Officially official: Bolton complete Jermaine Beckford signing with two year deal

With the deal officially agreed yesterday, the club have finally confirmed the signing of Jermaine Beckford. The move carries an undisclosed, nominal fee sees Dougie Freedman hopefully spurring his largely underperforming strike force on to a better goal return next season with rumors of a "star striker" still looming large.

Beckford joins the Trotters on a two year deal from Leicester City, where he spent the last two seasons after signing permanently from Everton. Beckford scored 15 times in 44 appearances over the course of his first season with some 40% of his goals coming in the FA Cup for the Foxes. In his second season, Beckford was pretty much left out entirely by Nigel Pearson and spent much of the year with Huddersfield Town. He made 21 appearances for the Terriers and scored eight times.

Beckford joins new signings Marc Tierney, Alex Baptiste, Hayden White, and Rob Hall in the Bolton side as the pre-season gets underway. The new striker will fight for a spot with Craig Davies, Marvin Sordell, David Ngog, and Tom Eaves already in contention.

Speaking yesterday, Dougie Freedman confirmed that the deal was heavily incentive-based.

In the club's press release, the manager discussed his new signing:

"We have worked very hard in order to bring Jermaine to the club; it has been a long winded signing.

"It has been out in the press for the last few weeks but Jermaine is someone I know and I have previously played alongside him so I know his character.

"He is a goal scorer and in certain games that last season we dominated we weren't clinical enough and that is what Jermaine brings."