Should We Show Interest?
Sunday, 20th Jun 2004 00:00

Should We Be Showing An Interest?

Should We Be Showing An Interest

Newspaper reports have suggested that Forrester is on the verge of joining Bristol Rovers for the coming season but these reports have been played down by new Pirates boss Ian Atkins who told the Western Daily Press "I have lots of irons in the fire, but until I've tied them down I cannot say anything. Jamie Forrester is not one of those. He is a name we're interested in but we're not actually in talks."

Forrester has spent the last season at Hull, where he found the net 7 times in 17 starts, together with one goal in the LDV Vans Trophy. He has had a mass of clubs since leaving Scunthorpe in 1999 including FC Utrecht, Walsall and Northampton. Career wise he averages a goal every three games since starting his career in England at Leeds back in 1992.

30 this November, Forrester always seems on target wherever he plays and a recent Poll on an unofficial Hull web site showed that their fans were pretty much split on whether they wanted to see him leave as they prepare for life in Coca Cola League One.

It was at Scunthorpe that Forrester made a name for himself, scoring 43 goals in 121 appearances although he did notch 50 in 126 appearances during a three year spell at Northampton before being released in the summer of 2003. Career wise he has scored 113 goals in 369 appearances - not a bad strike record when you consider that he has only started 311 games?

Swansea do have a fair few forward players at the moment with Lee Trundle, Paul Connor, James Thomas and Adrian Forbes potentially vying for a place in the starting line up against each other. Add to that the presence of Mark Pritchard and Kevin Nugent in the background and a move for Forrester would seem an unlikely one. However, we are well aware of the potential injuries that can hit the squad during the course of the season and surely when a player of Forrester's ability comes onto the market we have to ask ourselves if we can stretch the budget to meet any requirements.

Assuming that Forrester is as interested in a move to Bristol as they are in making that move, then a move to Swansea would not be totally out of the question?

I do ask myself the question whether this is a player that we should express an interest in but, as I said earlier, the budget controls that clubs have at this level may dampen any interest that we may have.

Ah well, it was a thought anyway?

JAMIE FORRESTER CAREER STATS

Club	Fee	League		FA Cup		League cup		Other
Hull City	Free	17 (15)	7	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	1
Northampton	£ 150000	100 (11)	39	7 (0)	2	5 (0)	1	3 (0)	2
Northampton	Loan	9 (1)	6	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Walsall	Loan	2 (3)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
FC Utrecht	Free	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Scunthorpe	Signed	99 (2)	37	7 (0)	4	6 (0)	2	7 (0)	0
Grimsby	Free	27 (14)	6	3 (1)	3	0 (2)	0	0 (0)	0
Grimsby	Loan	7 (2)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Southend	Loan	3 (2)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Leeds	£ 60000	7 (2)	0	1 (1)	2	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Auxerre	No appearance data available
Totals	£ 210000	271 (53)	96	18 (3)	11	11 (2)	3	11 (0)	3
goals / game	0.29		0.52		0.23		0.27
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals