27-year-old Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has had his fair share of ups and downs in his career.

Jay was born in Forest Gate, in east London, to a mother from St Lucia and a father from Dominica.

He was signed by Arsenal at the age of eight when he was spotted playing for his father’s team by a scout, who invited him for dinner. In the summer of 2008, he signed his first professional contract with the club.

The versatile forward, who can play up front, on either wing or as an attacking midfielder, became captain of the Arsenal U18s when he was just 16 years old.

He also captained Arsenal to the 2008-09 FA Youth Cup in which he scored in every round - a team that included the likes of Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin.

“He has outstanding qualities,” Arsene Wenger said of him back he when he was at Arsenal.

“And the build you dream to have [6ft 3in, 13-stone]. It is down to him how far he wants to go because he has big potential.”

Emmanuel-Thomas was on the verge of breaking into the first team at Arsenal. He made six substitute appearances in all, including against Carlo Ancelotti’s title-winning Chelsea side and Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League back in 2010.

Wenger said after his debut against Chelsea: “When his fitness is right, Jay will not only be a good player but a great player.”

So how has this player, praised so highly by Arsene Wenger, ended up being unable to get a kick in at QPR this season.

With his contract coming to an end this summer, what does the future hold for him?

Bristol City's Jay Emmanuel Thomas in action with AFC Wimledon's Sammy Moore

First loans

JET, as he is more commonly known by the fans of teams he has played for, went on loan to Blackpool, who were in the Championship at the time, for two months when he was just 18. He played twelve games for the Tangerines, scoring once and assisting three times.

Later the same season, he was sent on loan to Doncaster Rovers at the end of February for the remainder of the 2009-10 season, also in the Championship.

He proved to be a success, accumulating five goals and four assists in 14 games (including two goals and an assist in a 5-2 win at Ashton Gate), all while being just 19 years old.

He was proving he could show his class in the Championship, surely his Premier League breakthrough would only be a matter of time?

JET spent the second half of the 2010-11 season on loan at Cardiff, playing 16 times including both legs of the Bluebirds’ 3-0 aggregate play-off semi-final defeat to Reading.

After returning to Arsenal following the disappointing play-off experience with Cardiff, Emmanuel-Thomas decided to call time on his Arsenal career, securing a £1m move to Ipswich.

He told Ipswich’s official website: “Obviously it came to the stage in my career at Arsenal where I needed to be playing games. I had a decision to make and Ipswich seemed the right place for me.”

“I had a good time at Arsenal and I’m going to miss all the boys, but my future is about me and I needed to move on.”

“My goal is to play Premier League football with Ipswich.”

Unfortunately for Jay, it never worked out like that, the only Premier League experience he has in his career is a handful of matches sat on the bench, and nine minutes off the bench in a 2-0 loss at Stamford Bridge in October 2010, aged 19.

Emmanuel-Thomas’ Ipswich career wasn’t a great success.

Out of all 76 appearances for the Tractor Boys he only completed 90 minutes on 22 occasions. His first season in Suffolk saw him play a part in 44 out of the 48 games Ipswich played in all competitions.

His second season saw him struggle to get in the team and when he did, it was only brief appearances off the bench.

He completed 90 minutes in only four league games, despite playing in 29 games.

He scored just two goals all season and Mick McCarthy decided at the end of the season that Ipswich wasn’t the place for him.

“I told him that I don’t see them as being part of my plans going forward and they are free to look for another club,” McCarthy said. “I just don’t think Jay’s fulfilled all his potential at our place. It’s always scary letting someone like him go because he might do it elsewhere, but we’ll see.”

Bristol City spell

The summer of 2013 was when Jay Emmanuel-Thomas became a Bristol City player - he joined as part of a swap deal that saw Paul Anderson going the other way.

The Bristol City manager was Sean O’Driscoll, who was also the manager of Doncaster during Emmanuel-Thomas’ successful loan spell in South Yorkshire, which he admitted was an incentive in joining the Robins.

He got his Bristol City career off to the best possible start, scoring on his debut in the opening game of the season against Bradford.

His first four appearances in all competitions brought about three goals and two assists.

Dropping down to League One to join Bristol City seemed to have revived JET's career.

In his first season at Ashton Gate, he played a hand in 33 goals in 55 games (scoring 21 and assisting 12).

He won legendary status at the club in just his eighth game for the club, scoring a 30-yard thunderbolt against local rivals Bristol Rovers in front of the Sky Sports cameras in the first round of the Football League Trophy.

He also played a major part in ending the horrible winless run that Bristol City were on (21 games without a win between March and October 2013); he scored a ‘perfect’ hat-trick – his first three-goal haul in his career - and got an assist in 4-2 away win in Carlisle.

Bristol City's Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and AFC Wimbledon's Sammy Moore

Steve Cotterill took over Bristol City after Sean O’Driscoll’s sacking in December 2013.

The new manager didn’t see Emmanuel-Thomas so much as a striker, unlike his predecessor, and shuffled the attacker’s position around, often playing him out on the right-hand side or behind the striker.

Cotterill had turned Bristol City’s season around and taken them from 23rd to 12th place in the league from Christmas to the end of the season.

New signing Aaron Wilbraham turned out to be Cotterill’s first choice striker at the start of the following season, along with Sam Baldock (before he was sold to Brighton later in the month for £2.25m) in a two-man strike force.

The sale of Baldock brought in the signing of Kieran Agard from Rotherham for £850,000, who slotted straight in for Baldock when it came to the starting XI.

Emmanuel-Thomas didn’t start a league game until the first match after Christmas.

“I don’t know what the manager’s mindset was like at the beginning of the season but obviously not getting into the team did not knock my confidence,” he said about the lack of minutes in the first half of the season.

Bristol City signed Matt Smith on loan from Fulham at the end of November, though he too failed to climb above Agard and Wilbraham in Steve Cotterill’s pecking order.

Just before Christmas though, Bristol City, who were top of the table, lost to bottom of the table Crewe - just their third loss of the season.

Their next game was the Boxing Day clash at home to fellow West Country side Yeovil.

Smith started ahead of Wilbraham and scored his first goal for the club, Emmanuel-Thomas replaced Agard on the hour mark and scored his second league goal of the season.

From then on, Smith and Emmanuel-Thomas started eight of the next nine games together, forming a formidable partnership – the pair scored twelve goals and assisted four in those nine games, in a run that saw them drop only two points and progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Similarly to the reshuffle in the striker department after the loss at Crewe, Bristol City fell 3-1 at home to Sheffield United in February, which then brought Agard back into the side for the next game, at home to Peterborough. He scored and subsequently secured his place back in the starting eleven, at Emmanuel-Thomas’ expense.

Apart from a thumping 8-2 win at home to Walsall on the final day of the season, in which JET managed to score two and assist one, he only managed one more goal for the season, and with him not starting many games, the rumours that his expiring contract would not be renewed by Cotterill became more and more prominent.

Sure enough, after City’s title-winning season, Cotterill told Emmanuel-Thomas that he wouldn’t be able to promise him first-team football, which meant the striker didn’t sign a new contract and went off looking for football elsewhere.

Move to QPR

Emmanuel-Thomas did get his second chance to try and prove himself as a Championship player though when Chris Ramsey and QPR came calling for his signature.

The former England U17 and U19 international made his debut for the Hoops coming off the bench in a 2-0 loss at London rivals Charlton on the opening day of the season.

He scored on his first start for the club in a 3-0 League Cup win away at Yeovil and netted in the second round in the home loss to Carlisle, but league games were proving difficult to come by for the striker.

At last, Emmanuel-Thomas got his chance – Rangers’ first choice strikers Charlie Austin and Jamie Mackie had both been subbed off injured in the previous game and JET was called in for his first league start for the club against Bolton.

He scored twice in the 4-3 win at Loftus Road, including the 94th minute winner.

Emmanuel-Thomas then started the next four games, scoring just once and he quickly lost his place in the side.

Tackle: Jack Hobbs takes on Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (R)

Loan switch

He was sent on loan to MK Dons on deadline day in January, to try and steer the club safe from relegation to League One.

He appeared only four times, for a total of 158 minutes, and MK Dons were relegated.

The 2016-17 season came about with JET being sent back to League One, this time with Gillingham.

The moved looked like it was a good one for him, scoring three goals and assisting one in just his first two games for the club.

By the end of November, Emmanuel-Thomas had scored eleven goals for the Kent club and he was one of the leading scorers in the division.

But JET didn’t score again for the club, going eleven games without a goal, and at the end of February 2017, fans and management alike were left so frustrated with his laid-back style, they sent him back to QPR

He hasn’t played in a professional football match since.

What about the future?

JET's contract at QPR runs out in June, so what does the future hold for him?

Ian Holloway, the current QPR manager – and Emmanuel-Thomas’ manager at Blackpool – spoke earlier this week about what will happen to the current Rangers players whose contract will expire in June.

“They’re having to earn the right to get a contract here which is exactly as it should be. They should be trying their heart out to play and do what I say, and then hopefully get offered a new deal from us.”

QPR’s director of football Les Ferdinand also had a say on Emmanuel-Thomas’ current position at the club earlier in the season: “JET is still alive, but as Ian [Holloway] alluded to there are criteria at the club that all of the players need to follow. If he doesn’t follow it then he’s not going to be part of Ian’s first team.”

“It’s down to him to get where we need him to get to and if he gets there then he’ll be part of it.”

Ferdinand said these words back in November when Emmanuel-Thomas still had a lot of time to turn his situation around.

The Hoops have just eight games of the season left now, so it appears the striker is quickly running out of time to revive his QPR career, and it seems unlikely that he will be rewarded with a new contract come the end of the season.

What that means for next season is uncertain - although he undoubtedly has the talent, his laid-back style of play doesn’t show the character that most managers desire, and it doesn’t advertise him well.

An offer from a Championship club seems improbable and his last spell in League One came to an unhappy ending.

The striker, once declared as a 'great player' by Arsene Wenger, could now have to drop further down the pyramid to avoid ending up on football's scrapheap.

At 27, he might still have more to offer to the game.

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