After failing to land a big name striker all summer Brian Laws finally got one in Francis Jeffers just days before the start of the 2007/08 season. Jeffers penned a three year contract with The Owls in a deal rumoured to be worth around £700,000.
Jeffers, a Scouser, began his football playing for Everton, the club he supported as a boy. He made his debut at age 17 against Manchester United in 1997 and it didn't take long for people to realise the kid was hot property. In his four years at Goodison Park he would bag 20 goals in 45 first team starts (and 15 sub appearances) and become the highest paid teenager in English football at the time.
He also started to make his impression on the international scene having scored a staggering 13 times in 16 appearances for the England Under 21s, making joint top scorer with Alan Shearer at that level.
That was enough to convince Arsene Wenger to splash out £8 million to take him to Arsenal in the summer of 2001. Sadly his time with the London club was not a great one. Despite being capped for England at full international level and scoring in what has turned out to be his only cap, against Australia in a friendly, Francis made 13 first team starts (26 appearances off the bench) and scored 8 times in a three year spell.
In 2004 Jeffers moved to Charlton Athletic for £2.6 million but again made only a handful of appearances in a two year spell with The Atticks.
Injuries and tough competition for places made life even harder for him when he was later sold to Blackburn Rovers. His most successful spell there actually came on loan elsewhere, when he scored 4 goals in 9 appearances while at Ipswich Town for two months in the 2006/07 season.
Jeffers is undoubtedly a player with massive potential and a young man whose career has gone off the rails somewhat after a bright start. He does have talent though and it will be up to Brian Laws as manager to try and unearth that. If he can, Wednesday could have one of the most dangerous forwards in the league. |
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Blackburn Rovers 