Ambitious QPR line up £5m Hooper deal as Hull back out of move for Celtic striker By Simon Jones PUBLISHED: 21:42 GMT, 11 July 2013 | UPDATED: 21:45 GMT, 11 July 2013 23 shares 3 View comments QPR are closing on a deal for Celticâs Gary Hooper, while Norwich also maintain an interest in the striker. Manager Harry Redknapp is prepared to improve his offer to around £5million with add-ons. Hull boss Steve Bruce revealed recently that he would not be returning with an offer for the Englishman after a reported £4.5m bid was rejected last month. Neil Lennon remains determined to hang on to his star striker â who the Parkhead club rate at £6m â but is bracing himself for further offers. Meanwhile, Steve McClaren, who joined Redknappâs coachings set-up last week, has been reflecting on the Râs relegation last season. He told the clubâs website: âIt surprised me, initially. From the talent that was bought last summer. But talent is nothing. Youâve got to get blend, youâve got to get balance, youâve got to get commitment, youâve got to get team-work. âThatâs the key. Itâs not about looking at the past, itâs about saying, âWhat do we need to do now?â âThe team got relegated, so there are problems. And we have to solve those problems, on the field and off the field. Thatâs what Harryâs doing. They key thing is weâve got to build a team. Thatâs the most important thing. âI donât think you can set targets to say weâre going to do this, or weâre going to do that. The first thing is we have to build a team; a team that can compete and a team that can win football matches. âThatâs the platform â work hard, work hard together. If you donât have that, itâs such hard work and youâre going to struggle. Thatâs probably one of the reasons why QPR are now in the Championship. We have to assess that first, before anything else. You have to blend, you have to be together.â Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...r-deal-Hull-Celtic-striker.html#ixzz2YoG6zXS5 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
It's fast becoming a Circus there are some people who shouldn't be in football anymore ... Harold and Stephen are three of them ... That right three as Harold has two heads that revolve together ... The wobble you see is a auto calibration
So at the moment it's looking like we may have BZ, AJ, Remy, Mackie, Hooper, Crouch - we aiming to do the opposite of MH & fill the team with strikers instead of midfielders?
Lets face reality here. Its 'likely' with AJ's history that he won't make a full championship season and the same probably goes for Bobby 'I don't actually like football' Z. Remy is either likely to depart or get banged up. That leaves Mackie & Hogan. Hardly awe inspiring and as we get no luck the above is likely to happen. I can see why 'Arrold would go for Hooper & Crouch at this stage. I wouldn't be putting all of my eggs in the AJ & BZ basket......
Sounds like McLaren is channeling Ron Manager. If 'football people" were banned from using cliches and stating the obvious in a bland way we would save a lot of electricity and newsprint. Football is a simple game, managed by alarmingly simple people.
23 days SB can you see a buzzing QPR side ready to eat all in its way? I can nearly hear the next round of excuses : we have had a lot of disruption this summer with comings and goings and that has unsettled us
I'd sign Hooper, he'd be a good signing. Sack off Crouch. Ephraim is useless. Mackie now thinks he's better than he is. I think we're all under-estimating just how **** the championship actually is. Hull have gone up with a terrible, terrible team. The play off final was dire. We will be fine.
BZ and AJ wont last the season, Remy will be banged up or gone. Mackie is better as a RW leaving us with 2 forwards if we got that lot. Id say we need 1 more.
I'd agree one more and I hope it's not crouch. Don't know that much about Hooper but if his choice is Prem or Cham we won't get him.
With respect, that's bollocks. It may not be PL standard but it's a way better team than we went up with in 2008, and most of our fans viewed the football we played for the majority of the season as the best they'd ever seen the club playing. It got **** towards the end when the nerves set in, but we were also without both of our first choice strikers by that point so we weren't going to be firing on all cylinders anyway. Having said that, the division as a whole is dire, there's way too many teams who turn up to away games to play out a 0-0 and waste as much time as possible in the process, and that's teams right the way up the league not just the crap ones.
Ive always thought there should be no points for a 0-0 draw, then that plan becomes useless. Plus the the game would get more exciting the longer it went on and teams take more chances. On the other hand it was hilarious watching teams waste time from the 1st minute and then desperately try to hurry late in the game to get goals back. Wasting time from the off just does not work.
Hooper has impressive stats. http://www.garyhooper88.com/gary-statistics.html On the basis of a league goal every 2.11 games, I can see why Harry is keen. The lad knows where the back of the net is.