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Beckford the hero, but could be leaving for zero.

After delighting 9,000 Leeds fans inside Old Trafford and many many more worldwide, Jermaine Beckford must be on cloud nine like the rest of us.

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His goal in front of the Stratford end at Old Trafford propelled him into the history books to be the first player to score a winning goal for Leeds at Manchester United since Brian Flynn in 1981.

Let alone be the first third division team under Ferguson's reign to win there.

But being the hero of the moment means instant transfer speculation.

Once the ball hit the back of that net on Sunday, a large neon sign started flashing over his head with the words 'BUY ME BUY ME! You know you want to!'

Anyone below the premiership who makes an impact instantly becomes a 'hot commodity' and a target for top flight clubs. Or in this case those with aspirations for said league.

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Newcastle United are the main hunters for Beckford, with boss Chris Hughton even admitting their interest.

But reports on Teeside suggest their bid of £1.5m made today will be as high as they go as the former Wealdstone striker is out of contract at the end of the season. A bid of £1.25m is already rumoured to have been rejected.

Neither amount is unlikely to tempt Leeds to sell even though they only bought the promising striker for £50,000.

There are several permutations for Leeds to weigh up.

With the threat of Beckford being out of contract come the summer, is it better to cash in now and get something rather than the threat of nothing?

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Or should Leeds hang onto to him and help secure automatic promotion with his goals and possibly the title as well as the JPT; thinking the financial rewards for promotion far exceed losing him for free in the summer? And that buy hanging onto him it may even convince him to sign a new contract in the summer?

Or should Leeds get some replacements lined up now and tout Beckford around to sell and bring in one maybe two replacements?

In these three scenarios Grayson says the final one is the worst one. But he stressed that if he was sold at all, it wouldn't be for cheap and that replacements WILL have been lined up.

The whole saga is akin to trying to carry a horse up some spiral stairs backwards. Its slow and tricky to figure out and in the end may prove to be fruitless, and we give up hope of getting that damn horse upstairs and just think, sod it and move on.

This is what may happen with Beckford, we try numerous ways of getting him to stay, using different methods and ideas but in the end it's just pointless as he won't budge.

But from Beckford's point of view, whats best for him?

After being transfer listed in the summer for refusing a new contract after his agent seemingly thought he would be swimming in offers, he wasn't and suprisingly comitted himself to the club this season.

There's a part of most Leeds fans that haven't forgiven him for this, whether or not it's his work or his agents.

Despite scoring just over 70 goals in just over 100 appearances, he may well be suprised that no-one has come in for him. His electric pace and clear finishing capabilities have made him unstoppable in League One.

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His partnership with Luciano Becchio is the envy of all League One clubs and even some champiopnship clubs with both strikers attracting higher league attention.

Both work well together as well as Becchio is great at winning headers, flicking on the ball for Beckford and holding it up. While Jermaine's pace takes him away from the back line to score.

But more than just pace is required at the higher levels. Criticised for his lack of effort in other areas on the pitch and his tendency to fall over alot doesn't endear him to some Leeds fans, and definately won't help him cut it in the Championship and Premiership.

With players like Snodgrass in the Leeds team, its easy to see why he's getting all these goalscoring chances, but it doesn't come that easy in the Premiership.

Tighter, tougher defenders will have Beckford on the floor easily. Strength, perserverance and will is needed to score at the higher level. Not many Leeds fans will say he has that in abundance.

And if this side of his game doesn't change and he doesn't instantly score sackful of goals to whichever club he joins, he'll be seen as lazy and a waste of money, because to most Leeds fans, if he didn't score he'd be pretty useless to us!

But with us he does score, and how. And with this comes the adoration that those goals bring. Putting us top of League One, in the area final of the JPT and of course THAT infamous result against Manchester United.

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The adoration of Leeds fans which was shown in the support that travelled to Old Trafford and that watched around the world. It shows that there aren't many bigger clubs outside the Premiership.

Regular 22,000+ attendances at home and 3-4,000 away support, where else would he get that? Well, ironically, Newcastle. It's never straighforward is it.

But they look set for the premiership anyway and could easily buy better players once they get there with Mike Ashley's money.

At Leeds, he could be the one responsible for getting Leeds back to the top, to resurrect a fallen giant and be adored worldwide for it adn remembered for all time for it. He could carry on his fine goalscoring form and be part of a team that is seriously looking formidable.

A team that looks like to be destined for great things under a manager that is the most rated young coach in the game. To continue learning under Grayson after only being in the professional game for 3 years.

At the age of 26 though, it's not a decision to be taken lightly and unfortunately I fear the plot may thicken well before the end of January, let alone the summer.