Comedy value â preview Friday, 17th Jan 2014 20:21 by Clive Whittingham QPR welcome Huddersfield to Loftus Road on Saturday with resident mentalist Samba Diakite either on his way to Watford, or set for a recall, depending on what mood Harry Redknapp wakes up in. The interviews with Frankie Sutherland, Max Ehmer and Tom Hitchcock, carried on LFW back in November necessitated an afternoon at QPR's Harlington training ground. It's an odd place, with a secondary school feel to it, where players practice free kicks for 45 minutes without scoring once and Jermain Jenas prowls the canteen area in his vest. But it's also the only place you can currently see the rare and beautiful sight of Samba Diakite in full flight. There he was, three mile grin affixed permanently to his otherwise vacant face, dribbling around Kevin 'Bondy' Bond who'd put on a full suit of armour for the occasion, before hammering a shot on goal that was so outrageously high and off target that it troubled the stomach lining of the air traffic controllers at nearby Heathrow Airport more than young goalkeeper Aaron Lennox. Diakite seemed thrilled as the ball bounced off down the M4, laughing and punching his hands in the air, as if that's what he meant to do. Perhaps it was â his grasp of the rules of the sport from which he makes his living has always seemed somewhat loose. Diakite was an encouraging bucker of QPR's Premier League trend when he arrived here from Nancy, initially on loan and later permanently. He was/is young (22 when he arrived, 24 now) and totally unproven â suggesting that Rangers had done a little bit of scouting to find him, and were prepared to work with him and develop him. There was clearly plenty of work to do, as 11 brutal assaults on Bryan Ruiz in the first 33 minutes of his first team debut against Fulham â resulting in an inevitable red card â showed all too clearly. But there was enough potential in the initial loan spell for his signing to be universally welcomed that summer â indeed, the guests on the Open All R's Podcast and I tipped him as a potential Player of the Year for the 2012/13 season so he certainly had something about him. So what has gone wrong? Because sadly Samba Diakite is essentially the same raw player he was when QPR first clapped eyes on him two years ago â - See more at: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footba.../comedy-value-–-preview?#sthash.rSBWrWI6.dpuf
Some good points there, but I do struggle with Clive's very bitter attitude towards the club he supports. Not too sure that calling Diakite a "mentalist" was quite right too.
I think it is frustration rather than bitterness Col. Many of us share that frustration, we'd just use different words to express it.
I think his writing is witty and funny, but always well researched and he doesn't mind poking a bit of fun at us all.
there is a lot of waffle though which you have to wade through to get to the good stuff. probably because he has 5 hour journeys each way on the train for most games.
Poor old Clive, we're not exactly blessed with thousands of articles about QPR, so you'd think people would be pleased one person made the effort. Maybe he should also condense it into a twitter post for the attentively challenged.
