Bristol Rovers beat Wrexham and Charlton to striker signing:

•  Bristol Rovers missed out on re-signing Jonson Clarke-Harris in the summer transfer window, but he is still available for a transfer this month.
•  Rovers fan pundit suggests that the club should consider looking at younger alternatives in the market, but also be willing to open their chequebook for a proven goalscorer like Clarke-Harris.
•  Bristol Rovers may face competition from Charlton Athletic and Wrexham, who are also interested in signing Clarke-Harris.

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Currently sitting in 10th position in the League One table, Bristol Rovers are still nine points off the play-off spots but have been in decent form since Matt Taylor took over as their new manager.

Some Gas supporters might be wondering what would have happened if they had been able to sign Jonson Clarke-Harris before the summer transfer window closed.

 

Three years after leaving for Peterborough, the 29-year-old striker appeared to have joined Rovers, sparking weeks of rumors about his possible return to the Memorial Stadium.

Although Posh and Rovers agreed on a fee of approximately £800,000, the paperwork was not completed by the deadline of September 1 at 11 p.m., which left Clarke-Harris at London Road, where he has since fallen out of favor, and Rovers without a new number nine.

Although Darren Ferguson dropped Clarke-Harris from the starting 11 a few months ago, he still has less than six months left on his Peterborough deal, thus he is still available for a transfer this month.

Bristol Rovers should open chequebook for Clarke-Harris, says fan pundit

FLW’s Rovers fan pundit Steve Hutson believes that whilst it is worth checking to see if any younger alternatives are available in the current market, it would also be worth breaking out the club chequebook to bring in a proven goalscorer like Clarke-Harris to push the Gas closer to the play-offs.

“I think first and foremost, the wisest thing for Rovers to do would be to look at the market really and see what strikers are out there,” Steve said when speaking to Football League World.

“We’re told that January is notoriously a difficult month to get top quality strikers, but Jonson Clarke-Harris, I guess the only question mark on him is that he is approaching 30 and there’s question marks about whether he can keep up the same level for the next couple of years.

“I think we absolutely have to open the chequebook for that player if we look at the market and we see someone a couple of years younger with a similar strike rate. He’s not looking as prolific so far this season, but that could just be down to being unsettled.”

“But if JCH is still the one that the club hierarchy want… it’s going to be tough to outbid Wrexham but he would probably be worth pushing the boundaries for for sure.”