Transfer Confirmed (IN)

Sunday 10th July 2016
Artemis Beartrappe has started to splash the cash at Belfast City Football Club... and his first signing will be former Liverpool player Jay Spearing... Spearing completed his move from Bolton Wanderers earlier today in a one million pound deal which will see the player net a wage of ten thousand pounds a week over three years which will see him as the clubs highest paid player...

Jay Spearing
Raised in Wallasey, Merseyside... Spearing was the captain of the Liverpool Under 18s which won the FA Youth Cup in 2007... Spearing was promoted to Melwood in the summer of 2007 to train with the Liverpool first team after impressing in the club's Academy... He had been involved with his boyhood club since he was seven years old...

Spearing made his competitive first team debut on 9 December 2008... coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 UEFA Champions League win against PSV... Spearing also appeared in the Reds' 4–0 win over Real Madrid in the second round of the Champions League...

On 8 August 2013, after several loan periods at other clubs it was announced that a deal was struck between Liverpool and Bolton subject to a medical on the same afternoon... It was confirmed on the 9 August that Spearing had agreed a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee and he made his debut the following day in the 1–1 home draw against Reading... in which he received Man of the Match honours.

In September 2013... Spearing was handed the captaincy at Bolton whenever incumbent Zat Knight found himself out of the starting XI... although he retained the armband when Knight returned to the team with both in the starting lineup... On 26 July 2014, the club confirmed that Spearing would succeed Knight as captain...

Artemis Beartrappe had the following to say about the player after the signing was confirmed... "Jay is a fantastic player with great leadership in the middle of the park... Jay was my first signing because I needed some experience in this young squad of mine currently... even at the age of twenty seven he has played over two hundred times for his clubs and played alongside some of the best in the world like Steven Gerrard while at his time at Liverpool... this is the kind of player I want... and I wanted to set an example with my first signing!!!"