Stoke, Cardiff and Forest in for Bothroyd

[FullerMagic]

www.expressandstar.com/2008/05/20/three-clubs-battle-for-striker/

Three clubs battle for striker

Wolves striker Jay Bothroyd is the subject of a three-way tug of war between Stoke, Cardiff and Nottingham Forest.

The 26-year-old has quickly attracted interest after being one of seven players made available by boss Mick McCarthy at the end of the season.

Bothroyd finished the season at promoted Stoke, playing four League games, but only one of those was a start.

But he made enough of an impression on boss Tony Pulis to register an interest.

FA Cup finalists Cardiff have also made their interest known, with Bluebirds’ former Wolves boss Dave Jones desperately short of firepower.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has played his last game for the club, while Robbie Fowler has been plagued by injury.

Forest, who are the Championship new boys following their automatic promotion from League One,
appear to represent Bothroyd’s best chance of regular football.

Bothroyd has made 32 Legaue starts for Wolves, plus a further 23 appearances coming off the bench, scoring 12 goals, with a modest record of 13 in 70 in all competitions since signing on a free transfer from Charlton two years ago.

For the time being at least, the much-travelled former Arsenal trainee is prepared to stick at things at Molineux and he insisted he had no hard feelings.

“It’s a squad game and the manager decided to change things, so that’s fair enough,” said Bothroyd.

“Everyone wants to play, everyone wants to start.

“I’ve been a bit gutted not to play, but you can’t let it affect you because it will affect your game.

“You just have to carry on and do your best every day.

“All I can do is keep working hard. Maybe he’ll change it again, but I shall be ready for my opportunity if it comes.

“I’ll stay in good shape and be ready as and when I’m called upon.”

Bothroyd reflected: “Everyone was battling for two places and all we could do was keep our heads down and keep working hard in training.”

Have your say on 'Three clubs battle for striker', comment below
This article posted on May 20, 2008 at 11:30 am.

[knowles]

I personally reckon we will sign him. Although he knows his chances of first team action are limited, he seemed to enjoy his time at Stoke and speaks highly of TP

[FullerMagic]

I know he's got a bit of talent - but, like Pearson, if he can't force his way into our plans in the C'ship, is he really any use to us in the top flight?

Our rumoured interest in the permanent signing of the likes of Zakuani and Bothroyd is a bit of a surprise.

[Spiderman]

Send him back and ask for Ebanks-Blake instead

[jezzascfc]

It all comes down to cash, I guess.

TP needs to build a bigger squad and Gabby and Jay can come in and "do a job" more so than the likes of Buxton or Parkin. He needs at least half a dozen new players, but they all can't cost £5 million, so he needs to bring in a few squad players as well as one or two "stars".

If we got both of them for £500k each, I'd say it was pretty decent business. Anything more and I'd be tempted to look elsewhere.

[ersaurebot 1, 000, 000 views]

Jay looked the business to me and i would snap him up. On the assumpyion also that players being sold by prem clubs can often go for an inflated price i dont think we stand to lose too much.

[Adster]

can you just imagine David Jone's excuse if he doesnt get him

"stoke blew us out of the water, they are a premiership club, with premiership wages" ;D

PISSER

[TheDee51]

WTF???

As a post says above - he couldnt contribute in the championship so why get him for our premiership journey??

Bag of shit - we HAVE to look higher than this otherwise we will just do a derby!!

[serpico]

A little uninspiring, he might make a decent squad filler i guess ?

[TheDee51]

Serps - we don't need 'fillers' - what about full time players??

(got a thread on the general board for you serps - World Conspiracy #10)

;D

[lordb]

imho.its unlikely you would get either Zakuani or Bothroyd (or any other similair squad type player) for anything under a £1m each.

[Danstoke82]

Its a tough one this, I thought Bothroyd done ok for us, it remains to be seen as to whether he could do us a job in the Prem, we are now in the position where we could set our sights a little further within the market.

[Godo]

I'm afraid you only have to look at the quality of our competition to sign him to draw the obvious conclusion - why would a Premiership club want to sign a mid table Championship standard player?

These stories - Berger, Hendrie, Bothroyd etc - are really pissing me off! This quality of player won't keep us up!

Don't we have a scouting network? Hasn't Pulis got the confidence to sign top class players? Will he only sign players he has some experience of?

Pulis should be commended for the excellent team spirit at the club and I can understand why he wouldn't want to disrupt that but we need 5 or 6 players of better quality added to the squad in key positions.

[glouscesterstokie]

good player not premiership quality

[lordb]

what players are we going to get then?

which players are going to 1: improve the side,2:be affordable,3:want to come to Stoke

point 1 & 2 is easy to spot but good players attract attention & if mid table prem sides come in then the players will almost always go there rather than to the likes of us.

sorry but Berger,Riggott,Higgy,Fulop e.t.c. are Realistic targets.

[crowey]

1 Fulop 2 Higgy 3 Riggott 4 Jay - any money left?

[FullerMagic]

www.birminghampost.net/midlands-birmingham-sport/west-midlands-sports/wolves-fc/2008/05/21/jay-bothroyd-has-ambitions-after-wolves-release-65233-20942583/

Jay Bothroyd has ambitions after Wolves release

May 21 2008 By Rob Tanner

Jay Bothroyd has vowed to remain in English football and prove that he has the talent to be a potent striker once more. The 26-year-old is surplus to requirements at Wolverhampton Wanderers and manager Mick McCarthy has told Bothroyd he can leave Molineux this summer.

There has also been considerable interest in the former Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers striker, especially abroad, but Bothroyd has said he plans to remain in England. Stoke City, who had Bothroyd on loan during their successful promotion campaign last season, Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest are said to be interested.

Bothroyd said: "My time with Wolves has come to an end. Along with a couple of others I am on the transfer list. I've got friends there who I will miss obviously, but being transfer listed doesn't mean the season has ended on a downer. That is football and when I was there on top of that open-top bus (the Stoke City celebrations) there was nothing else I was thinking about.

"The manager (McCarthy) had a chat to me and fair enough, he wants something different for next season. The manager is the manager and I hope things go well for him. He is alovely guy and I don't have a bad word to say about him. There are no sour grapes on my part.

"Apparently there has been interest from a Spanish side, Recreativo Huelva. I've already played overseas with Perugia but I'd like to stay in this country.

"I want to stay and show people in England that I can perform. I have lots of doubters but I know I can do a good job. I am still young and I want to show people what I can do to fulfil my potential.

"I don't know why I've got the doubters, I think it's because of things that happened when I was younger, plus I've been unfortunate with injury problems. People have certain perceptions of me but I want to challenge them and prove them wrong."

Bothroyd isn't the only transfer-listed Wanderers striker attracting interest. Freddy Eastwood has become a wanted man since McCarthy announced he was available for a transfer away from Molineux.

The Wales international, who signed for Wolves for £1.5 million from Southend United last July, was on the verge of signing on loan for Coventry during the transfer window until McCarthy pulled the plug on the deal at the last minute and the Sky Blues are said to be interested again in the 24-year-old, who has also topped an internet poll of the most wanted summer signings at League One champions Swansea City.

Queens Park Rangers are also said to be poised to launch a bid.

Meanwhile, Wanderers have been linked with a move for Cardiff City's FA Cup final full-back Tony Capaldi. Wolves are rumoured to be tracking the 26-year-old Northern Ireland international along with Coventry City.

Until the arrival of Elokobi from Colchester United in January, Wolves were certainly short at left back with only Michael Gray as a recognised left back, although the former Sunderland and England star was used as a wide midfielder in the closing stages of the last campaign.

Wanderers continue to be linked with Derby County midfielder David Jones.

The former Manchester United reserve team player was a colleague of Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake at Old Trafford before signing for the Rams in January 2007 for £1.1 million but the 23-year-old does not feature in Derby manager Paul Jewell's plans. Jewell is clearing the decks at Pride Park and the England under-21 international fits Wolves manager Mick McCarthy's preferred profile of young and hungry footballers.

McCarthy has also been linked with a move for Leicester City striker Steven Howard but the Foxes are unlikely to make any decisions on players until Ian Holloway's future as manager has been resolved.

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[wolfieboy]

he's got the potnetial if Pulis can get him workin, lazy fucker if he dont. sorry to see him go though, he should of done more for us wiv a better manager

[mikeyb99]

This one is a no-brainer.

Bothroyd would be a CRAP signing.

Absolutely useless IMO, hasn't looked the part since he left Coventry 5-odd years ago.

[icelandpotter]

From what I saw of Bothroyd this season, he's the kind of class we could do with signing and getting in the first team this season.

[DodgyDino]

Dont believe hes the way to go, Like someone says if he couldnt force his way into our championship side why should he get into a Premier side. I hope we are setting our sights a little higher