16Feb

Beckford the victim in unjust blame game

by Ian Cockerill

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Look back in the echelons of history and you’ll see that for most football failures, there’s a scapegoat.

Take ‘Team England’. Graham Taylor (1994), David Beckham (1998), David Seaman (2002), Urs Meier (2004), Cristiano Ronaldo (2006). The list goes on, of course; Steve McLaren and Fabio Capello most recently have taken the brunt of the fans’ blame for England’s lack of silverware.

Football fans looking for a scapegoat is nothing new, of course. Sometimes it’s even justified. But this season for Leicester City some fans have taken it upon themselves to load our inconsistency and ultimately disappointing season thus far onto the shoulders of one person: Jermaine Beckford.

Beckford arrived at Leicester to great excitement on the August deadline day. To date he’s scored eight goals in all competitions, five of which have come in the FA Cup. A total of three in the league this season seems to have given a vocal minority of Leicester fans the opportunity to lambast and blame Beckford at every opportunity.

Of course results on the pitch haven’t helped. After the last blog on the team’s inconsistency, Leicester outplayed Cardiff in a 2-1 win only to throw the same lead away and lose 3-2 away at Watford on Tuesday to extend the failure to win two league games in a row all season.

The result means the club faces a mammoth task to get anywhere near the play-off positions.

There’s no doubt Beckford has improved since Pearson arrived. His work rate is excellent and his beck heel assist for David Nugent’s second in Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat highlights his natural talent. His confidence is rising and that potentially mouth-watering partnership with Nugent is, game on game, emerging.

It takes a truly blinkered Leicester fan (and there seem to be some) who cannot see Beckford’s continued progression as a Foxes player. Since his hat-trick against Nottingham Forest (aside from his ridiculous red card at Brighton) he has looked like the weight of the world has been lifted from his shoulders.

But of course, continued criticism and wholly unjust blame for defeats will only pile that pressure back on.

After the Watford match, one fan who’d travelled to Vicarage road described Beckford as a “disgrace,” when in fact poor defending and a below par performance in midfield (aside from Danny Drinkwater) cost us three points.

If fans like these aren’t careful, the vocal minority who constantly call into the local radio phone-ins and bombard the message boards will get their wish, and Beckford will leave for a new club whose fans might universally support and appreciate his true ability. What’s more, a new club’s supporters will most likely Jermaine what he needs most: time.

Posted by Leicester City fan Ian Cockerill

Follow Ian on Twitter @IGC1989