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Leeds United: We need to sign top-class star - Lorimer
Former Leeds United striker Peter Lorimer said today that a top-class replacement for Jermaine Beckford should be the club's main priority as the forward prepared to join Everton.
Beckford is expected to complete his free transfer to Goodison Park in the coming days after holding talks with the Premier League side. Barring any late problems, he will sign a four-year deal on Merseyside.
The 26-year-old's contract at Leeds was due to end on June 30 but the club have terminated the remainder of that agreement by mutual consent and allowed him to finalise a move which ends his four-and-half-year spell with United.
Beckford scored 85 goals in three full seasons as a regular first-team player at Elland Road but Leeds were resigned to losing him this summer after failing to tempt him with the offer of a new three-year contract.
The club are searching for a player to fill the hole left by a forward whose 31 efforts this term sealed their promotion to the Championship, and Billy Sharp, Gary Hooper and Rob Hulse are three strikers interesting United manager Simon Grayson.
Ex-Leeds forward Lorimer said: "We all expected Jermaine to go but now that it's basically done and dusted, a quality replacement is absolutely essential. It has to be a priority.
"Simon needs a regular goalscorer in the Championship, a 20-goal-a-season man, and it's imperative that he finds one. Jermaine's had a love-hate relationship with the people of Leeds but the one thing we're all agreed on is that he's a great finisher. We'd have been much worse off without his goals.
"Finding that calibre of player is easier said than done but a new striker is a key signing. Football's all about putting the ball in the back of the net."
Beckford's transfer to Everton has been a poorly-kept secret, first mooted in January after Newcastle United failed with a bid of 1.8million for him.
But the club chose to reject Newcastle's offer and risk losing Beckford on a free transfer in the expectation that his goals would lift the club out of League One.
His decisive finish in a 2-1 win over Bristol Rovers on May 8 sealed United's promotion in dramatic fashion – a perfect parting shot which Grayson admitted would allow Beckford to leave Elland Road as "a hero" – but Leeds declined to increase a contract offer which had been on the table since January.
Beckford's deal at Everton is rumoured to be worth up to 1million a year, a vast increase from his salary at Elland Road, and he is ready to accept their proposal despite interest from West Ham United and Italian club Parma.
Lorimer, pictured above, admitted he understood the forward's reasons for wanting to join Everton, saying: "He came into the professional game at quite a late age and you can't criticise him for taking the move.
"He's going to the Premier League and he'll earn an awful lot of money there. It's easy to say that money shouldn't motivate a footballer but careers can end at the drop of a hat and he's securing his future."
United transfer-listed Beckford last summer after seeing an initial contract offer rejected and Beckford himself requested a move in December with Newcastle pushing to sign him.
He eventually withdrew that request but was dropped from Leeds' starting line-up by Grayson after a string of poor performances in March and April, before he redeemed himself with an outstanding display against Bristol Rovers.
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
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