Early Saturday evening, just hours after scoring his 14th and 15th goals of the season helping Cardiff to another 3 points and back to the top of the Championship it was announced Jay Bothroyd was selected for the England squad to face France in Wednesday night’s friendly at Wembley.
Later that evening Bothroyd, a regular ‘tweeter’ on social website Twitter, tweeted (sorry for the tongue twister – totally unintentional) that Saturday had been the best day of his career and rightly so.
Until he came to Cardiff just two seasons ago Bothroyd’s career seemed to be going nowhere. He had played at various clubs in England as well as having a short spell at Perugia in Italy and although he had showed the public glimpses of his talent he possesses his career had so far been a series of false starts and disappointments.
Fast forward 2 and a half years and in getting a call up to the England squad Bothroyd has achieved what had looked impossible when Dave Jones brought him to South Wales from Wolves for £350k. That price seems a snip now but when Jones signed him there were question marks surrounding it, was this too much to pay for petulant 26 year old who had played for 6 clubs in the 8 years that followed his acrimonious split from Arsenal, his boyhood club?
Over the last 2 and a half years Bothroyd has answered that question and with interest. He has improved every season and this season has showed he can be prolific in front of goal, to go with his pace, strength, skill and general build up play. In a team that includes Craig Bellamy he is the most complete player in the Cardiff team.
If Bothroyd does make an appearance on Wednesday night he will become the first player in the Championship since David Nugent in 2007 to play for England and remarkably the first ever current Cardiff City player to be capped by them.
So where does this leave Cardiff? It is well known that Bothroyd’s contract runs out at the end of the season. Even before the call up there - due to his form - there was always a chance that when the transfer window re-opens in January there would be interest from clubs in the Premier League. If he does get an England cap - and impress in doing so - it will only attract interest from other clubs, but an England cap will also mean Cardiff would demand more money for him. However Cardiff will want to do as much as they can to keep their star man, for the price of him helping the club get to the Premier League is more than any club will offer for him in January.
The other option - and the more likely one - is for him to wait until the summer and assess his options. If he was to stay for the remainder of the season and Cardiff were to gain promotion there would be a good chance he would sign a contract with Cardiff. He has often stated in recent months he is happy in his surroundings and has also gone as far to say he feels like a Cardiff boy, okay I know footballers are prone to making such outrageous statements, but he does appear to be happy. As previously mentioned he has also settled at this club like no other.
However if Cardiff fail to reach the Premier League then there will be no doubt he would leave for nothing - and who can blame him? At 28 he is hardly an elder statesman of the game but he's no spring chicken either. Bothroyd is probably capable of playing at the top level of the English League for the next 4 or 5 years and will be keen not to waste any more time.
Of course I would love Bothroyd to stay and although my heart is saying he will, my head is telling me Cardiff will either accept a bid in the summer or he will be offered the kind of contract in the summer from another club that he won't be able to refuse. If he does go I won't begrudge him one bit, he has been a fantastic player to watch over the past few seasons and his all round play will be remembered by Cardiff fans for years to come. Let's hope he does stay though.
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