Aidy Boothroyd ended his search for a striker today by signing Grzegorz Rasiak on loan.

Rasiak, the 29-year-old Polish international, has signed on a season-long loan deal and he goes straight into the squad to face Charlton tommorrow. Watford have the option to sign the player in January for an agreed price.

Standing at 6ft 3", Rasiak fits the criteria of the experienced, goalscoring, target-man the manager has been seeking to fill the void created by the sudden departure of Darius Henderson.

Rasiak has two years left to run on his contract at Southampton but the cash-strapped Saints were keen to offload one of their highest earners in an effort to trim the wage bill. They paid Spurs £2m for Rasiak in 2006.

Rasiak scored 24 goals in 45 league starts for Southampton but failed to find the back of the net in a seven-game loan spell at Bolton Wanderers at the end of last season.

The likely move for Rasiak will be embraced by Tommy Smith who teamed up with the Pole to devastating effect at Derby County. In the 2004/05 season Smith and Rasiak scored 22 goals between them in the 34 matches they appeared in together.

The proposed arrival of Rasiak, however, means the deal to sign free agent Ulises De la Cruz is on the back-burner.

“There is a fear we might lose him,” acknowledged Boothroyd. “But I like to be straight down the line with people. I could quite easily play him along but people need to know where they stand.

“He knows the situation and has been coming in and training, and he adds to our training. If something comes up then I accept he’s got to go.”

Boothroyd describes the current transfer policy as “one in and one out”.

“I might have to move others out but I want it to be players on loan or perhaps sell players I think will benefit by moving on. It’s definitely a fine balance. I have to wheel and deal but I don’t want to take a bit out of the machine that is already working.”

The manager is bracing himself for bids for Smith, Jobi McAnuff and possibly Jay DeMerit.

“If we do get that fax on the table then we have got a decision to make,” he said. “If and when that happens, and I get it first, I’ll guess I’ll have to hide it,” he joked. “We are where we are and that might have to be discussed.

“We’ve had no bids at the moment and I’m hoping we get to August 31 as quickly as possible.”