Town have confirmed that Peterborough United striker Tyrone Barnett has joined the Blues on loan until January 19th. The 27-year-old, who will not be eligible to face his parent club at Portman Road on Saturday, had been transfer-listed by Posh after a breach of club discipline.
Barnett, who TWTD revealed was a Blues target when with Crawley last January, was a youth player with West Brom before dropping into non-league with Rushall Olympic, Telford, Willenhall Town and Hednesford. He broke into the Football League with Macclesfield in the summer of 2010.
After 13 goals in 50 starts and one sub appearance in his only season with the Silkmen, the 6ft 3in tall frontman moved on to Crawley for £150,000 the following summer.
Impressive displays for the Red Devils attracted plenty of interest with the likes of Fulham, Wigan and Stoke all reported to be keeping an eye before Christmas. Blackpool agreed a fee approaching £1 million before the deal broke down.
Barnett subsequently joined Posh, initially on loan, for a similar figure in February, signing a deal until 2015. He scored in the Blues' 3-2 victory over Peterborough at Portman Road last season as he netted 19 goals over the campaign, 15 of them for Crawley. This year he has scored just once in nine starts and one substitute appearance.
A week ago, the striker, club captain Gaby Zakuani, Emile Sinclair and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing were all transfer-listed and fined after an incident outside a nightclub in Peterborough city centre in the early hours of last Sunday morning. Zakuani and Sinclair have subsequently been taken off the list and have had their fines quashed.
The move for Barnett is unlikely to be a signal that QPR are planning to recall DJ Campbell with the Loftus Road club unlikely to get permission to draft an additional player into their 25-man Premier League squad despite Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora suffering injuries.
A number of Championship clubs, including Birmingham, Barnsley and Brighton, were also believed to have been interested in signing the frontman.
The signing takes Town's loan total back to eight, six of those - Barnett, Stephen Henderson, Danny Higginbotham, DJ Campbell, Bilel Mohsni and Bradley Orr - domestic loanees with only five permitted in a matchday squad. The other two loans, Daryl Murphy from Celtic and St Etienne's Guirane N'Daw don't count as they are from clubs in 'foreign' associations.
Photo: ITFC