HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE hotshot JJ Hooper is attracting interest from a host of Championship and League One clubs – but he's banned his agent from telling him which ones!
Hooper has scored 18 times in his last 26 matches and his nine goals this term have fired the Hawks into the Vanarama Conference South title race.
The 21-year-old sharp shooter believes playing under the guidance of manager Lee Bradbury, a former forward of course and a fans' favourite at Bournemouth and Portsmouth, has brought his game on leaps and bounds.
And Hooper refuses to let the talk distract him from the task of putting Havant on their way to promotion.
He told The NLP: “I'm not going to sit here and say I don't like hearing my name linked with clubs in the higher leagues but I am totally determined to keep my mind on the job in hand.
“You've got to remember that they are watching you because you are playing well and if you want them to keep coming to your matches then you have to be in the right frame of mind.
“I've even told my agent he isn't to tell me who the clubs are, people shouldn't tell me because I don't want any reason to be distracted. We're having a great season and we have got ourselves into a nice position. The team have been fantastic, especially considering we lost our first three games!”
Hooper, who scored five goals in five starts before Saturday's game against Chelmsford City, says he appreciates the game for perhaps the first time.
Despite his young age he has already been on a footballing road show; starting his career in the north east at Newcastle before hot-footing it to the north west for game time at Workington.
Spells in the midlands at Alfreton and Northampton soon followed but his two-month stint in Hampshire at Farnborough at the end of last season saw him find his scoring feet and seal a move to the south coast.
The 6ft 1in forward added: “When you love football like I do, you'll go anywhere for a game.
“I have had time at a Football League club and its only now really that I respect what I had there. I'm determined to keep working hard and perhaps one day get back, I was naïve and forgot there was another side to the game.
“Havant have a great track record of helping players progress. Ollie Palmer went to Mansfield a few years ago and Portsmouth took Nigel Atangana in the summer, the year before that Chris Arthur got a move to Wimbledon – the club's history of pushing people's careers forward convinced me to sign in the summer.
“Lee (Bradbury) has been brilliant with me and his advice having played the same position has really helped my game develop. I just want to keep scoring goals.”
