There are established Premier League strikers who will go through their careers without scoring at Old Trafford or White Hart Lane.
Jermaine Beckford has managed to achieve both in one season and with Leeds United, a side in the third tier of English football.
Having knocked Manchester United out in the third round of the FA Cup, Beckford then coolly dispatched an injury-time penalty to bring Tottenham Hotspur back to Elland Road for a replay tonight that will produce a fifth-round meeting with Bolton should they pull off another shock result.
Beckford, who has scored 24 goals this term, could be playing against these sides next season should a move to Everton be confirmed when his contract with Leeds ends this summer.
But the grass is not always greener elsewhere as Robbie Keane, the Tottenham striker, can testify. He completed a loan transfer to Celtic on Monday - his third move in two years and seventh since starting his career at Wolves in 1997.
The Irishman, who has cost £70.3 million (Dh412m) in combined transfer fees, had an unsettled year at Elland Road in 2001.
The rotation system proved a problem for Keane, and Brendan Ormsby, a former Leeds captain, said that should serve as a warning to Beckford.
"At Leeds, Jermaine is the top man. If he leaves for a Premier League team, I don't think that will be the case," he said. "He is a quality finisher at this level, but his all-round game needs work and maybe his attitude, too. I don't think he will enjoy being on the bench or in the reserves, just like Robbie at Spurs.
"I'm surprised Robbie has ended up at Celtic, because, for me, he is one of the most intelligent strikers around and should be in the Premier League.
"You have to ask why he left Spurs for Liverpool two years ago when he was the first choice there and playing his best football. It has not worked out for him since and Jermaine should look at something like that and think about staying at Leeds.
"If he gets them promoted, I don't think there will be a bigger club in the Championship and he can carry on being their big star. He might regret leaving."
Ormsby was part of Aston Villa's European Cup-winning squad in 1982 but joined Leeds in the Second Division and led them to the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1987 after a remarkable run. A 3-2 defeat to eventual winners Coventry in extra-time denied them a Wembley showdown with Spurs.
"It would be great to see Leeds go far this time," added Ormsby, who was at the club when the current manager Simon Grayson started out as a player. "But promotion is the priority for Simon and he will have to make sure his players do not just raise their game for the cup ties."
They can do that tonight and Beckford will relish taking on a Spurs defence without the influential Ledley King.
Harry Redknapp was surprised the centre-back managed to face Fulham and Birmingham in successive league games.
"It must have been a week where it felt easier, but his knee is not going to improve," said the manager of his captain
akhan@thenational.ae
Leeds v Spurs, 11.45pm, Aljazeera +3
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
THE BIO
Age: 30
Favourite book: The Power of Habit
Favourite quote: "The world is full of good people, if you cannot find one, be one"
Favourite exercise: The snatch
Favourite colour: Blue
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
Five personal finance podcasts from The National
To help you get started, tune into these Pocketful of Dirham episodes
·
Balance is essential to happiness, health and wealth
·
What is a portfolio stress test?
·
What are NFTs and why are auction houses interested?
·
How gamers are getting rich by earning cryptocurrencies
·
Should you buy or rent a home in the UAE?
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
THE LOWDOWN
Photograph
Rating: 4/5
Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies
Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz