Kasper and Shane ready for battle

Kasper Schmeichel and Shane Higgs will be competing against one another this summer in a direct contest which Leeds United boss Simon Grayson hopes will once again establish his first-choice goalkeeper.

Grayson is preparing to repeat his strategy of 12 months ago by entering the club's pre-season schedule with an open mind on which of his senior keepers will merit a place in his starting line-up on the first day of the Championship term.

Billy signs on for United

STRIKER Billy Paynter has joined Leeds United after they wrapped up a deal which manager Simon Grayson said the club were "desperate" to secure, writes PHIL HAY.

Paynter will take up a three-year contract with Leeds from July 1 after passing a medical at Thorp Arch earlier this week, and his transfer to Elland Road will give Grayson the services of a striker who scored 29 goals for Swindon Town this season.

The 25-year-old was effectively a free agent after coming to the end of his deal at the County Ground and his signing is a first step by Grayson towards replacing League One player of the year Jermaine Beckford, who parted company with Leeds last Friday.

Paynter has just completed the most prolific campaign of his career and he caught United's eye this term by scoring four goals in two league matches against the Elland Road side.

Grayson said: "When we knew he was available we were desperate to get him.

"He's matured as a player over the last couple of years and he's had a fantastic season.

"People will link him to Jermaine, but he's not Jermaine. Jermaine has his strengths and weaknesses and Billy will as well.

"He's got a different style about him."

World Cup

Scores of Leeds United yobs have been told to surrender their passports in a bid to stop them travelling to the World Cup.A nationwide total of 3,111 known football hooligans had until yesterday to hand over their documents to the police. They revealed that 162 United fans were the subject of banning orders, the most for any club in England and Wales.

Surrendered passports will not be returned until after the World Cup in South Africa ends on July 11. Their owners will also have to report to the police on every England match day during the tournament, which kicks off a week on Friday.

Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thompson, head of domestic World Cup policing, today said that hooliganism was "much less of a problem than in the past".

He added: "Banning orders have been very successful, with less than 10 per cent of those who are issued with them re-offending. There are, however, a small minority who engage in football related violence and disorder."

Around 25,000 England fans are expected to make the trip to South Africa, significantly down on original estimates of 100,000.
Concerns about crime in the host nation are thought to have put off some supporters, others being dissuaded by the high cost.

* Police foiled an attempt by English hooligans to sneak into South Africa for the World Cup via Dubai, it emerged today.

South Africa's police minister, Nathi Mthethwa, said the group of around 12 yobs were apprehended a month ago.

Beckford signs for Everton

Everton have signed Leeds United attacker Jermaine Beckford on a four-year deal.

Beckford, 26, scored 31 goals for the Yorkshire club last season, the last of which came on the final day against Bristol Rovers, which clinched promotion from League One.

In total Beckford scored 85 goals in 150 appearances in all competitions for Leeds.

The former Wealdstone striker’s contract at Elland Road was cancelled last week and now he joins the Toffees after passing a medical at Everton's Finch Farm training complex.

He said: "I am excited by it. It's going to be a test, I know that, but I am looking forward to it.

"I want to test myself at the highest level and luckily for me, David Moyes showed an interest in me, showed some faith in me and hopefully I can repay that.

"I've been impressed a lot by him. He seems like the type of guy who will sit down and tell you where you're going wrong, what you're doing right and what you might need to work on.

"It is a club I can learn from and it can help me develop into a better player. Fingers crossed, I can be really involved in taking this club where it wants to be."

Transfer Gossip

LEEDS UNITED are battling it out with Norwich City to land loan keeper Fraser Forster for 2010-11 – according to reports.

The highly-rated Newcastle United stopper, 22, recently completed a stand-out loan spell with the Canaries, featuring 38 times to help the East Anglians clinch the League One title ahead of Leeds.

Forster has since returned to parent club Newcastle, but is behind Steve Harper and Dutch Under-21 international Tim Krul in the pecking order on Tyneside and is tipped to be farmed out on loan again.

Leeds are rumoured to be in the market for him, while also being linked with Arsenal's young Polish custodian Wojciech Szczesny.

Hexham-born Forster, who had a brief spell at Bristol Rovers at the start of 2009-10, kept an impressive 20 clean sheets in the league for the Canaries.

He was one clean sheet away from breaking Carrow Road legend Kevin Keelan's record, with City boss Paul Lambert hailing him as a "world-class keeper in the making."

Ironically, a rare aberration by the keeper gifted Jermaine Beckford a late winner in City's 2-1 televised loss to Leeds in October, but it represented a rare blip from Forster, who took the club's players' player of the year award.

Top three place beckons....

Leeds United anthem Marching On Together is on course for a place in this weekend's top 10. The much-loved song was released as a 79p digital download single on Sunday to celebrate United's promotion to the Championship.

And today the week's first set of purchase figures showed the track riding high as the UK's seventh best selling single.

Marching On Together has shifted nearly 10,000 copies - just 4,000 behind the third biggest seller, X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's All Night Long.

US rapper B.o.B. is the clear favourite to reach number one in this Sunday's singles chart, however, having clocked up sales of nearly 35,000 with Nothin' On You.

Sung by the legendary Don Revie era United squad, Marching On Together was originally known as Leeds! Leeds! Leeds! and was the B-side of the club's 1972 FA Cup final single.

On sale at itunes, play.com, Amazon, Tesco.com, 7Digital & HMS

United Attack Charts

United fans have been snapping up the new downloadable re-release of Leeds, Leeds, Leeds (Marching On Together) increasing expectations of chart success next weekend. The track, digitally re-mastered, was available to download from Sunday and was...

Full article on official Leeds United site