Yardiniho’s comment earlier about Jermaine Beckford has been turned into a guest article. A better read than talking about squad numbers me thinks
An extra long comment turned guest article from our Brazilian-sounding Wanderers supporter, Yardiniho. Neither overly optimistic nor any way pessimistic, he just lays out reasons why Jermaine Beckford deserves our support. Surely he has a shot at being just what we need, doesn`t he? If you`ve already read it, here it is again, if not, enjoy?
I really despair at the negativity sometimes. If the manager does something then people moan, if he does nothing the same people moan.
People have been banging on for ages about Bolton Wanderers needing a 20 goal a season man. They don’t grow on trees; even Anelka didn`t hit that mark, but I think we’d all agree he was ‘le bees-knees`.
You can look at stats in a few ways and as someone once said, ‘you can prove anything with stats`. In my humble opinion, where football stats are concerned, you can’t read too much into figures which include substitute appearances as 90 minute outings. You may only get on the pitch for 30 minutes or 20 minutes, or even 2 miniutes of injury time. A striker can’t be expected to influence the game in a few minutes.
As Bolton fans, we’ve all been there, 60 minutes into a game, saying, ‘get x or y or z on to give them a chance to make an impact`. So let`s look at Jermaine Beckford`s professional career stats, taking out appearances for substitutes:
Beckford has made 200 career starts and from those starts, he has scored 106 goals. This gives the striker, just better than 1 goal every other game. That is an unbelievable record.
If you look at his time on loan last season, he made 14 starts and scored 8 goals; very impressive stuff considering he didn’t know the club or the players. Take him back to the Smiths Crisps Arena; he started 35 games and scored 9 goals. OK, not as good, but he wasn’t really in the gaffer`s plans, drifted in and out of the team and never really got a significant run of games. Nevertheless, he still hit a goal ratio of little less than 1 in 3 games. OK this is standard stuff. His Everton days: 15 starts, 8 goals. Any club would be happy with that in the prem. Again, here he was, very much in and out of the starting line-up, didn’t really get a run in the team and it would surprise me if he started 3 games in a row. He hasn’t cost us a dime (bar wages), he’s gunna` work out a damn sight cheaper than Elmander, even if he breaks his leg tomorrow and never plays again.
Strikers are sensitive souls, they want to feel loved, they want to feel special and they want to score goals. I`m not saying the lad is the next Messiah- not even the next David Reeves- but for the love of all that is holy, lets give the lad a chance, lets get behind him and lets show a little faith in the manager, who so far, has done a fantastic job.
If we can do that, then we might just have another 20 goal a season man. And I don’t mean Ricketts.