One paper thinks Beckford is on his way to Sheffield United, but there are different stories as to who is coming to take his place up front.

According to the Daily Mirror (that bastion of accurate reporting) Sheffield United are most likely to land Beckford’s signature, ahead of a queue of other clubs, even though the Blades are now managed by dear old Kevin Blackwell. Beckford hardly got a look in at Leeds after Blackwell had signed him from Wealdstone, and the striker only got the chance to prove his worth once he was loaned out Sunthorpe (then in League One).

At one stage Blackwell was on the verge of Beckford altogether, and the striker’s Leeds career only got going once new boss Dennis Wise decided to bring him back from loan for the start of our League One campaign. But despite all this, the Mirror are claiming that the Blades have “emerged as favourites” to sign Beckford, and are offering cash plus Billy Sharp in exchange.

A clutch of other clubs have also expressed an interest in Beckford, including

 Newcastle, Peterborough, and Barnsley have all expressed interest, as well as Scunthorpe. But Beckford’s agent has already said he will only move to a top Championship club, which would seem to rule out Scunthorpe even though the forward will have fond memories of his time there.

The Mirror are also claiming that Simon Grayson is a “big admirer” of the  prospective makeweight Billy Sharp, even though the forward has scored only 12 goals in 65 goals for the Blades. But he did previously get 53 goals in 82 games for Scunthorpe, so he does at least have a good record at League One level.

But Sky Sports News have a different story altogether, and they are claiming that 28-year-old Cardiff City striker Warren Feeney will have a medical at Elland Road on Monday. Feeney started his career at Leeds as a trainee, but didn’t manage to break into the senior squad in our Premiership days. He has since made 31 international appearances for Northern Ireland, but has scored only 5 times in the process.

So it seems that while some of our top players leave as Ken refuses to offer them decent contracts, their replacements will players who might me good enough for League One, but who have failed at a higher level. I suppose that all we need for next season is to compile the best squad in League One, and at the moment we don’t need to look at players who are better that. But if we do manage to get promotion, this will leave us with another rebuilding job in 12 months time if we are to compete in the ‘Championship’.

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