Beckford hopes tumble

It looks like another of Alan Shearer's rumoured targets, Jermaine Beckford, could join Frazier Campbell on the 'missed out' list. Leeds manager Simon Grayson has confirmed that the Elland Road club have removed the previously transfer listed player from the 'exit door' register and instead revealed that the former non-league star would be allowed to run down his contract. Grayson said:

'It's a situation that over the last few weeks we wanted to resolve. We have turned down bids for the player, which fall a long way short of our valuation of Jermaine.

We took a stance over the summer that we had to make it clear where we wanted to be as a football club, but Jermaine has come back and he's been ever so good in training and in games.

I had a chat with him and the chairman and we agreed it was the best thing for the club. It was an important situation to be dealt with. We showed our stance by turning the bids down and I don't want him to leave the club because he has proven over the last couple of years how successful he can be.

If he runs his contract down and he leaves on a free then we will have to run with that, but our ambition is to keep him, get promoted, and be successful. Good, quality strikers are a rare commodity. We want to keep our best players. The efforts he's put in have been first class and I'm sure we won't get anything less out of him.'

Again - whilst it doesn't preclude Bates accepting an agreeable bid, it sure makes it harder for us to play the card.

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