 | Forum
Reply | Taylor Richards gone…thank god.
at 11:20 3 Sep 2025
It's just not helpful to think about football (or more generally professional sports) like any other job - the whole thing exists in a weird world of exemptions. No other industry would be allowed anything like the transfer system; employment lawyers would be dancing in the streets if a company anywhere else tried to enact 1% of the restraint of trade that it involves. Footballers are not normal employees, their contract arrangements aren't like what you or I might have at a job, and they're also (relatively) powerful and wealthy individuals who can and do employ people whose only role is representing their interests plus they have a strong union to back them up. All that for a job where the actual duties are stunningly vague - try and turn up for training regularly if you can, be available for selection even if we never pick you, unless you're injured of course in which case we just carry on paying you and hope you get better at some point.
Based purely on things mentioned online Richards has apparently taken the piss more than most, but the club didn't really have a winning scenario here. Terminating the bloke unilaterally probably means you end up spending more money fighting it than it costs to just keep paying him and try and turn things around, and he's got no incentive to agree to a mutual termination that benefits us when he's got 2 or 3 years left to run. Presumably at this point he's got little enough left on his contract that we could get him down to a number that worked and he's thinking he might manage to get paid off by us and then find a deal somewhere else as a free agent, although god knows who'd take him based on the last few years. |
| Forum
Reply | The QPR summer transfer rumours thread
at 17:14 1 Sep 2025
The problem was that whole group tossing it off on the pitch and looking completely disinterested - Laird and the infamous sit down and signal to the bench that he couldn't possibly continue, Roberts and the mysterious 'strains' etc. etc.
If you've got a culture where lots of lads are much more about having a footballer lifestyle than they are about playing any football, you get the kind of standards that lead you to Chris Martin of all people saying how surprised he was at the lack of professionalism. We've got rid of that element at the club and we don't need it back.
Chair didn't commit GBH, which is why he's not in prison, and he gets the forgiveness of the fans because he turns up and runs himself into the ground every week. |
| Forum
Reply | Out of the darkness – Report
at 10:06 1 Sep 2025
I've been a QPR fan for going 30 years now. Never lived anywhere near London, it's my dad's team, and my interest and involvement has gone up and down over the years. Since 2022/23 I've had the most sustained engagement with the club in my life, even as the on-pitch goings-on have been mostly rubbish and we've lurched from disaster to disaster, and it's entirely because over summer of 2022 I started reading this site. The quality and insight of what you write was transformative for me in supporting this club. I don't always agree with everything, but I don't need to, that isn't the point. Your ability to get out 48 previews and reports every season plus all the other stuff is remarkable, especially when what you're writing about is so often bloody awful.
I know a thing or two about publishing for an online audience so I'm familiar with the kind of disproportionate hostility and outright weird behaviour you're experiencing. I can't offer any useful advice for dealing with it except rolling your eyes and ignoring it, which is much harder for something like LfW which is a lot more direct and personal than what I do, but I can offer the above as a counterpoint to say how much I value what you do here. Keep fighting on - there's a lot more of us that appreciate you than there are gobby little trolls on Twitter. |
| Forum
Reply | Isaac Hayden
at 19:55 26 Aug 2025
e: double post [Post edited 26 Aug 19:55]
|
| Forum
Reply | Isaac Hayden
at 19:52 26 Aug 2025
Fair enough to be cynical about what footballers say in official interviews, he's hardly about to pop up and say well the club's crap and obviously going down but they offered me more than anyone else, but the bloke was very publicly lobbying for a return here last season (when it had no financial impact on him at all) and has kept in touch with players from his time on loan. Being in London can't hurt for someone who was in the Arsenal youth set-up, too. Does he just love QPR that much that he couldn't bear going anywhere else? Probably not, but I can absolutely believe that if he thought there was an offer available from us he was going to see if he could get it rather than rushing to the first club that rang up his agent.
He was committed and interested on loan last time, and god knows we need more heft in the middle. He seems to have a realistic idea of where he is in his career, a desire to play, but also a consciousness that he's partly here to help the younger lads coming through. He's not the most dynamic passer but I remember him as being decent on the ball too - better than Field in that role in front of the defence, and that frees up everyone further forwards. |
| Forum
Reply | Saito signs
at 18:14 25 Aug 2025
Can't agree that it's not a position we need. With our fitness team we need to be signing 1.5 wingers a week throughout the season just to field an XI.
Beyond that - we've got a player who already knows most of the team and has a year's experience of the league, who was 100% committed last season as a loan player, was fit and available every game until the last 1.5 of the season where he got bulldozed and dislocated his shoulder, and who actually wants to be here. Yes, we have more pressing needs at CM and LB, but I'll never be upset at signing a player with the attitude and work rate of Saito. |
| Forum
Reply | Julien Stephan - Word of warning
at 21:56 17 Aug 2025
Yeah, and even putting aside whether it was a good idea to want Larkeche to be your starting left back for the season, the bloke doing his ACL the week before your first game is horribly unfortunate. |
| Forum
Reply | Familiar learnings and fresh frustrations as QPR lose at Watford – Report
at 21:35 17 Aug 2025
I didn't think he was good, but I think it's as much about being put in a role he isn't good at against a team that's a lot better set up than ours is - in that formation we're asking a duck to bark and being surprised he keeps quacking. I guess my point is that we've seen where he can be effective at the back end of last season, and it isn't playing as the deeper one of a two, and he does at least seem to be trying whereas his really rough run in the first half of last season he didn't even seem to want to be on the pitch. |
| Forum
Reply | Julien Stephan - Word of warning
at 21:27 17 Aug 2025
Fully agreed. Mbengue wasn't great at left-back, but it's not like the manager was left with many choices. You know Watford have an excellent and quite physical winger who normally plays down the right, and the squad you've been given has a single left-back in it who's currently fit and available, and he's 17 and has played one game of league foobtall in this country ever. The only other option would have been Vale, but he was indifferent there against a much worse side on Tuesday. Mbengue is at least a physical match for Baah and has plenty of experience; in another world we could equally be sitting here talking about the naivete of starting Esquerdinha out there to get ripped apart. |
| Forum
Reply | Familiar learnings and fresh frustrations as QPR lose at Watford – Report
at 21:16 17 Aug 2025
In the two games this season I honestly don't think he's been that bad, and you can see the logic of what Stephan is trying to do by sitting him deeper and using him to take the ball from the defenders and pass it forward with some intent. To my eye he is at least trying to be more involved, and against Watford even won a couple of headers - not exactly setting the world alight but he does seem to have remembered he's 6'4" finally. The problem is that in a two-man midfield with him and Field we're damned either way - Field can't progress the ball well enough and Madsen doesn't defend well enough, so whichever way around you put them in it's dysfunctional. That's the difference Varane makes. |
| Forum
Reply | Analytics
at 07:49 15 Aug 2025
It's explicitly part of the strategy. Nourry has mentioned it a few times. It's about identifying which positions are currently underpriced in the market and picking those players up now expecting the value to increase.
As a simplistic example, imagine all the top teams have 29 year old defensive midfielders. Right now that type of player is probably cheaper than normal, because none of the big teams need to buy one, but in 2 years' time they'll all need to replace them. So you buy a 25 year old now who fits that position and then he ought to jump in value massively.
It's a lot more complicated than that; they'll also be trying to predict trends, like everyone wanting a keeper who can play out from the back, and they'll be looking at much more detailed profiles than just vague positional ones, but you get the idea. [Post edited 15 Aug 7:50]
|
| Forum
Reply | Burrell
at 16:26 13 Aug 2025
I think his point was that "quick" understates it. |
| Forum
Reply | Making Friends And Influencing People
at 14:47 13 Aug 2025
Interesting one. Seems most likely that the club wanted Kone but needed Ba as a back-up and have been dragging it out waiting to see if the Kone move would happen. As soon as he's signed, out comes a spurious excuse about a medical for Ba. |
| Forum
Reply | Le Shrugs thoughts post Plymouth stuffing.
at 14:43 13 Aug 2025
I didn't mind the starting line-up last night - 3 of them (Vale, Kolli, Burrell) are likely to do serious minutes this season, Nardi should be, and despite where he is EDB ought to be one of the senior players and perfectly able to be starting in a League Cup game. Sutton and Bennie have already played for the first team too, Bennie was in most squads last season and got a decent number of appearances even if mostly for limited minutes. It's the bench that's troubling - none of the first team even travelling? You couldn't take a handful of them down to Plymouth to try and see out the game if it went well, as it was at half time? Plymouth are 3-2 up and we're bringing on 16 year old kids because there's nothing else to try and it's all about them getting debuts. What useful experience does Teddy Tarbotton (name like an FM regen) get from trotting about for four minutes in a game we've long since lost? |
| Forum
Reply | Burrell
at 14:29 13 Aug 2025
His pace is terrifying. There were a couple of occasions in the first half last night where balls that ought to have been comfortable for the Plymouth centrebacks/keeper to mop up turned into opportunities for us because he's so quick.
He's also shown some flashes of intelligence to go with it - against Preston there was one where he read the flight of a ball and stepped back suddenly, and left the defender chasing him to run on past while he got himself on it.
With him and Mbengue we have pace and power at both ends of the pitch - and we'd have it in the middle too if Poku hadn't done his hamstring. It's a huge change from where we were last season! |
| Forum
Reply | Foxes vs Owls
at 18:18 10 Aug 2025
Bannan suspended and Chalobah possibly injured for their next game. Grim stuff for them. |
| Forum
Reply | Preston Reflection
at 19:57 9 Aug 2025
Morgan looked much bigger (in a good way) and more confident. Thought he was very comfortable at right back and linked up with Poku well.
I thought all of the new players did well and Mbengue excelled. Fast and physical, played some good balls, wanted to be involved in everything. Him and Morrison looked quite exciting as a partnership; their styles compliment each other nicely. |
| Forum
Reply | Sell-on clauses
at 17:12 15 Jul 2025
You seem to be under the impression that the club is turning down better offers to get sell-on clauses which may or may not pay off. It's far more likely that the club is getting a lot of very similar offers and a favourable sell-on is what tips the balance one way or the other. We might like to try and ask for more money up front instead, but there's no guarantee a buyer would go for it, and even if they did how much more would they willing to pay - an extra £1m? An extra £5m? There really isn't any definite answer and it's not as easy as saying it would be "better to cash in for as much as we can" because there might not be any more money to be made on the initial sale. |
| | BrizR
|
Site Scores| Prediction League: | 1 | | TOTAL: | 1 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.