QPR - A masterclass in awful buying

So, you're a newly promoted club which is in the unique position of having strong financial backing, and the capability of spending not only more than fellow newly promoted sides, but also more than a range of other PL teams on both transfer fees and wages.

Unfortunately, QPR, the team lucky enough to be in that situation, have royally ****ed it up by participating in arguably one of the worst buying sprees I've seen in recent times. Not only has it been a giant waste of money and hefty wage packets, but there's a possibility that it's been a factor in the way that QPR are currently struggling at the foot of the table whilst Norwich and Swansea have flourished.

Let's look at some of QPR's buys:

Joey Barton - Perhaps this free transfer was too good to turn down considering his form with us, but the man has caused trouble and conflict at every club he's been with, and this has been no different with public outbursts against Neil Warnock and some of the players there. Combining Barton with egotistical prima donnas like Taarabt was just never going to be a good idea.

Kieron Dyer - Another hot head signed up for what I suspect are quite sizeable wages. Within three minutes of his first game for the club he injured his foot, and another injury during his recovery ruled him out for the entire season.

Bobby Zamora - QPR needed a goalscorer, so for some reason they coughed up 5 million for 31 year old Bobby Zamora. As a striker, he hasn't scored double digits for over 5 years since his West Ham days, and now only has 2 goals for QPR in 12 apps. This was also yet another elder statesman of football to add to the growing list of egos which had to be carefully managed.

Djibril Cissé - £4million was coughed up for this 30 year old, and whilst he has provided an impressive apps/goals ratio of 3 goals in 5 apps, the glaring issue is the number of apps: a lowly 5. Why five? Because in only his second game for the club, he had a red card and three match ban for violent conduct. Only a few games later after his suspension, he was sent off yet again for a two footed lunge. Yes he's scored goals, but two occasions now he's left his team down to 10 men and missing his services for numerous matches. Plus (you can probably spot the trend by now) this was yet ANOTHER egotistical character added to the squad.

Shaun Wright-Phillips - Renowned in the UK as a headless chicken with nothing more than pace on his side, QPR decided to buy him for £4million and most likely give him a whopping wage packet to boot. Has anything changed about the guy which we didn't know already? Has it ****e. He's still a headless chicken with nothing more than speed.

D.J Campbell - 13 goals in 31 apps during his time in the PL last season with Blackpool, so for 1.7mill, QPR could be forgiven for buying him. Unfortunately, it seems as if his record may have been down to Blackpool's all-out attacking attitude, as without it, Campbell has only managed 1 goal in 10 apps.

Anton Ferdinand - Not a bad signing on paper, and he genuinely can't be blamed for anything, but QPR's luck only got worse has he became embroiled in a racial scandal with John Terry.

Armand Traoré - A product of Arsenal's youth academy. Now it's always worth having a punt on players, but Traore's reported fee was only £1million, so if Arsenal sell one of their 21 year old academy players for only a million quid, you have to ask yourself, why?

QPR have mixed poor buying with simple bad luck. Buying plenty of prima donna players (and coupling it with existing players such as Taarabt) was a recipe for disaster in the dressing room and resulted in poor value for money. Some signings also had unusual habits of attracting red cards and leaving QPR with 10 men perhaps more than any other side in the EPL.

QPR have spent a reported £23million since they came up, with even more in wages. If they had some some scouting and spent a bit more wisely, you would think that they could have at least been up their with fellow debutantes Swansea and Norwich.

 

As you say, they went on a spending spree without giving it much thought, I thought Mark Hughes may have been able to pull them out of trouble, they may yet manage to just scrape by and stay up, but it will be more luck than good management.

 

I want QPR to go down because they have money that if someone gets the right players in could do well,

 

I want them to go down to rub Barton's nose in it (Nothing against QPR) after his "Club with Ambition" comment on Twatter.

Him and Nolan can rot in the championship as far as I'm concerned, as big a player as they were for us they were obviously poison in the dressing room.
Better off without.

 

If they go down they're ****ed.

 

They were both on ridiculous wages. It was right in the long run to get rid of the, but we really could have used them at times this season with injuries.

 

Other than the Norwich (A) result I honestly can't think when else we would have needed them? And even then for that match it was the defense we had the injury problems with not midfield, we have a good wealthy of midfield talent.

 

To be fair we were on a 1.25m budget in the summer (and that was funded by selling Gorkss) then Fernandes came in with a few days left and we had to panic buy, we've been unlucky with injuries, Traore/Ferdinand have been decent, Cisse has been good when he's played but managed to get sent off twice despite only gettins sent off a couple of times in his whole career before, hardly the clubs fault. Zamora/SWP have been fairly ****

 

I think you've managed to sum it up with just two words, 'Panic Buy'.

 

I think we have the potential for a very interesting change in the transfer market next season.

Southampton - Ambitious owners, vast amounts of wealth.
Reading - Ambitious owners, vast amounts of wealth.
QPR - Ambitious owners, vast amounts of wealth.

Now will these clubs compete with the likes of Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal (sitting on a bundle) for top signings? Highly unlikely.

What this means is the price of 'good' (as opposed to world class) players will probably rise as they compete to build squads capable of Europa league football. Will this have a 'Carroll effect' on other, less financially strong clubs? The likes of Lee Cattermole suddenly become £10m players and the selling clubs can then reinvest and strengthen. These ambitious clubs WILL be held to ransom, I will guarantee that.

It will certainly be interesting to see who pulls out of 'spend until we win' race first. We have 6 league places for Europe and 3 new contenders, this season has shown a bit more competition at the top, will they provide more?

I'm rather excited about what impact it may have on the league and for that reason I want QPR to stay up.

 

Ambitious owners with vast amounts of wealth can build a club up, but what happens if they pull out from their new toy and leave the club unable to pay for their newly imported players?

 

Yeah, I can't imagine a billionaire hanging around when the dust has settled and they're fighting for a top half finish with a dozen other rich clubs.

 

I think they are not horeendous buys but as Skinman pointed out, timing is everything. I'm sure they'd have loved to have budgets in place early, players thoroughly scouted, characters known etc. However they were well short on quality to survive and just had to take a few punts.

Cisse has ****ed up but he has a good goal record and him/Zamora looks a fine partnership on paper. It hasn't worked out quite so well with Cisse's madness but you couldn't really predict. Zamora is a good foil for a goalscorer. Been outstanding for Fulham over last 3 years. SWP had a decent record in the league and describing him as nothing more than a headless chicken is frankly stupid. He was at the lieks of Citeh and Chelski for a reason. Decent signing but looking like his best days are gone. Traore looks decent as does Anton Ferdinand. Not world beaters but good enough for a newly promoted side. Barton hasn't hit the heights and should have concentrated on football, but in terms of adding quality it was a good signing. You just need a manager who can handle him. DJ Campbell - decent back up option. Kieron Dyer - Moment of madness from Warnock. Even in the context of them lacking quality and not having money, giving this lad a contract was stupidity. I assume they built in a pay as play element to be honest.

All in all they haven't worked out as instant hits. But taken in context they're nearly all understandable.

 

West ham wold run them close