Beattie is a New Year sale Everton should not miss

Dec 21 2004 By Mark Lawrenson, Daily Post

THE best thing that happened to Everton at the weekend was not scraping a draw against Blackburn.

As welcome as that point no doubt was, Southampton's thrashing at Tottenham could have far more bearing on the club's future.

Harry Redknapp will have watched his team get taken apart and been frightened by what he saw.

But if I know Harry, he'll also have been thinking of ways he can bring some new players in and improve the team.

Apart from Antti Niemi, the only other player worth selling to raise some transfer funds would be James Beattie, and I know David Moyes really wants to bring him to Goodison Park.

At £4-6million, he is well within Everton's price range and he also has the ability to bring something new to the squad.

More importantly however, I believe he is also the right type of person.

What I mean by that is simply that Everton's success this season has been built on a firm foundation of team spirit. Everyone works for each other and there are no prima donnas.

I know some Everton supporters are worried that Beattie may rock the boat and be a bit of a fancy dan, but I also know that is not the case.

Whenever I have talked to Beattie's former manager Gordon Strachan about him, he has always stressed just what a good professional he is and if anyone asked for his advice about whether to sign Beattie or not, he'd tell them to go for it without a moment's hesitation.

According to the man who watched him every day, Beattie trains well and is a great guy to have around the club, and that's good enough for me.

Strachan also feels it is probably the right time for Beattie to move on now to keep some momentum in his career.

I feel Everton would be an ideal move as the club is on the up and has a real confidence surrounding it at the moment. I think that will still be the case after the Christmas period, because Everton will be playing Manchester City and Portsmouth at home, as well as Charlton and Spurs away.

If you look at those fixtures, none of them would cause a sharp intake of breath and all of them look decidedly winnable.

Going into the January transfer window, a maximum return from those four matches would convince most players just what club they should be signing on the dotted line for.

* Mark Lawrenson was talking to NEIL MACDONALD