Rob Green opens up on QPR exile: 'I'm desperate to play...this is hurting me'

Rob Green opens up on QPR exile: 'I'm desperate to play...this is hurting me'

• Rob Green has not played for QPR since New Year's Day
• The veteran goalkeeper has lost his place on the grounds of cost
• If Green plays 30 league games this season, he earns a contract extension
• QPR are keen to offload the England international stopper
• Green has spoken out about his frustration at his situation

By Matt Lawton for the Daily Mail
Published: 22:32 GMT, 11 March 2016 | Updated: 23:40 GMT, 11 March 2016
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Rob Green no longer appears to exist. He is not named when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink lists his roster of goalkeepers at Queens Park Rangers during media interviews, not involved when the first-team squad trains, nowhere to be seen on matchdays.
He remains a paid employee at Loftus Road, and comfortably the best goalkeeper at the club. He was in Roy Hodgson's England squad during the last European Championship qualification campaign, after all.
But when Saturday comes he is excluded, the victim of a Championship club that has decided to leave him out purely on the grounds of cost.

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QPR goalkeeper Rob Green has not played for the club since the match against Hull City on January 1

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The veteran England stopper is being purposefully left out of the team purely on the grounds of cost

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Green will earn a contract extension if he reaches 30 league appearances for the London club this term

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Green stands in the goalmouth at Loftus Road in what could prove to be his last game of the season
It is a tale of modern football, and a concern Green expressed when he spoke to his employers last summer.
If he reached 30 appearances this season they would have to extend the 36-year-old's contract beyond June but QPR, with ambitions to make a swift return to the Premier League, insisted they wanted him to stay.
However, when it became apparent before Christmas that they were losing too much ground in the promotion race, QPR informed Green that his 25th appearance of the campaign — on January 1 — would be his last for a club he joined on a free transfer and helped win promotion.
'When I sat down with them in the summer I said this is the one position I didn't want to find myself in and here we are,' says Green, speaking to Sportsmail for the first time about his predicament.
'It is frustrating, to put it mildly. Leaving in the summer was something that could have happened. I discussed it at length with (director of football) Les Ferdinand.
'It was something that could happen and financially it would have helped the club. I was happy to walk away. But the owners made a call that they wanted me to stay. They knew I had this clause but they had the desire to get back into the Premier League.'

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Green is now left to count down the days until he can leave Loftus Road and find a new club to play for

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The former Norwich City and West Ham goalkeeper has been through a turbulent time at QPR

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Green has grown frustrated with his lack of game-time at QPR and is keen to find a new team soon
It has been a chaotic few years since Green was signed by Mark Hughes in June 2012. He has seen three more managers arrive and six caretaker bosses.
'I was looking at a photograph of our squad celebrating after winning the play-off final in 2014,' he says. 'In terms of players contracted for next season there's only Matt Phillips left. It's incredible, really.
'Neil Warnock became the manager towards the end of last year and on his first day he pulled me to one side and said, "You do realise you won't make that 30 games?" I thought, "I've been told otherwise but I can hazard a guess as to why that might now be the case". I wasn't naive.
'Then Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink spoke to me soon after he arrived. He said, "Look, it's nothing personal but because of budgets and things you're not going to make the 30 games".
'I played one more game on New Year's Day then missed a couple through illness, and by then Alex Smithies was fit and available. I guess they figured they might as well make the change then.'

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The stopper was close to leaving QPR, but moves to West Ham and Crystal Palace collapsed

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England's qualifying campaign for Euro 2016 saw Green as part of the squad alongside Joe Hart

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Green has made the most of his free-time by attending rugby matches but is desperate to play football
Perhaps the main source of frustration is how close he came to leaving last summer and in January. Some have suggested moves to West Ham and Crystal Palace fell through because of his wage demands. Green insists that was not the case, having agreed terms with both clubs and even passing a medical at Upton Park.
The truth is QPR's owners had an issue with selling to West Ham, while things did not quite fall into place in terms of squad numbers at Palace. 'The newspaper reports weren't far off the mark,' he says. 'I was pretty close to leaving.'
Green can sense that people at the club are embarrassed. Supremely fit and by no means past his best, Green does not participate in first-team training beyond the occasional session with the other goalkeepers. He says he has not heard from the club's owners, their one act of generosity the fact that he is not obliged to attend matches.
'I'm not massively angry,' says Green. 'I'm not going into training wanting to kill people. After 20 years in professional football you have seen it all, so it never really surprises you.
'But it's the first time in my life I'm sat around on a Saturday afternoon not doing anything. I didn't go into football to earn money. It was because I liked playing football. It took me six weeks to get my head around it.

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QPR's squad is almost unrecognisable from the one that Green won promotion with in May 2014

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Green, who has 12 senior caps for England, represented his country at the 2010 FIFA World Cup
'I can look at the more positive aspects now, like being able go to the kids' football. And I've been to watch a bit of rugby. Someone tweeted saying they were sure they'd seen Rob Green at Esher Rugby Club but then saying it couldn't have been me because QPR were playing.'
Could he not have put a red line through the clause and continued playing? 'It wasn't something that we thought of when the change in the team was made,' he says. 'Everyone expected me to be gone by the end of January.'
He says there are 65 days to go before his release. 'I am counting the days. It's like a sponsored keep fit, keeping fit until the summer so I can hit the ground running when I hopefully do get another club.
'I can apply a bit of perspective. We are very fortunate to do this job. But I'm desperate to play because this is hurting me.'

 

Just agree to have the contract amended. Plain and simple. Why all this whinging ?

 

What a load of rubbish. His form this season has been poor at best. I'd guess that he or his representatives put the extension clause in his contract, so he can't really complain that it's come back to bite him. I also don't believe that we wouldn't sell to West Ham, we clearly wanted shot so would have let him go for free (to anyone who wanted him) as he would in the summer.

 

So what's he trying to say?

 

A fluff piece if ever I saw one. 'Comfortably' the best' my arse.

He has been told by successive managers that his contract situation precludes the possibility of his playing. He knew this from the start and both the club and he gambled on playing him and lost - let's not forget that his (and others') poor performances contributed to the league position we were in.

The club is honouring his contract and paying him incredibly well to watch rugby and relax - a bigger individual would be banging on the managers door offering his services to coach the other keepers and pass on his experience to the new guard - instead he chooses mournful, doe-eyed photo ops in the Daily Mail.

Really like the guy, and thank him for his efforts over the past few years, but enough is enough - have some self respect - see out your contract quietly and leave with your head held high.

 

If he wants to play - amend contract-
If he wants money - shut up-
If he wants to extend the contract-&@ss off-

 

All jokes aside his earned goid money off us and should be thankful...been below par for a while now but his good form on a certain day at Wembley helped see us win?

 

So did OBZ

 

His ability has declined remarkably over the last 18 months or so. Probably worse than any other starting goalkeeper in this division now. Nowhere near as good as Smithies.

Still, he's a name, so will probably get a gig as second choice at a Prem club on a paltry £25k a week.

 

Exactly what I was thinking as I was reading his long moanfest.

 

I'm struggling to find an ounce of pity or sympathy. He was told in the window he wouldn't play, should have just asked for his contract to be cancelled and had his dream move to West Ham. As it is we are still chucking money at him.

 

Right on the money Stan

 

I'm still wondering why he posted a photo of himself with long hair ( image 3 ) and then all the others with short hair.
Was the reporter a barber as well?

 

Oh, Rob... I like your public persona in interviews, but never felt confident in you on the pitch. I don't think I'm alone in feeling Smithies would be picked on merit even without that contract clause. He looks confident and you never did. By crying crocodile tears whilst drawing your salary without playing, you're just reminding us of all those people we despise who came here and took the money when the club was daft enough to think it was worth paying.

Why didn't you cancel the contract extension clause when it became clear it would stop the club picking you? I don't have a problem with you wanting to get paid until the end of the season. Rightly or wrongly, the club agreed to that clause (I can't believe they suggested it) when they felt it was the best choice for them. You agreed at the time too. These are the consequences. I do have a problem with you crying to the press about a situation you could have sorted when it became clear it would stop you being picked and chose not to.

 

God knows what he's picking up a week for sitting about at the arse end of his career......my heart truly bleeds for him

 

On the plus side, he looks very cute with the hood of his parka pulled up.

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Really TIME, cute????

 

Couldn't have put it better myself. Embarrassing! I hope his teammates give him some deserved stick about this piece. Poor old rob, getting paid 50k a week to watch rugby.

And as you say, "comfortably the best" my arse.

 

Did he start off getting 50k a week from us when we took him off the Hammers books?

If so he has most likely made more money than I could dream of in my working life.

He will be ok if he can avoided pubs and betting shops!

EDIT: Sorry for being simple and not reading the post above....Doh!

 

No, not really. It was a joke.