Barnet FC today confirmed the signing of veteran forward Gary Hooper. The deal was originally announced in principle on Tuesday but the Bees have confirmed his registration today.
Hooper joins the list of high-calibre strikers to make the move to the Vanarama National League this summer alongside the likes of Will Grigg and James Norwood.
Hooper’s Illustrious Career
Some readers may be surprised to find out that Hooper actually played with Barnet manager Dean Brennan as a youngster at Grays Athletic where he started his career. Following his release by Grays, he also went on to have a trial at Barnet but it was unsuccessful and he signed for Southend United instead.
Hooper never really got going at the Shrimpers and it was a loan move to Hereford United in January of 2008 which really sparked his career into life. Hooper got 11 goals in 19 games for Hereford in League Two and this led to League One side Scunthorpe United paying an initial £125,000 fee for the young striker.
The fee proved to be a great investment for Scunthorpe as he netted 24 times in 45 League One games to see his side promoted to the Championship. Despite barely being over 20 years of age, Hooper carried his side in the second division and scored 19 goals in 35 appearances in the 2009/10 Championship season. Scunthorpe fans voted him as the club’s best ever player in 2012.
Hooper’s great form at Scunthorpe prompted Celtic to sign him for £2.4 million in the summer of 2010 and he enjoyed arguably the best years of his career at Celtic Park. Hooper found the back of the net 82 times in 138 appearances across three seasons for Celtic and was the top scorer at the club every season he was there whilst also being voted into the PFA Scotland Team of the Year twice.
In July 2013, Hooper moved back to England and signed for Norwich for a fee believed to be around £5 million. However, Hooper was unable to score so prolifically in a Norwich side at the lower end of the table. Hooper was the Canaries’ top scorer in the 2013/14 season, but he only managed eight goals in 34 games.
Hooper then slowly lost his place in the Norwich side over the next season or so but he still managed to score 12 times in 30 Championship games as Norwich were promoted via the playoffs.
He moved to Sheffield Wednesday on loan in January 2015 before the deal was made permanent a year later for a fee of around £3 million. Hooper scored 31 times in 89 appearances for the Owls before embarking on somewhat of a world tour as he has played in New Zealand, India and Cyprus over the last few years.
Writer’s View
Hooper is certainly a massive coup for the Bees in terms of reputation. He is a striker with an excellent goalscoring record at a high level who has gone for more than £10 million in transfer fees throughout his career.
The main question is whether or not he is going to be able to reach the levels required of him now that he is 35 years of age. Whilst playing at his various clubs around the world in the latter stages of his career, Hooper’s goalscoring record hasn’t been amazing and the competitive nature of the National League means he will get quickly exposed if he is not up to scratch.
Nevertheless, Hooper will definitely add a level of experience to the squad which was lacking before. He knows what it takes to win titles and promotions more than anyone else in the team and he will be able to push his new teammates to achieve the standards necessary for winning promotion.
A third striker was something that Barnet fans had been crying out for pretty much since the start of the season. But, Hooper joins at a time when Callum Stead is just finding his feet in black and amber as he has netted twice in recent games. This may mean that there are times when one of them doesn’t even make the bench due to National League clubs only being allowed to name five substitutes.
Perhaps Hooper will go out on loan initially in order to gain match fitness before coming into the first-team reckoning around the start of the busy winter period when both Kabamba and Stead will need to be rotated.
