Can you all remember when we got promoted in 2011 and it came to our first Transfer Day in August? I was so excited. Finally my great team were back in the big time and we had MONEY. And with a fantastic Chairman - a little wet behind the ears when it comes to running a Premier League football club, but at least he is passionate, honest and seems switched on. He is the Richard bloody Branson of Asia!!! There was no way we were going to get relegated. We were going to buy some quality players, get a top manager and get the club back on track. How wrong we were. In fact, up until this particular current transfer window I had a period of excitement going into previous transfer windows, checking my phone or Sky Sports on the hour looking to see who we were being linked to. Obsessed by the Twitter news feeds. My best mate of 20 years, a die-hard Everton fan has given me untold amounts of **** over the years, but finally the joke will be on him and his mediocre, skint club. QPR have often been the 'busiest' team in the Premier League, spending money with wild abandonment. Cue the 'out of favour' players and deluge of 'has-beens'. Last stop: Loftus Road, W12. So this transfer window has arrived. But it's not the same. We have been here before. Looking to see who we can convince to join a sinking ship. More has-beens and loanees. Harry hanging out of his car.......you know the script. Again. Now, I'm not normally such a pessimist, but since we have got promoted our owner at the time, supported by whatever clown we have in place (I don't include Warnock in this) seem to treat the transfer day like a fat kid in a sweet shop. I have compiled a list of various incomings since we gained promotion in 2011 (not exhaustive). Kieron Dyer - More fragile than Audley Harrison's chin. Jay Bothroyd - did well for Cardiff. Crap for us. DJ Campbell - massive disappointment after success at Blackpool. Joey Barton - Prat of the highest order. Massively overrated. If he wasn't so notorious he would be playing Championship football Luke Young - The Scarlett Pimpernel. Armand Traore - Out of control. Been played in too many position and can't seem to settle. Shaun Wright-Phillips - A promising start and was unlucky a few times. But one of the WORST financial signings in the history of the league. Anton Ferdinand - Tried. Couldn't cut the mustard. Djibril Cisse - Saviour for first season - but loose cannon. Andrew Johnson - Good pro - but a poor purchase. Way too fragile. Should be a badminton player. Samba Diakite - Lunatic. Park Ji-Sung - Dreadful. Massive anti-climax. David Hoilett - Underachiever. Still want him to work out for us though. Julio Cesar - Arsehole. Judas. But a decent keeper. Esteban Granero - Good start. Poor later on. Got roped in cos of the 'Real Madrid' tag. Stephane Mbia - Don't know what to say here. Christopher Samba - How can you buy a player that is unfit at that stage of the season? Jermaine Jenas - Injury prone. Shame. Jose Bosingwa - lol. Tal Ben-Haim - non descript. Rio Ferdinand - pointless. Jordan Mutch - What does he do/offer? Sandro - Did anyone not see the YouTube on his knee?!?! ****ing Aida. I know we made some good signings: Charlie Austin, Richard Dunne (though wasn't keen at the time), Danny Simpson (why did we release him to loan Isla?), Loic Remy, Yun Suk Young, Alex McCarthy, but what a disaster our signings have been. Surely you expect at the very minimum that the signing ratios are 1:1 (good/bad). How have we done this? Hughes and Redknapp have bought some stinkers. Fernandes has commissioned it. We harp on about the Youth Academy and how young players never seem to get the break into the first team, even when we don't have a Left Back at the moment and short on Strikers. But what's going on with the scouting at our club? We all know that Redknapp has a little black book of two pages (consisting of Crouch, Kranjcar, Defoe et al), but I would love to know who and what is going on. Smaller clubs with a much smaller budget seem to unearth gems and but the right players most of the time, yet we get it so dramatically wrong. We just seem to look at a name, and then make them worse! I'm also very sceptical about signing players who have just been relegated e.g Fer, Caulker, Hoilett, Mutch, Campbell etc. Are we really pinning our hopes on players who weren't good enough to stay in the Premier League? Do scouts look into more than just the way they play? What about Psychological assessments? Has anyone looked at what happens to these players when they are losing? Do they have mental toughness? I vividly remember being at the 4-0 whooping we got from Everton in the FA Cup last season (yes, sat next to my smug mate) - 3-0 down and the ball got cannoned towards goal at around 80 minutes. The game was out of site. Clint Hill dived on the goal line at full stretch and stopped the ball with his face/head!!!!!! Tell me. Who would do that for us now? Would Caulker do that?! The Transfer Window can come and go as far as I am concerned. The novelty has well and truly worn off. And that is something I thought I would never say. FFS.
Good post, thanks. You never know though really. Being optimistic, we could have a new Manager and a few new Players, with a few leaving. Just maybe the quietness and messages of a loan or two only, are to camoflage what we are really doing, to give us a better chance of getting who we want in, without letting the possibly interested opposition know about it.
We certainly need optimism, Oslo. I hope so. But this season is already a bit of a mess, and with other teams picking up results etc, we seem to be getting worse. Think I was just after mid-table mediocrity and no drama this season
I think you've got it spot on. For clubs like ours, I would have thought it's essential to have a regular flow of youth players coming through. Unfortunately we're a million miles from that. I'd much rather see us bring them through like Palace and Southampton than sign another has been or will never be.
Good post, especially the badminton reference made me chuckle, its a disaster the signings have been truly awful we just don't seem to go for a young promising player ,they have to be near retirement .I think we should of kept Jack Robinson as a back up this season or a least recalled him. Likewise just want it to be over cant bear the embarrassment of trying to get a completely unrealistic target through the door.
Agree with this, although it also lets Harry and Tone off the hook a bit. Because they didn't start the short termism at the club, the previous owners did - the 'four year plan' should have been called the four game plan because that's all they gave each manager. I can't remember the stats now but even in our championship winning season, we had many more players over 30 than our rivals and the academy had been run down. You could say that tango and cash 'sold a pup' to Fernandes.
That list is a sad indictment on our transfer policy. Surely someone must do some research before signing these muppets? I thought M'Bia was a decent player, and did show he actually cared.
Really, really sad. M'bia set up Remy for that goal and then was conned by Maloney into that free kick!! Sad and sadder still.
