Marc Bircham has told talkSPORT Joey Barton would be a “perfect” signing for QPR. The combative midfielder is weighing up a free transfer move to Loftus Road and youth team coach Bircham would welcome him to west London with open arms. He told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast: “I spoke to Joey and it’s nothing to do with the club or manager [why he’s not signed yet]. He really wants to play for us, he just has a few family issues to sort out to do with relocating. “ Joey would be a magnificent signing for the club and shows the ambition of the board and where we want to go ” Marc Bircham “He would be a magnificent signing for the club and shows the ambition of the board and where we want to go. “Forget the off-field stuff, as a player he’s perfect for us. I’ve always liked him and I like the way he goes about things on the pitch. He’d give us a spark and would be a fantastic signing.” After Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes completed his takeover of the club last week, manager Neil Warnock now has funds to play with in the transfer market and the future looks bright. Bircham admitted: “There’s a real feel-good factor around the club and for the first time it actually feels like we’ve been promoted and we’re in the Premier League. It’s a fantastic place to be.”
Terence Blacker: When my team improve, so do I Friday, 26 August 2011SHARE PRINTEMAILTEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE SPONSORED LINKS Ads by Google Panasonic Viera TV's With 5 Years Free Warranty Find Out More Here Today www.panasonic.co.uk/viera GFT Global Markets UK Trade CFDs, spread bets and spot forex with DealBook® 360 from GFT www.GFTuk.com BMW Servicing From £99 Independent Specialist in SW London Huge Savings over dealer prices www.bmerservices.co.uk Local 1-Day Coupons Up to 70% Off the Best Stuff to do! Restaurants, Spas, Events and More. www.LivingSocial.com This column may soon become more openly aggressive. It will scythe down opposition with a brisk ruthlessness. It will be populist and controversial, but then will unexpectedly quote Nietzsche and Orwell in order to justify its position. The football club I support seems to be about to buy Joey Barton, an eccentrically-coiffed midfielder who confusingly combines thuggishness with an interest in philosophy and social affairs. As a result, not only will my attitude towards this man change (I now see him as an Orwell reader rather than a former jailbird) but so, in some subtle way, will my own behaviour. To someone not afflicted with sporting fandom, the idea that the way a team performs and conducts itself will have some psychological influence on those who follow them might seem strange, yet I have no doubt that it is true. For 28 years, I have been a fan of Queens Park Rangers, the team based near where I used to live in London's Shepherds Bush. During that time, they provided excitement, anguish, conversation and emotional release. There were disappointments and setbacks, but most of the memories were good. We were a relatively small club, taking on giants. Our very survival at the top level was a matter of pride. In 1996, with relegation, it all began to go horribly wrong. Over the dark years which followed (dodgy owners, a bewildering succession of managers, forgettable players), it occurred to me that, if the team a person supports feeds into character, then I may have made a bad choice. Those supporting a strong, winning club are likely to become used to success, to run onto the pitch of their own lives with an expectation of success. It may not be attractive, this confidence (think of David Mellor and John Major, obvious Chelsea fans, or Piers Morgan and Clive Anderson, clearly supporters of Arsenal), but it is a greater asset in life than the expectation â or, rather, the sure knowledge â that every small moment of triumph in life is merely setting one up of for a larger, more shattering disappointment. In life as in football, defeat and relegation eat into the soul. Look at Rod Liddle (Millwall), Alastair Campbell (Burnley), Jim Davidson (Charlton Athletic), Hugh Grant (Fulham) or Michael Parkinson (Barnsley): they are a chippy lot who have had too many weekends spoiled by a Saturday afternoon result for it not to have warped their personality in some way. The mental health of QPR fans has been severely stressed with the wild roller-coaster of hope and despair over recent years. Returning at last to the top level this season, the club offered the exquisite psychological torture of a brilliant manager â canny, positive, good with the players â and grim owners, who combined conspicuous wealth with stinginess, a snobbish dislike of football with a desire to interfere. It was a recipe for unhappiness, to be yoked through fandom to these ghastly men, to know that they had control over whether the next few months were joyful, bearable or embarrassing. The change, which now seems like a little miracle, has happened this month. The bad old regime sold out to Tony Fernandes, a Malaysian millionaire who seems sane, decent and ambitious. Hence the danger of an imminent personality change. Top of the manager's shopping list is Barton, the kind of player whom, not so long ago, I would have preferred not to have to cheer on. Now I see Joey's positive points. His Twitter profile, a quote from The Smiths, is "I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving, England is mine and it owes me a living." That, I'm pretty sure, is meant ironically â or, if not, it has the powerful virtue of honesty. Joey has passion, individuality, a peculiar sense of style, and pretty soon those qualities will start rubbing off on me. After all those years of my loyal support, it is the least QPR can do. www.terenceblacker.com
Sounds hopeful - it would be bizarre if Barton was arriving at LR to explain why he wasn't coming. Think he'd do that over the phone...
IJTaylor81 IanJTaylor #FF @philipb1 calling all #QPR fans - follow our new CEO Philip Beard. He's very busy at the moment (!) but will be tweeting very soon! #QPR
Warnock said he's going to throw new players in the team tomorrow regardless of whether they have met their teammates. So maybe we'll see more than one signing today.
"Smoke Lingers 'round your fingers Train Heave on - to euston Do you think you've made The right decision this time ?"
Done Deal: Burton Albion have signed striker Billy Kee from League Two rivals Torquay United for an undisclosed fee on a two-year contract. just looked on SSN and this popped up only read the first three words Done Deal Burton, incorrectly, almost had a hot flush.
As i said last night, i think he will sign before 12:00 so he can play at Wigan. Hope NW also has 1-2 others there as well, (that's just my wishful thinking). Good deal on the table and no one else wants him so he would be mad not to sign, (actually i take that back). If he wasn't coming he wouldn't be going to meet us he would have been 'offski' by now.
Indeed....remember he could sign this morning and we not hear anything from Official QPR till this afternoon etc. Especially if they are going to announce 2 or 3 new players.
