Yorkshire Post 4/1/10
Grayson is eager to keep hold of Cup hero Beckford
By Richard Sutcliffe at Old Trafford
SIMON GRAYSON has reiterated Leeds United's desire to hold on to FA Cup hero Jermaine Beckford.
The 26-year-old netted the only goal of an often fiery Roses contest at Old Trafford to help the League One club dump Manchester United out of the Cup in one of the biggest upsets in recent years.
Priced by one bookmaker at 12-1 to triumph at the home of their bitter rivals, Leeds made light of their third-tier status to stun the Premier League champions and Beckford's 19th-minute strike seems certain to increase the interest in a player whose contract runs out in the summer.
Leeds have, according to sources in the North East, already turned down a £1.25m bid from Newcastle United but the Championship leaders are expected to return with an increased offer in the coming days.Grayson, for his part, is determined to hold on to his star striker though he admits other factors could come into play before the transfer window slams shut at the end of this month.
He said: "We have stressed all along that there are three scenarios with Jermaine: he either signs a contract and stays or we keep him until the end of the season before he leaves on a free transfer. Or, and this is the worst-case scenario to me, we are offered a fee that is too good to turn down and he leaves. But it won't be on the cheap.
"If that does happen (Beckford leaving), we will have to have replacements lined up.
"We do not need to sell him. The club has made a decent amount of money from the tie at Old Trafford and we are on an even-keel financially.
"Sometimes, when a player has four months on his contract then the longer term view is you sell him and get two or three in to replace him.
"But that is the worst-case scenario for me. The best-case scenario is he stays until the end of the season and either signs or leaves having scored the goals to get us promoted."
Beckford's winner at Old Trafford completed an amazing turnaround in fortune for a striker who, a little over a fortnight ago, was jeered from the field by his own club's fans after reacting petulantly to being substituted during the 1-0 win over Southampton.
The Leeds striker has responded in fine style with doubles in the league victories over Hartlepool and Stockport preceding yesterday's winning strike at Old Trafford.
Grayson added: "Jermaine showed what he is all about. He worked ever so hard and he took the opportunity when it came along. He has five goals in three games and strikers are a rare commodity."
Beckford's goal meant Sir Alex Ferguson, for the first time since taking charge in 1986, saw his side knocked out in the third round. It also brought to an end a 29-year wait for victory for Leeds at the home of their bitter rivals.Grayson, a fan of the Elland Road club as a boy, was quick to dedicate yesterday's 1-0 win at Old Trafford to the supporters who have stuck with Leeds during the slide down the leagues.
He said: "It is a fantastic achievement. This club has had a lot of negativity for the past five years with relegations and administration.
"But I said when I came to the club that Leeds United had hit rock bottom and that someone would take it back forward.
"Our fans deserved this result. Not just for 9,000 of them coming to Old Trafford, I mean for the 4,000 who went to Bristol Rovers on a Tuesday night earlier this season.
"We sell our allocations everywhere we go. We also get 25,000 regularly at home. Those fans could have walked away and thought 'football is an expensive business'.
"But they didn't. The fans have followed us the length and breadth of the country. The result is for them."
On the magnitude of the result, Grayson, who revealed afterwards that Robert Snodgrass was left on the bench due to a hamstring strain suffered in the win at Stockport a week ago, added: "We had a plan to try and contain them when we didn't have the ball, while we knew we had players who could hurt them.
"I thought it was an example of what the players have been doing all season.
"We had to be at full tilt and Manchester United had to be slightly off it. We knew that and worked ever so hard to win the game.
"We had a lot of chances to try and get a second goal at 1-0. Jermaine got through and then Snodgrass hit the crossbar.
"They were great opportunities and everyone who played their part should be incredibly proud. I would like to think the majority of people here would think we deserved to win."
Daily Mail 4/1/10
I'm going nowhere! Leeds boss Simon Grayson committed to the United cause
By Ian Ladyman
Leeds boss Simon Grayson has told any club casting admiring glances in his direction to forget it.
With the managerial merry-go-round about to start spinning as Bolton wait to speak with Owen Coyle, minds are already beginning to turn to who Burnley might turn to if, as expected, their Scottish boss quits for the Reebok Stadium.
Grayson is bound to figure high on that list, having impressed at Blackpool before leaving for Leeds 12 months ago, since when he has patiently built a team that look certain to gain promotion to the Coca-Cola Championship this season.
His blossoming reputation was further enhanced yesterday when Leeds recorded their first win at Old Trafford since 1981, dumping Manchester United out of the FA Cup to book a fourth-round trip to Tottenham.
However, any thought Burnley might have of offering someone familiar with the area a chance to cut his managerial teeth in the Premier League can be dismissed immediately.
'My commitment to Leeds United has never been in question,' he said. 'I left Blackpool a year ago to join the football club I supported. Leeds is a fantastic football club and I am not interested in going anywhere else.'
Yesterday's match-winner Jermaine Beckford may be toying with the idea of moving up the leagues with Newcastle, but Grayson believes he can achieve all his managerial ambitions by staying where he is. The chance of restoring a club who reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2001 to former glories was the carrot that enticed him away from Blackpool in the first place.And, at such an early stage of an enormous project, Grayson has no intention of walking away.
'Leeds do not just have an English fanbase. It is Europe and worldwide,' he said. 'But we are in League One for a reason. The only way we get back into the big time is by reaching the Championship and then the Premier League.
'Hopefully that will be the case over the next few years. Maybe one day people will look back at the 2010 team that won at Old Trafford in the FA Cup.
'It is that kind of stage players want to perform on and I certainly want to go back there in the next few years managing Leeds United in the Premier League.'
Grayson added: ‘We are immensely proud of our team and what they have done today.‘We told the players to do themselves justice and be proud of themselves. They certainly did that today. I told the players that if you could perform at Old Trafford somebody would be a hero.
‘I saw Brian Flynn last week. He reminded me that he was the last player to score a winner at Old Trafford in 1981. Jermaine Beckford will get the credit now.’
Ferguson had previously never lost an FA Cup tie to a team from a lower league. He added: ‘Leeds had a far bigger appetite for the game. You need luck and they got it. But they deserved it as they played really well.’
After being drawn against Tottenham, Grayson said: ‘It’s a good draw again. We’re up against a top Premier League team and a top manager and we’ll approach that as we have done for the Manchester United game — with the respect that they deserve.
‘But we’ve got a few league games in between and that’s our bread and butter.
‘It’s another fantastic draw and another game that could have quite easily been a Premier League fixture five or six years ago.’Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson tore into his players after Manchester United’s FA Cup humbling by Leeds at Old Trafford.
Ferguson, who rounded on referee for playing only five minutes added time, criticised his failing stars after their defeat by League One opposition. He warned them all they face the axe ahead of Wednesday’s Carling Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester City.
Ferguson said: ‘I didn’t expect that. I was shocked at the performance. We never got going and the quality of passing — the whole performance — was bad.'I don’t think any of them can say they had a good day. Only Antonio Valencia did OK when we got the ball to him, but it took us about 10 minutes to do that after he came on.
‘We have a semi-final on Wednesday and a lot of these players today won’t be playing. I had the team in mind but there may be one or two changes now.’
Ferguson saw his team sunk by Beckford’s 20th-minute goal and the result was the only one of the weekend in which a lower-placed team beat one of a higher standing.
United’s exit leaves their record of 11 FA Cup wins vulnerable to being equalled by Arsenal, who have won 10.
Leeds’ reward in last night’s fourth-round draw was another trip to face Premier League opposition, Tottenham.
The United manager was critical of referee Foy over the five minutes’ added time, saying: ‘That’s an insult to the game and to the players out there.’
These comments will interest the FA, given that Ferguson was given a four-match ban with two of them suspended for 18 months after criticising the fitness of referee Alan Wiley earlier in the season.His assessment of Nemanja Vidic’s reasons for limping out of the warm-up before the game also appear to hint at a problem in his relationship with the Serbian defender.
Asked why Vidic said he couldn’t play, Ferguson said: ‘I couldn’t tell you what the situation is. I couldn’t tell you at all.’
Telegraph 3/1/10
Leeds United's FA Cup hero Jermaine Beckford free to leave for right price
Leeds United manager Simon Grayson admitted the club will consider selling FA Cup match-winner Jermaine Beckford during the transfer window, despite the 26 year-old earning legendary status by
scoring the Elland Road club’s first winner at Old Trafford since 1981.
By Mark Ogden
Championship leaders Newcastle United are understood to have made a £1.25 million bid for Beckford, who was an RAC windscreen fitter prior to his arrival from non-league Wealdstone in 2006.
Beckford’s first-half winner against Premier League champions United was his 20th goal of the season, but with his contract due to run out in the summer, Grayson admits that Leeds will not stand in the player’s way if they receive a substantial offer during January.
Grayson said: “There has been speculation about Newcastle and Beckford, but my best case scenario is that Jermaine signs a new contract or gets us the goals to earn promotion and then leaves.
“We have stressed that there will be three scenarios with Jermaine. He signs a new contract, he leaves at the end of the season or we sell him and get some money which we think is too good an opportunity to turn down.
“Strikers are a precious commodity and we won’t be letting him go on the cheap. That is the scenario we are going to go down.
“He has shown today what he is all about. He has worked ever so hard for the team and he has taken his opportunity.
“Money talks with any player, but we are not looking to sell him. People can speculate about him and we knew that, as soon as the window opened, there would be talk about him.
“We have made a decent amount of money today and got back on an even keel on the financial front, so we don’t want him to leave unless it is something that suits him and the club.”
Beckford’s goal erased Brian Flynn from the Leeds record books as the last man to score a winner for the club against United at Old Trafford.
But despite Beckford’s personal achievement, Grayson insisted that his team’s victory was down to more than one player.
He said: “I told the players that, if you can perform at Old Trafford, somebody will be a hero.
“Everybody talked about Brian Flynn and he reminded me that he was the last player to score a winner at Old Trafford in 1981 when I saw him recently.
“Jermaine Beckford will get the credit now, but we are immensely proud of our team and what they have done today.
“We knew it would be difficult coming to Old Trafford, but we told the players to do themselves justice and be proud of themselves, whether they came back to the dressing room with a win, defeat or draw. They certainly did that.
“United have fantastic players, but we had a plan to contain them. We knew that we could deny them possession and that we had people who, when we had possession of the ball, could hurt them.”
From goalkeeper Casper Ankergren through to Beckford, Leeds outfought United throughout and Grayson confessed that his team were rarely troubled by Ferguson’s men.
He said: “Our keeper made some good saves, but he was not being peppered on a regular basis.
“He did what he had to do because he had players in front of him defending properly and making tackles.
“Our club has had a lot of negativity over the last five or six years with administration and relegation, so this is a result for our fans.
“Leeds is a big club. We are known in Europe and worldwide for our achievements in the 1960s and 70s, but we are in League One for a reason. “I want to be back here managing this club in the Premier League, though, and we have to go through the Championship first to do that.”
Grayson is eager to keep hold of Cup hero Beckford
By Richard Sutcliffe at Old Trafford
SIMON GRAYSON has reiterated Leeds United's desire to hold on to FA Cup hero Jermaine Beckford.
The 26-year-old netted the only goal of an often fiery Roses contest at Old Trafford to help the League One club dump Manchester United out of the Cup in one of the biggest upsets in recent years.
Priced by one bookmaker at 12-1 to triumph at the home of their bitter rivals, Leeds made light of their third-tier status to stun the Premier League champions and Beckford's 19th-minute strike seems certain to increase the interest in a player whose contract runs out in the summer.
Leeds have, according to sources in the North East, already turned down a £1.25m bid from Newcastle United but the Championship leaders are expected to return with an increased offer in the coming days.Grayson, for his part, is determined to hold on to his star striker though he admits other factors could come into play before the transfer window slams shut at the end of this month.
He said: "We have stressed all along that there are three scenarios with Jermaine: he either signs a contract and stays or we keep him until the end of the season before he leaves on a free transfer. Or, and this is the worst-case scenario to me, we are offered a fee that is too good to turn down and he leaves. But it won't be on the cheap.
"If that does happen (Beckford leaving), we will have to have replacements lined up.
"We do not need to sell him. The club has made a decent amount of money from the tie at Old Trafford and we are on an even-keel financially.
"Sometimes, when a player has four months on his contract then the longer term view is you sell him and get two or three in to replace him.
"But that is the worst-case scenario for me. The best-case scenario is he stays until the end of the season and either signs or leaves having scored the goals to get us promoted."
Beckford's winner at Old Trafford completed an amazing turnaround in fortune for a striker who, a little over a fortnight ago, was jeered from the field by his own club's fans after reacting petulantly to being substituted during the 1-0 win over Southampton.
The Leeds striker has responded in fine style with doubles in the league victories over Hartlepool and Stockport preceding yesterday's winning strike at Old Trafford.
Grayson added: "Jermaine showed what he is all about. He worked ever so hard and he took the opportunity when it came along. He has five goals in three games and strikers are a rare commodity."
Beckford's goal meant Sir Alex Ferguson, for the first time since taking charge in 1986, saw his side knocked out in the third round. It also brought to an end a 29-year wait for victory for Leeds at the home of their bitter rivals.Grayson, a fan of the Elland Road club as a boy, was quick to dedicate yesterday's 1-0 win at Old Trafford to the supporters who have stuck with Leeds during the slide down the leagues.
He said: "It is a fantastic achievement. This club has had a lot of negativity for the past five years with relegations and administration.
"But I said when I came to the club that Leeds United had hit rock bottom and that someone would take it back forward.
"Our fans deserved this result. Not just for 9,000 of them coming to Old Trafford, I mean for the 4,000 who went to Bristol Rovers on a Tuesday night earlier this season.
"We sell our allocations everywhere we go. We also get 25,000 regularly at home. Those fans could have walked away and thought 'football is an expensive business'.
"But they didn't. The fans have followed us the length and breadth of the country. The result is for them."
On the magnitude of the result, Grayson, who revealed afterwards that Robert Snodgrass was left on the bench due to a hamstring strain suffered in the win at Stockport a week ago, added: "We had a plan to try and contain them when we didn't have the ball, while we knew we had players who could hurt them.
"I thought it was an example of what the players have been doing all season.
"We had to be at full tilt and Manchester United had to be slightly off it. We knew that and worked ever so hard to win the game.
"We had a lot of chances to try and get a second goal at 1-0. Jermaine got through and then Snodgrass hit the crossbar.
"They were great opportunities and everyone who played their part should be incredibly proud. I would like to think the majority of people here would think we deserved to win."
Daily Mail 4/1/10
I'm going nowhere! Leeds boss Simon Grayson committed to the United cause
By Ian Ladyman
Leeds boss Simon Grayson has told any club casting admiring glances in his direction to forget it.
With the managerial merry-go-round about to start spinning as Bolton wait to speak with Owen Coyle, minds are already beginning to turn to who Burnley might turn to if, as expected, their Scottish boss quits for the Reebok Stadium.
Grayson is bound to figure high on that list, having impressed at Blackpool before leaving for Leeds 12 months ago, since when he has patiently built a team that look certain to gain promotion to the Coca-Cola Championship this season.
His blossoming reputation was further enhanced yesterday when Leeds recorded their first win at Old Trafford since 1981, dumping Manchester United out of the FA Cup to book a fourth-round trip to Tottenham.
However, any thought Burnley might have of offering someone familiar with the area a chance to cut his managerial teeth in the Premier League can be dismissed immediately.
'My commitment to Leeds United has never been in question,' he said. 'I left Blackpool a year ago to join the football club I supported. Leeds is a fantastic football club and I am not interested in going anywhere else.'
Yesterday's match-winner Jermaine Beckford may be toying with the idea of moving up the leagues with Newcastle, but Grayson believes he can achieve all his managerial ambitions by staying where he is. The chance of restoring a club who reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2001 to former glories was the carrot that enticed him away from Blackpool in the first place.And, at such an early stage of an enormous project, Grayson has no intention of walking away.
'Leeds do not just have an English fanbase. It is Europe and worldwide,' he said. 'But we are in League One for a reason. The only way we get back into the big time is by reaching the Championship and then the Premier League.
'Hopefully that will be the case over the next few years. Maybe one day people will look back at the 2010 team that won at Old Trafford in the FA Cup.
'It is that kind of stage players want to perform on and I certainly want to go back there in the next few years managing Leeds United in the Premier League.'
Grayson added: ‘We are immensely proud of our team and what they have done today.‘We told the players to do themselves justice and be proud of themselves. They certainly did that today. I told the players that if you could perform at Old Trafford somebody would be a hero.
‘I saw Brian Flynn last week. He reminded me that he was the last player to score a winner at Old Trafford in 1981. Jermaine Beckford will get the credit now.’
Ferguson had previously never lost an FA Cup tie to a team from a lower league. He added: ‘Leeds had a far bigger appetite for the game. You need luck and they got it. But they deserved it as they played really well.’
After being drawn against Tottenham, Grayson said: ‘It’s a good draw again. We’re up against a top Premier League team and a top manager and we’ll approach that as we have done for the Manchester United game — with the respect that they deserve.
‘But we’ve got a few league games in between and that’s our bread and butter.
‘It’s another fantastic draw and another game that could have quite easily been a Premier League fixture five or six years ago.’Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson tore into his players after Manchester United’s FA Cup humbling by Leeds at Old Trafford.
Ferguson, who rounded on referee for playing only five minutes added time, criticised his failing stars after their defeat by League One opposition. He warned them all they face the axe ahead of Wednesday’s Carling Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester City.
Ferguson said: ‘I didn’t expect that. I was shocked at the performance. We never got going and the quality of passing — the whole performance — was bad.'I don’t think any of them can say they had a good day. Only Antonio Valencia did OK when we got the ball to him, but it took us about 10 minutes to do that after he came on.
‘We have a semi-final on Wednesday and a lot of these players today won’t be playing. I had the team in mind but there may be one or two changes now.’
Ferguson saw his team sunk by Beckford’s 20th-minute goal and the result was the only one of the weekend in which a lower-placed team beat one of a higher standing.
United’s exit leaves their record of 11 FA Cup wins vulnerable to being equalled by Arsenal, who have won 10.
Leeds’ reward in last night’s fourth-round draw was another trip to face Premier League opposition, Tottenham.
The United manager was critical of referee Foy over the five minutes’ added time, saying: ‘That’s an insult to the game and to the players out there.’
These comments will interest the FA, given that Ferguson was given a four-match ban with two of them suspended for 18 months after criticising the fitness of referee Alan Wiley earlier in the season.His assessment of Nemanja Vidic’s reasons for limping out of the warm-up before the game also appear to hint at a problem in his relationship with the Serbian defender.
Asked why Vidic said he couldn’t play, Ferguson said: ‘I couldn’t tell you what the situation is. I couldn’t tell you at all.’
Telegraph 3/1/10
Leeds United's FA Cup hero Jermaine Beckford free to leave for right price
Leeds United manager Simon Grayson admitted the club will consider selling FA Cup match-winner Jermaine Beckford during the transfer window, despite the 26 year-old earning legendary status by
scoring the Elland Road club’s first winner at Old Trafford since 1981.By Mark Ogden
Championship leaders Newcastle United are understood to have made a £1.25 million bid for Beckford, who was an RAC windscreen fitter prior to his arrival from non-league Wealdstone in 2006.
Beckford’s first-half winner against Premier League champions United was his 20th goal of the season, but with his contract due to run out in the summer, Grayson admits that Leeds will not stand in the player’s way if they receive a substantial offer during January.
Grayson said: “There has been speculation about Newcastle and Beckford, but my best case scenario is that Jermaine signs a new contract or gets us the goals to earn promotion and then leaves.
“We have stressed that there will be three scenarios with Jermaine. He signs a new contract, he leaves at the end of the season or we sell him and get some money which we think is too good an opportunity to turn down.
“Strikers are a precious commodity and we won’t be letting him go on the cheap. That is the scenario we are going to go down.
“He has shown today what he is all about. He has worked ever so hard for the team and he has taken his opportunity.
“Money talks with any player, but we are not looking to sell him. People can speculate about him and we knew that, as soon as the window opened, there would be talk about him.
“We have made a decent amount of money today and got back on an even keel on the financial front, so we don’t want him to leave unless it is something that suits him and the club.”
Beckford’s goal erased Brian Flynn from the Leeds record books as the last man to score a winner for the club against United at Old Trafford.
But despite Beckford’s personal achievement, Grayson insisted that his team’s victory was down to more than one player.
He said: “I told the players that, if you can perform at Old Trafford, somebody will be a hero.
“Everybody talked about Brian Flynn and he reminded me that he was the last player to score a winner at Old Trafford in 1981 when I saw him recently.
“Jermaine Beckford will get the credit now, but we are immensely proud of our team and what they have done today.
“We knew it would be difficult coming to Old Trafford, but we told the players to do themselves justice and be proud of themselves, whether they came back to the dressing room with a win, defeat or draw. They certainly did that.
“United have fantastic players, but we had a plan to contain them. We knew that we could deny them possession and that we had people who, when we had possession of the ball, could hurt them.”
From goalkeeper Casper Ankergren through to Beckford, Leeds outfought United throughout and Grayson confessed that his team were rarely troubled by Ferguson’s men.
He said: “Our keeper made some good saves, but he was not being peppered on a regular basis.
“He did what he had to do because he had players in front of him defending properly and making tackles.
“Our club has had a lot of negativity over the last five or six years with administration and relegation, so this is a result for our fans.
“Leeds is a big club. We are known in Europe and worldwide for our achievements in the 1960s and 70s, but we are in League One for a reason. “I want to be back here managing this club in the Premier League, though, and we have to go through the Championship first to do that.”