Question When was the last time we fielded 4 home grown (youth) team players in a senior game at the same time? Last night we had Furlong, Manning, Doughty & Comley all involved. Maybe we have to go back to the 80's or early 90's to find the last time......sure someone on here has this info. Also it shows that the club did have talent in it's ranks, it's just that no one apart from briefly Ramsey took a punt on them, so fair play to Holloway for taking the plunge and giving youth and not so youthful (Doughty) a chance...
It would be interesting to know how much last night's team cost in transfer fees and weekly wages. Ferdinand seems to get a lot of stick, but I think he's doing a fine job in moving the club away from the crazy deals of the recent past. Even recent signings that have not worked out (Chery, Polter) have been sold on at a profit.
I'd seen fees quoted, probably on here. May have been made up, but I don't think it changes the overall point. SLF is doing a good job in my view.
On the Chery thread Watford seems pretty confident that we paid £2.25m. If that's right we've doubled our money.
There maybe some teams later but in the 1982 FA Cup Final we had Peter Hucker, Warren Neil, Ian Gillard and Clive Allen. Gary Micklewhite although a Man U youth player made his league debut with us as well so probably qualifies.
Great to see younger players given a chance/coming through but think that maybe more down to Holloway installing some belief & picking them than SLF who in his time has overseen a succession of wrong appointments & the quality of squad go down so not exactly a good job imo. On the plus side if we are putting some emphasis on developing young talent that's got to be a good thing & in future hopefully young players will want to come to QPR to develop & go on to bigger/better things.
According to this site even though Polter's market value (MV) increased we received 1.6 million Euros after paying 2.3 million Euros for him (so 0.7 million loss) http://www.transfermarkt.com/sebastian-polter/transfers/spieler/60957/transfer_id/1669164 As for Chery off the same site:- We paid 3.5 million for him and received 4.7 million from his sale (so 1.2 million profit) http://www.transfermarkt.com/tjaronn-chery/transfers/spieler/76326
Sandro's entry off that site:- So we paid Spurs 7.5 million Euros for him when he had a market value of 11 million and gave him away on a free transfer 2.5 yrs later when he had an MV of 3.5 million. What a dud. http://www.transfermarkt.com/sandro/transfers/spieler/74590
My point is that Ferdinand's declared intention was to see youth players progressing to the first team, and this is happening. Good, no? You prefer to credit Holloway for this, but who appointed him?
Already said it's great to see youth given a chance but how much direct credit goes to SLF I'm really not sure, where were these players playing before Holloway was appointed? Who appointed CR, JFH? Who's overseen the quality of the squad go way down during his time?
Well, his other remit was to slash player costs, which he has also achieved. We can't afford quality, but we can get value for money.
Why do people blame SLF for the cowardly behaviour of the managers? The closer a manager is to getting the sack the less brave they are. They won't play the youngsters, instead you get the Perch' and Henry' of this world. When the managers don't execute the clubs vision of fielding home grown players and how we should play they have all been sent packing by Les. Only Holloway have dared, even on six straight defeats, to play home grown players. Not fearing for the sack but with genuinely the clubs best interest at heart imo, he has done what he signed on to do. For that Holloway deserves great respect, but even more so Sir Les.
It's not just Holloway who has been playing youngsters. Furlong played a few in the PL, under Ramsey if I remember right, Doughty even more. Grego Cox played earlier. Kakay played under Jimmy end of last season before they let him go, as did Nieheinnen (sp). I think we have given youngsters some chances under Les, but for me while they did well, they didn't look quite good enough usually to get much playing time and have probably benefitted from getting football in the lower leagues. Manning is the first one for me who in his first 3 games has looked like he could be good enough to keep his place in the team. Thought he was excellent yesterday.
I wasn't particulary happy with the appointment of Ollie as manager as I regarded him as well past his sell by date. However, I must give him great praise for playing the following since his return (spelling won't be accurate!):- Furlong, Kakay, Manning, Doughty, Comley, Shodipo, Eze. Also Hamaleien & Lumley have been in his squads. I, for one, have been delighted with this move & consider how much easier it will be to attract schoolboys to join Rangers when progression is demonstrable. Have not our best times been when we have had sides that had 50% of our products in the rteam?
The problem on all these things is lack of accurate info. I've read we paid £2.7m for Chery, and Kilburn above has quoted £3.5m. So it's a stab in the dark when judging the profit making on players. You can probably also say that if the club agrees to sell its most naturally talented player and a Dutch international due to his desire for the move and the draw of a better offer from a wealthy foreign club, and with a year and a half left on his contract, it seems fair that the quid pro quo for us is we make something on the deal. There'll be more difficult tests. If SLF makes money on Perch and Cousins, he'll have my respect
