The same thought crossed my mind. Can only assume he was on too much for him to not be able to play for 90 mins. I would have been happy for him to stay if the terms worked for all parties, but we don't know what happens behind the scenes. I think we can all agree that Dykes is not the answer though.
I've told you, Grabban is available on a free ! He'd score hatfuls for us with these chances. No loan fee so for 1 season I can't see where we could complain. Something is happening behind the scenes that Les and Co aren't revealing. FFP is one thing but not spending 1 single penny is another. Grabban is a free agent and still we hear we have enough striking options , when every single one of them can't score goals ffs. I don't care if Dykes runs around alot and does alit of work for the team, his main job is to bury sitters and he can't. He is costing us points now and I blame the board , its not Dykes fault he's a **** finisher.
The Board knows that we need a striker and hopefully there are on-going negotiations we'll before the end of the transfer window (and beyond for loans or unattached players). Let's watch this space with as much patience as we can muster.
What I’ve seen of Armstrong he’s quick but a long way off from being our number 9 yet, at the moment he’s a 20 min sub & should stay that way, he’s had at least 5 reasonably easy chances & missed the lot, his pace gets him his chances, his touch needs to improve & I’m sure it will but as I said not ready yet
I think we went for it last season, and don't have a penny to spend after it all went tits up....seems those with a firmer finger on the pulse than me also feel the same....from Clives preview of todays game.... I think the hangover from last season that I’ve written about a few times is very real, for both players and fans. It certainly is for me. I allowed myself to believe – I looked at that team and that manager in those early games with Man Utd, Leicester, Hull and Middlesbrough and thought there was no way they would finish any lower than sixth. The scale of the collapse was unfathomable to somebody in that mindset, and to make matters worse this job gives me an understanding of the club’s accounts and FFP situation so I’m more aware than many that it was the chance, at least for the next few years. We spent money on that push that we won’t have to spend again without significant player sales. Having built for so many years to get to that position, financed it with a generational talent in Eze, only to now be potentially facing several more seasons before we can do that again, is very demoralising. Furthermore, another drawback of this role, is the stuff that’s come out since, some of which I’ve been able to publish and some not, about the dire state of affairs behind the scenes – the arguments, the egos, the people not talking to each other, the divisions, the selfishness – that undermined that wonderful chance we had. The club is leaking again, and everybody’s got a different story to tell. Obviously some of it won’t be true, some of it will be peddled by people with agendas, some will be protecting their own position, some of it will just be stuff made up by a bloke down the pub that becomes lore through retelling. But, still, I’ve been labouring, and writing, under the misapprehension that at least QPR have been getting their house in order off the pitch. Lovely looking new training ground apart, we haven’t. That hasn’t been cleaned up simply by changing the manager and coaching staff either. I think it’s starting to dawn on Michael Beale a little bit exactly what he’s walked into here – I think given his comments about new signings when he first arrived and what he’s saying now, certainly the FFP headroom situation is far worse than the brochure made out – and that’s upsetting as well. His demeanour has already changed markedly.
I wouldn't mind but we didn't go for it last season ? When the chance was there to get play off minimum. Its partly what led to Warburtons demise, his fury at the board for not coughing up the extra few hundred grand to bring in Patterson when our injuries had stunted our run. That's 2 key windows almost gone now and we haven't brought in a proper hitman of any sort. You can't compete in this league without 1, most clubs have 2 or 3 even the so called lesser clubs. Yes Beale would've been told he has to work within constraints and work with the youth, but I'm not buying for a minute that he was told we wouldn't strengthen our striking options. He's not stupid enough to believe that Roberts would be the answer in providing lots of goals, that's not in his DNA. Earlier in pre season Beale said we were on the verge of 2 new signings and neither came to fruition. One was undoubtedly Mcnamara, who was never coming for what we offered, but who was the other ? There's no doubt in my mind it was Parrott who chose Preston. Yes, Beale has said we weren't in for him but he would say that wouldn't he, not oh the board wouldn't pay the loan fee. Its all very obvious to everyone we need a proper finisher to compete , so why not get Grabban now on a season long deal as a free agent before someone else does and we have literally no possibility to bring in ? Or is this really what the board want, to wait till deadline day and say we looked at various options but none were within our parameters ? It's all cloak and dagger and something ain't right.
Spot on Steely, the bigger knock-on from this is now the supporters are realising the false dawn last season provided and the reverse is happening now. My fear is the FFP straightjacket will turn us into a yo-yo club but not with the Premier League...
If judged on attendances providing income we're right on the Championship/League One borderline. Problem is with London overheads and a stadium that provides no other income we're at a big disadvantage. If a player is offered £5k a week by us and say Rotherham, that £5k will go a lot further in Rotherham than London. Their overheads will be far less than ours so we're losing out both ways. I hate to say it but Brentford saw the future and built a model to meet it while Tony was spunking £250 million on has beens and arseholes, we'll be paying for that for the foreseeable future...
Problem is, imo, Clive sounds like one of those conspiracy nuts online, who tell us that they know something we don't etc etc but they never tell us exactly what it is. Who's not talking to who? What divisions? What egos? What selfishness? It's all so vague. If you know something Clive ****ing tell us!
I am not buying the whole “we went for it last season” talk. Last season we had a very good first eleven but that was it. We had nothing to back it up. We found ourselves in an inflated position at the mid season point but to maintain that we had to strengthen the squad, not by one player but probably three or four were required and the plain facts were that we didn’t have anything left in the bank. That fact is borne out by our pre season spend this year. I would actually say that we have a stronger squad this season than last. We have already suffered far too many injuries though. I do agree that we need a finisher but did we have one the last two seasons. Has everyone forgotten that we came within inches of breaking the clubs scoring record in consecutive games without a twenty goal man. Our goals have mostly come from midfield and we are again relying on Willock and Chair not just to create chances but score goals as well. Dykes looks totally devoid of confidence. The two one on one misses in the last two games have been awful and cost us dearly. If he doesn’t get a goal soon we are screwed. Bottom line in all this ramblings is that we are a team living on a shoestring and mid table is over achieving for us. To make ends meet another player will be sold either in this window or the next and the most likely candidate is Willock.
You can only live on a shoestring for so long before you either have a huge slice of luck or you ‘break’. I’m with you on not buying into all this ‘we went for it’ last season. We had an excellent first half season and we didn’t give the manager what he wanted to push on - so we didn’t ‘go for it’ and behind the scenes it all fell apart by the sounds of it. I’m with Col on giving MB 10 games and assessing things then. But, so far, it hasn’t been a very good start by him or the board. Let’s hope things ‘click’ soon. The balancing of the books and minimum spend makes me wonder if they are preparing to sell the club (although the training ground purchase and investment makes me think that’s not so). Who knows!! The only thing I know for sure is Dykes needs to find his finishing boots and a positive attitude - he can’t go on like this.
Just seen the missed chances. ****'s sake. I'd be more concerned if we weren't playing reasonably well and we are creating multiple chances. We should have won both our last two games. We simply must get another forward and hope he has a good scoring run.
It's only 5 games, 5 games won or lost by fine margins. But for a bit of better luck we'd be 4 or 5 points better off. I do agree that the hangover from last season is a major contributing factor but I think we'll overcome this. We need to remember that for three quarters of last season we were in the top 6 or even top 4, with essentially this same squad. We can bemoan our lack of signings or perceived lack of signings but Roberts and Richards look exciting plus the emergence of Armstrong give some hope. Dykes is a concern admittedly, you can rarely fault his effort but we don't need any more evidence to prove he's not a natural goal scorer. The irony of letting Charlie Austin go after a season not playing to his strengths is irksome now that we're getting the type of balls into the box a natural Predator like him would thrive on. Couple of weeks ago I though Beale looked like he was regretting taking this job on but I'm not getting that vibe now, I really appreciate his honesty and I do think he's right that things will click. I just can't believe the suggestions he's had the wool pulled over his eyes by Les and Hoos, given how sensible they are trying to run the club that would be ridiculous. I do think they were gambling on a sale or two to free up funds though. Already its been a roller coaster but I reckon we need to just chill a bit, no one is promoted and no one is relegated in August and time and time again this league proves it's not how strong you start the season it's how you finish.
