The Bermudian striker was yesterday placed on the transfer list by the English Second Division club after he rejected several new contract offers.

His current two-year contract expires at the end of the current season, at which time he will become free to move to another English -- or foreign club -- without a fee being paid to the club.

"This is purely a result of the Bosman ruling,'' said Goater's agent, Mark Georgevic, yesterday. When Kyle Lightbourne left Walsall at the end of his contract in the summer a fee still had to be paid because he joined another English club, though he could have signed for a club in Europe on a free transfer. Now that ruling has been changed to include free transfers within the same country and that is the reason Bristol City are acting now.

"I'm not surprised, I knew it was going to happen,'' said Georgevic, who also helped Lightbourne negotiate his transfer to Coventry City.

"If Bristol City were going to get a fee, like Walsall did with Kyle in the summer, this would not have happened. Now Bosman is such that Bristol City can't afford to take that risk.'' If Goater was to stay at City until the end of the season -- as he has insisted he wanted to -- the club's only realistic hope of getting him to sign a new contract would be if they managed to get promoted into the First Division.

But if he decided to exercise his right to a free transfer they could lose out on what he is currently worth, no doubt much more than what they paid to get him from Rotherham in the summer of 1996.

"He cost them 175,000 and they feel now that he must be worth up to 600,000 of 700,000 and they could lose all of that,'' said Georgevic.

"If he had been able to reach the end of his contract in the summer and Bristol City had been promoted he may well have signed for them.

"But it's simply that if he signed a contract now he might restrict his ability to move on to a bigger club. And if he got to the summer without signing for Bristol City or another club than they wouldn't get anything if he moves. But he would be able to guage the market and find out if other clubs are interested.'' Bristol City are a very ambitious club and have climbed to second in the standings and look a sure bet for promotion.

"He is very happy in Bristol and he's playing probably the best football of his career and is playing in a successful side. One would fully expect them to get promoted from the position they are in,'' said Georgevic.

However, at age 27 (28 in February) Goater, scorer of 13 goals in 18 matches -- is desperate to play in the Premier League and realises time could be running out. "If he's going to get a move to the higher leagues this is the time,'' says Georgevic.

Georgevic said only eight players have scored more than 20 goals in each of the last three seasons: Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler, Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand, Dwight Yorke, John Aldridge, Kyle Lightbourne and Shawn Goater.

No fee has yet been set by the club who will likely test the market first to see what interest the move generates.