Cardiff City boss Dave Jones believes "high maintenance" striker Jay Bothroyd has yet to reach his full potential.Jones says nine-goal Bothroyd, who is captaining the Bluebirds, plays a "big part" as they prepare for Saturday's home Championship clash with Barnsley.
"Can he get better? Yeah of course he can," Jones told BBC Sport Wales.
"And the day that he thinks he can't is the day he might as well leave this football club. He has got all the attributes that can make him better."
When Jones signed Bothroyd from Wolves for £300,000 in August 2008 many believed the manager was taking a gamble with a player, who had had his commitment and temperament questioned earlier in his career.
But Jones was always sure he could get the best out of the 27-year-old former Arsenal trainee.
"Every player you sign is a gamble because you don't really get to know till you live with them," revealed Jones.
"In Jay's case I knew he had the ability. It was just that I was another manager, could I get the best out of him? Can he do a lot more? Yeah. Can he improve? Yeah.
"Otherwise the day you think that you can't get any more out of him you get rid, no difference to anyone else.
"I can see why other managers got rid of him in certain instances, and I can understand the reasons why we don't let him go because he is a quality player."
Jones calls Bothroyd "a high maintenance player" but insists that is not a criticism.
"You might get a player that is low maintenance but Jay, because of the size of him and the role he plays, is always going to be in the thick of things, and hopefully will that continue," he said.
"We keep pushing him, or I keep pushing him, to make him better and stronger as a person on the pitch. He's a fantastic lad off the pitch.
"We have got quite a few high maintenance players here, but I don't mean that in a nasty way. That's just the way they are.
"But they are all an integral part to what we are trying to do and that makes the dressing room."
Bothroyd has been playing through the pain barrier in both the 4-1 FA Cup defeat at Chelsea last weekend and Tuesdays's 1-1 draw at home to West Bromich Albion after picking up an ankle injury.
Cardiff cannot afford to be without Bothroyd as the squad is down to the bare bones through injury.
Top scorer Peter Whittingham is a doubt for the Barnsley clash with a groin strain.
Fellow midfielder Stephen McPhail has already been ruled out for four weeks with two cracked ribs, while captain Mark Hudson and midfielder Joe Ledley face long spells on the sidelines after undergoing ankle and hip surgery respectively.
Source: BBC Sport
Source: BBC Sport