Neil Warnock has finally been able to complete a new signing ahead of the start of the Premiership season, adding striker Jay Bothroyd to his ranks on a free transfer.

Facts

Bothroyd was released at the end of his contract with Cardiff City this summer with the two parties unable to get anywhere close to each other on terms. Bothroyd’s stock has risen markedly over the past 18 months and while his career seems to be going one way Cardiff seem to be going another.

Like the rest of his Cardiff team mates Bothroyd started last season like a runaway train, and then fell away badly when it actually mattered. He finished the season with 20 goals, but 15 of them came in the first three months of the season. That included seven goals in the first eight games of the season, and another eight in just six games through October. That prompted a surprise England call up for the friendly with France where he made a substitute appearance just two years after he almost played for Jamaica, who he qualifies for through his parents.

That England call up didn’t seem to do much for him because he only scored five more goals in the remaining six months and 25 games of the season. That did include an astonishing strike against QPR in Cardiff, one of three goals in five games through Easter, but ultimately Cardiff faltered at the last.

Bothroyd started off as a trainee at Arsenal but he was immediately sold by Arsene Wenger to then premiership side Coventry for £1m after he reacted to being substituted in a high profile youth game by throwing his shirt at coach, and former QPR manager, Don Howe. He wasn’t a conspicuous success at Coventry where he scored 17 goals in 83 appearances so it was something of a surprise when he was picked up by Perugia in Serie A, then under the ownership of Luciano Gaucci who prided himself on making unusual signings. Sadly for him Bothroyd failed to settle and was subsequently loaned back to Blackburn where he was more well known for an outrageous red card picked up in a game at Norwich.

An unsuccessful spell at Charlton, a mediocre time with Wolves and a brief loan at Stoke turned up 18 goals in 89 appearances before he really found his feet at Cardiff for whom he scored 45 times in three seasons after a £300,000 move. Bothroyd has signed a two year contract with an option for a third at Loftus Road after the R’s beat off competition from Spurs and Celtic for his signature.

Reaction

"In bringing Jay in, we have managed to secure an excellent player which augers well for the forthcoming campaign. We have been chasing him for a number of weeks and it has been frustrating at times. We have had to have a lot of patience with this but, as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. We are now working hard to add another new face to the squad and we hope to have that done very soon." – Neil Warnock

"I spoke to the Manager and he told me how much he wanted me. He convinced me that this was the right place to be. He told me the direction that he wants to go in and the way he wants to play. I think this Club is heading in the right direction and has got a lot of ambition. I want to be playing against the best players in the world. I got a taste of that when I joined up with the England squad, and hopefully I can do well for QPR and get back into the squad. People say that I'm a 'one-cap wonder' and I want to get that second cap to put that to bed. You want to play at the highest level and the only way to do that is by producing for your club week in, week out. That's what I'm looking to do." – Jay Bothroyd

If I could have chosen any striker from the championship from last year for this QPR team I would have taken Bothroyd. He impressed me home and away and does seem to have matured over the years and seems ready for a crack at the prem. I know not everyone agrees with that view but for me and what I saw from opposition strikers last year he was the one that stood out. - Barbican Ranger

Of the opposition I saw home and away Bothroyd impressed me as much as anyone. We have done well to get him. A better signing than any that Norwich or Swansea have come up with imo. - Spaghetti Hoops

Opinion

Such has been the lack of activity from QPR so far this summer, it would be easy to clasp onto any signing at all like a rare and beautiful butterfly to treasure and show off to all our friends. Any port in a storm and all that.

And as signings go, picking up a striker who bagged 20 goals in the Championship last season on a free transfer isn’t to be knocked. He’s at a good age, 29, and plays in a position where we desperately need to strengthen. Heidar Helguson was superb last season, and integral to the way we play, but he is getting on in years and barely passed his medical (if he did indeed pass it at all) when he signed for us in 2009 so, not to put too fine a point on it, he’s on his last legs. We’re not going to be causing Premiership managers many sleepless nights selecting our strikers from Helguson, Rob Hulse and Patrick ‘Dave’ Agyemang next season so Bothroyd’s arrival is certainly a welcome one in that respect. He’s also, technically, an England international having won a cap in the friendly game against France at Wembley last season, the first Football League player to do so since David Nugent in 2007.

Bothroyd has a decent turn of pace, a fierce shot (as seen in our 2-2 draw at Cardiff last season) and can score a variety of different goals. He can be a handful, and pose a threat, and that’s exactly what we need in an attack that may be about to be shorn of Adel Taarabt, the leading light from last season. And all at a price that even Bernie Ecclestone can agree to, assuming the ridiculous suggestion that he is going to be paid £50k a week is yet more nonsense from the gutter press. The contract allegedly offered to Bothroyd at about £25k a week that leaked onto the message boards last week is a little easier to swallow.

But regular readers (hello to both) will know that I’ve never really got on with Jay Bothroyd. Yes he scored 20 goals last season and looked almost unplayable at times in doing so, but 15 of those 20 goals were scored in the first three months of the season. Just five of them came in the remaining 25 games of the season after his England call up which, let’s be quite honest here, was just another farcical chapter in the long running saga of unfathomable hatred held by Fabio Capello for Peter Crouch.

Bothroyd’s goal scoring record throughout his career, apart from that three month spell last season, is mediocre at best. Having been booted out of Arsenal as a youngster for unforgivably removing his shirt and throwing it at legendary coach Don Howe after being substituted he pitched up at Coventry for £1m and managed a paltry 17 goals in 83 appearances. There followed spells with Perugia (five goals, 29 appearances), Blackburn (one goal, 11 appearances), Charlton (five goals, 25 appearances), Wolves (13 goals, 60 appearances) and Stoke (no goals, four appearances) – 41 goals in nine years. This is the record of a journeyman Championship centre forward, moving from club to club with his work rate and attitude a regular topic of conversation.

At Cardiff he seemed to settle down and start to show his best form. When called up by England he waxed lyrical about how much his stupidity at Arsenal had taught him and how much he’d grown up, conveniently ignoring the fact that that incident had happened more than ten years previously and in the meantime he’d been of little use to six other clubs who’d all got rid of him at the first possible opportunity. In fact prior to his spell with Cardiff he was best remembered for an incident in his Blackburn days when, during a game at Norwich, he lost his rag under minimal provocation while shielding the ball in the corner and took a wild swing at Mattias Jonson earning a straight red card in the process.

And even at Cardiff, where his goal record and performance level has been decent, whenever I saw them playing a big game I always found myself sitting there waiting for the Bothroyd limp to begin. I know we can’t expect everybody to be like Gareth Ainsworth, who once tried to “run off” a spiral fracture of his shin, but Bothroyd has always had a touch of the Nygaards about him for me – signalling immediately for an early substitution whenever he thinks he might be about to get injured. The most famous example was in Cardiff’s play off final against Blackpool the season before last where he lasted barely 20 minutes. When the going gets slightly tough, Bothroyd has tended to get going.

But then a very similar player, with all the same attributes and faults, has just got to Stoke for £6m – Carlton Cole – so this doesn’t look like such a bad deal after all.

This time last season I was producing similarly pessimistic articles about the likes of Shaun Derry and Clint Hill who turned out to be superb signings for us. Back then I found myself repeating that having campaigned for an experienced manager to be appointed and left to it we could hardly moan too much at the players he chose to bring in. This summer I think the repeated line on LFW is going to be that Warnock earned the right to be trusted with the business he did last year, and as long as the signings we are making are players he has chosen and wants then that’s more than good enough for me.

Disagree? Comment below or Tweet us @loftforwords.

Photo: Action Images

DesertBoot added 09:41 - Jul 13 I'm not a fan of Bothroyd either but he's a good signing on a free transfer for around £25K per week. I'm certain Warnock can toughen him up and improve his game.
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blacky200 added 09:44 - Jul 13 Another good article and I agree with all the comments about him. Reading the Cardiff messageboards it seems that most are sad to see him and many expect Warnock to be the perfect manager to bring the best out of him. Fingers crossed but I think this could be another shrewd signing.
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SomersetHoops added 09:53 - Jul 13 I hope he has matured in attitude and NW can keep him firing on all cylinders. We know he probably wasn't first choice, but I also hope he was NW's choice within the limited parameters he can operate in. I like many QPR fans have wanted a skillful target man as we have often produced balls into the middle that have been wasted unless Gorks was up from defence and I think Bothroyd could do that job and add some assists as well as goals. We won't be able to waste opportunities to score as often as we did last season. Now we have Bothroyd I would like to see Naughton added and it gives us more reason to go back for Routledge to ensure our new striker gets some service.

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JB007007 added 10:31 - Jul 13 I always like the line about how QPR beat off the competition for signings. If Spurs and Celtic were the other two in for him then it shouldn't take much time deciding who to join. Reserve football in North London or crap football in Scotland - hmm. As you point out in the article Clive, his earlier record is very suspect, but I hope he has matured and started to peak. If so we have a useful player here and having watched him a bit last season, thought he did quite well. Like DesertBoot says, Warnock will toughen him up too especially with the likes of Dezza, Hill and Heidar about.

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NorwayRanger16 added 10:50 - Jul 13 Very happy indeed, on a free it's a steal! Especially compared to Carlton Coles £6 mill valuation as you've mentioned Clive. When NW/Nigel Cox got 40+ games out of Hill last year then i'm confident they'll erase JB's injury concerns as well. I also believe he's desperate to play in the Premier League, enough so that he won't limp of early. Stand of him at your peril, just ask Kaspars :-)

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carlosthebulb added 10:52 - Jul 13 sometimes too over-analytical clive - he's only as good as his last season, where, irrespective of having a purple patch early on, he is still a 20-goal a season man. Forget his previous record, 20 goals is 20 goals albeit in the championship so he has to be worth a punt and seemingly good business as well. Also worth mentioning regarding England, Capello saw something in him and I don't recall howls of derision from the media at his call up either. Of course, saying all that, Michael Ricketts springs to mind, but Jay's better than that. Let's hope NW works his magic, cos I for one am very pleased with this acquisition

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JonDoeman added 10:53 - Jul 13 'Warnock earned the right to be trusted with the business he did last year' ================================================================= Yes but he is getting stymied by the current transfer policy, you can't get all the players you want on frees!
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Northernr added 11:12 - Jul 13 I've already got the DJ Campbell version of this article written should we sign him and I've always rated him despite him having just about all the problems I pick up with Bothroyd. That's the advantage of being the editor, I can be as contrary as I like. Look, all things considered Bothroyd is a good signing, but having aired my views on him several times in match previews etc down the years it would be wrong of me to suddenly pretend I think something different because he's now our player.

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NorwayRanger16 added 11:28 - Jul 13 Good point Clive :-) In my oppinion there's much more to Boothroyd's game than just goals. A real handful for defenders and excellent in bringing others into play, and he sets up quite a lot of goals. A more advanced version of HH.
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benbu added 12:02 - Jul 13 This should be a very good signing for QPR. Very clever bit of business with not paying a transfer fee and I think Jay would have surely been a reserve striker at Spurs or Sunderland. He should be wanting to prove he can play at this level and be succesful and at some bigger clubs he wouldnt have had a fair chance to do so. Should we add DJC to the attacking threat we will be a lot more dangerous in front of goal with Smith, Taarabt, Buzsaky playing behind the strikers. I would also like to see a decent centre half sign up and a younger 'Sean Derry' like player in midfield. Hopefully a few more signings will follow now. Anyone have any idea as to the new sponsor or a date for new kit being announced?

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Spaghetti_Hoops added 12:11 - Jul 13 Trust you to trawl through the dust filled archives for as many negatives as possible. As I recall Les Ferdinand was completely useless if he was carrying a minor knock but I wouldn't even mention it in a brief summary of Les's career. I thought that Bothroyd actually looked OK in his brief England appearance. Which is more than you could say for many who have appeared over the years looking out of their depth. He deserved his chance though Crouch deserves a run even more. Time will tell whether Warnock can get a decent tune out of him. Dave Jones managed so there's every chance. As for his form last season he was out for quite a while with hamstring and heal injuries and then there was the usual Dave Jones chokers finish where he changed his formation and lost the plot. I don't see that Bothroyd did anything much wrong he was still a big danger to us at Cardiff.

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Northernr added 12:19 - Jul 13 Trust you to completely exaggerate and only focus on one element of what I've said.
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collegeranger added 12:19 - Jul 13 Bothroyd and Nygaard - separated at birth?
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Royboy48 added 12:35 - Jul 13 Sigh of relief as far as I'm concerned I'm maybe not as forensic, Clive, as you are on matters Hoop. Not the same rigour in the analysis to become a major league blogger But I do think about stuff - and in my professional life, it's all about trends, ratios and comparisons - useful tools when assessing incoming players It seems to me - after 45 years of 'deadly embrace' with QPR - that it's usually our club culture and manager that provides the spark, or otherwise - for a player to show us his best. And you can tell - almost immediately - if it's a good fit. I can point to literally dozens of Hoop-gracing players from Terry Venables ("nah, rubbish at Spurs, just a time serving mercenary") to Paddy Kenny who all arrived in W12 with giant question marks and very quickly proved us all wrong. There's an exception of course to every rule and this is no exception- except that it is!The exception here is Sir Les who seemed to take years to get traction and then finally became a legend. The fact is, we won't know Jay until he crosses the white line; for every underachieving Mike Sheron, Leighton James, Don Rogers and Ned Zelic there's a Gareth Ainsworth, Jamie Mackie, Paul Furlong or Simon Stainrod with questionable CVs who came here and cut the mustard. And let's face it, Stan's credentials were frankly gruesome when he arrived from Carlisle... No, I'm OK with Jay - and we finally signed someone with some clout Sigh of relief as far as I'm concerned

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QPRFish added 13:23 - Jul 13 I was told 2 weeks ago clive that we'd signed DJ campbell. Apparently he'd had the medical etc but i was then told it was flabio holding up the transfer. I was also told we had danny graham too but, again, flabio wanted to give watford an inital £500,000 then a mill, then a mill. Watford wanted more upfront but flabio wouldn't do it & the rest as they say is history........... And it wasn't paul smith that told me that either...... ;o)

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Northernr added 13:28 - Jul 13 Fish, have you seen the Campbell story in the Chron today, saying Flavio met him and likes him and has given the transfer the go ahead? Bet that was a meeting of minds!
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QPRFish added 13:36 - Jul 13 I must admit i hadn't, but strangely i've just checked the inbox & someone has sent me said article! Have to wait & see i guess......
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YorkRanger added 13:36 - Jul 13 As I've mentioned before I think this is a good signing and given the current financial situation re transfer fees and wages, he is probably as good as we can hope to get. If (a big if maybe) Campbell, Naughton and Bullard come on board and the Routledge position can get resolved then I'll be fairly happy. Tarrabt staying will be the icing on the cake but that is starting to feel unlikely.

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Spaghetti_Hoops added 13:47 - Jul 13 Hey. "completely exaggerate" !!?? Anyway one positive paragraph followed by four negative paragraphs is good balance for you. Leaves the casual reader thinking that you had something positive to say about him even if they can't quite remember what it was.
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Monahoop added 14:35 - Jul 13 Could be a useful signing provided he stays fit and keeps his goal scoring boots on. There's something of the maverick about him, something which keeps in tradition with this club. Just hope he can cut the mustard in the top flight and prove he's not just a half decent Championship grafter.
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ade_qpr added 15:07 - Jul 13 sorry clive you better make it 3 readers have brought new and first comp and LFW is now home page. You bring QPR to life from convict colony across the globe and your work much appreciated. In the prem and with the owners???? ( money makes the world go round but sadly not at QPR ) we have, beggars can't be choosers so Jay will have to do. You give a fair account of is career and with NW guile he may continue on the up curve. Question is ? 5,10, 15 or 20 goals at best. what is the return?? I think free signings will be the norm for the rest of the summer.

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jamois added 17:32 - Jul 13 Still cannot get it out of my head that danny graham was the man NW wanted, not bothroyd. NW would have known both were available at the end of last season but he chose graham, i.e. he doesn't rate bothroyd as highly. I hope he got it wrong, else Flavio will incur our wrath yet again for blowing the deal.
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Spiritof67 added 17:44 - Jul 13 Clive, I take your point about Jay Bothroyd scoring 20 goals last season, with 15 of those 20 goals being scored in the first three months of the season. But I would be more than happy, if he does a Jamie Mackie, and scores 8 goals in his first 7 games in the Prem.
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qpr_ox added 18:04 - Jul 13 Totally agree with the above Clive. Although, I put money on Bothroyd to score more than C. Cole next season. 2 - 1. Those aren't the odds, but the number of goals.
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derbyhoop added 18:34 - Jul 13 We're shopping for Tesco value. Don't be surprised when we don't get Waitress quality. Bothroyd is a risk (because of his attitude not ability) but better than what we had
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