Just a tad selective Rhino and taken somewhat out of context (where have I heard that before?)....... This is what Clive said..."QPR needed to start signing younger players - players with a future sell on value, players with lots still to achieve and prove, players with ambition. QPR needed to stop signing players with medical files that require a trolley to wheel them into the building, and start doing more stringent medical checks. Beware players whoâve played for the biggest clubs in the world, where the facilities are perfect, their team mates are world class and 95% of games end in a victory, because training at Harlington, scrapping against relegation in 18,000 capacity Loftus Road, and looking up to see Karl Henry as you only option for a pass in a tight situation can be something of a culture shock. Beware foreign players with over-active agents. One or two problems with this though. For a start, these young, hungry, medically sound, talented, English players with lofty ambitions, high sell on value and lots still to prove donât exactly come cheap. We live in an age where Jake Livermore is worth £8m, Adam Lallana £25m and Luke Shaw £33m. Secondly, QPR are a newly promoted team with totally substandard facilities at the stadium and training ground, with a terrible recent reputation for just about everything a football club can build a reputation for. Last time the Râs were at this level the whole place was a laughing stock, with the clubâs own captain going public on numerous occasions saying the dressing room was a poisonous place and the team spirit amounted to little more than betting with each other on who would win the latest changing room punching up. Persuading said bright young things to risk their career in a place like that is no mean feat. You would therefore have forgiven the QPR medical staff if the first part of the tests on Steven Caulker this morning consisted of little more than them walking slowly around him, poking him firmly with their index fingers to see if he is actually real â and really here. That, presumably, was swiftly followed by a thorough brain scan. Famous last words, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with this transfer. Itâs a remarkable coup for a club of QPRâs size, and totally out of character with whatâs gone before. Caulker is only 22 but has already amassed more than 160 first team appearances â a fine achievement considering he was groomed in the Spurs academy which seems to exist more to hoard young talent and keep it away from rival clubs than actually promote it into their first team. Heâs fought relegation in the Championship while on loan with Bristol City, and in the Premier League last season with Cardiff. In between he spent a season on loan at Swansea after they won promotion to the top flight. So he knows about relegation scraps, and he knows all about playing for teams that have just come into this division, and about leading and captaining clubs too. All at 22. He also knows Harry Redknapp and how he works, just as the manager knows him. Honestly, Iâm having to fight the urge to start singing Starshipâs Nothingâs Gonna Stop Us Now." OK I know it's a bit long winded but that is his style of writing......
How do you see your Defence lining up for the new season then? I assume it will be Rio and Caulker CB when fit, Simpson at RB, but what about LB? Does Yun have a chance of starting or will it be Clint Hill? Just looking for a bit of help as if Yun will be a first team regular i wouldn't mind him in my starting XI!
Looks like we are going 352 so back 3 will be Ned, Rio and Caulker....YSY will be in contention for left wing back position along with Traore.....Simpson and AN Other will be contesting the Right wing back berth.... Don't know if that helps your fantasy side?
Something like this as it stands: ........ Green .....Ned-Rio-Caulker ......... Barton Simpson-Ale-Granero-Traore ...... Phillips ....... Austin
Possibly, but that team contains 3 players who are coming back from big, big injuries, let's see how they shape up in real competition. There will be another 3-5 tranfers in/loans as well.
Selected it because whilst it was very cynical it had me in stitches. Clive has his reasons for feeling the way he does, no one has to read his stuff(swords...) but it does usually contain something that will make you smile. We don't normally cut and paste from another board. It used to be bad form. have things changed?
This one looks a good signing. I hope the 3 or 4 TF says we are still going for, are also around Caulker's age and experience.
So far we've only signed 3 players this window, and one of those the fee hasn't been sorted out (tribunal probably). We're spending more than I'd like us to be though because we now owe the owners about £100M that we're paying 5% on, but for most of the players concerned the fees aren't that bad, it's just the number of them makes it add up. Last summer after getting promoted we signed I think 13 players for just over £10M combined (including Huddlestone for about half that on his own). January we spent combined £13M (which rose to £14M when we stayed up) to bring in Long and Jelavic and they both got a 1 in 3 return for the 2nd half of the season so it's quite fair. We also sold a few players like Hobbs to Forest for 7 figure fees so the overall spend was lower. Then this summer we've already spent combined £15M on Livermore (one of our better players on loan last season) and Snodgrass. We've also agreed £3M for Robertson from Dundee U (which I've been told is a cracking price and we'll get 5 times that in a few years if we sell him) and £5M for Dawson from Spurs if he signs before he cashes his pension. We've also got the compensation for Ince to sort out, it's not going to help us that he turned down moves to Monaco and Inter Milan before joining us. That January and this summer window, because our spending was early it meant we were the 4th highest spending PL club of 2014 until the Lallana deal went through, but then we're almost finished for this window and most clubs haven't really started. The other factor is that last season the club that finished in 20th place in the PL got more in TV and prize money (not including the parachute payments they're getting this season onwards) than Man U got for winning the PL the season before. You'll hear about us next summer though, as we're in the Europa League UEFA will be looking at our books. Unless we've somehow managed to make a £20M+ profit up to the end of this month we're going to be in breach of FFP and have to pay a fine and be restricted in Europe next season the same way Man City are this year (if we get there, if we don't we'll probably just get a bigger fine).
You've done very good business overall, the only ones I'd have doubts about are Dawson (age/fitness) and Ince (I'm probably wrong, but something about him I'm not convinced by). Is the club now your owners' main business? At least ours have other things to make them rich and aren't loaning us money, just chucking it at us interest and debt free. That can't cover up our massive losses though. Of course if we ever got into Europe (which is my one semi realistic hope for the club in whats left of my lifetime, though we'll never do it on fair play while Barton is in the team) we would have to play the U12 team and ask them to loan us some cash to pay the fine.
The Dawson deal has been all but agreed for weeks now so I doubt it's happening, and Ince on a "compensation to be agreed" basis should be one we can sell for a profit even to the Championship (he looked miles better than Zaha the season they were both in the Championship). We currently look like getting Robertson from Dundee U (fee agreed and he's down to talk terms now), Maguire from Sheff U who said this morning they've accepted an improved bid over the weekend followed by us saying we never made a new bid for him so they think they've just changed their mind about the one last week, and Jenkinson from Arsenal once they sign Chambers from Southampton and that should be for a combined fee of about £8M. Like I say, the deals we're doing are mainly good in themselves, I just don't see how getting £60M in TV and prize money instead of about £5M covers our wage bill going up by about £20M and us spending about £60M on fees. We're not his main business, but his main business isn't that bit. His family wealth last year was a total of about £380M, so his other businesses were worth about £450M (as we're assetless and owed £70M to the other businesses we'd reduce his value). It sounds like a reasonable wedge, but cashwise they're not going to have much as they've transferred £100M into us now, and their business is a manufacturing one, so the value is in stocks for sale and materials, machinery, buildings etc rather than sat in the bank. The good news for you is that if you qualify for Europe you'll be allowed in for the first season. Until you're playing in Europe UEFA doesn't look at your accounts so you'd get one year with the first team before the penalties kicked in.
