last that long, removed at the break. And as any hopes of a promotion push ebbed away at London Road against Peterborough, Beckford refused to advance further than the halfway line for an attacking free kick in the dying stages of a game in which Leicester were losing. 

The attitude reeked.

In the time that has passed since then, Pearson has been a Leicester fat-fighter. And they are steadfast losing the pounds - Bamba, Peltier and Mills, with their lucrative contracts, have been trimmed from the squad. Weighing in with a wage that dwarfs his return, Beckford has to be next.

Richie De Laet, Anthony Knockaert, Matt James and Marco Futacs. These are the children of the revolution. In place of an idle Beckford, Nugent and Vardy prosper. More industrious, more willing and more potent. The scent now is a breath of fresh air. And in just five games Jamie Vardy, a striker cast to the periphery of professional football only to rise again, has shown himself superior to Beckford in a multitude of ways.

Where Beckford lacks a first touch, Vardy looks neat. Where Beckford is dominated in aerial battles, Vardy shows a spring in his step so often found in the free walk of the absolved. Where Beckford cannot pass, Vardy is selfless. And finally, where Beckford shoots, Vardy scores.

Beckford’s star is fading fast. Having had his time in the spotlight, shining brightest now are the glaring limitations that once saw him fall to non-league too. At Goodison Park, Everton manager David Moyes is a shrewd operator. He took a punt on Beckford on a free transfer, cashed in his chips after eight Premiership goals. Moyes’ decision testament enough that Beckford lacked the substance to remain at such a level.

And it is a level that Leicester long to get back to. With one eye on getting there Pearson has built a youthful, exuberant, dynamic side. Perhaps lacking the know-how at this moment in time, but certainly not the flair and fluidity – a style which has seen them dominate games this season, even if coming away pointless at times.

Leading by example, in casting aside a profligate Jermaine Beckford, Pearson is showing a ruthlessness which, given time, his young squad will develop. At Huddersfield, in a less pressured environment, and back under the tutelage of Simon Grayson, Beckford may well prosper as he did at a lower level with Leeds. But Leicester City don’t have the time to wait for him to come good, particularly when thus far he has been at best half-baked.

So with a slice of fortune, a loan deal which collapsed at the eleventh hour could well be resurrected this week by the twelfth.  When it comes to Jermaine Beckford and Leicester City; as they say, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.