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Reply | Recruitment ?
at 07:53 25 Aug 2025
IMO...
There have been multiple good signings in isolation over the last 18 months or so, but the sum of the parts is far less than the parts themselves. Indeed overall I'd have a moderately negative view of overall recruitment for three reasons, all of which have been mentioned many times on the forum:
1. The times that big money has been spent, it has been spent very poorly. Madsen the absolute case in point (somewhere between 2 and 4m on a player profile which was not then answer to any of our problems, before we even saw him play).
2. Recruitment is entirely unbalanced, it does not focus on where the team is actually lacking. We have only three CMs in the team, we played them all on Sat and got dicked 7-1.
3. Let's just say for a minute we're on board with the idea of a "play out from the back game model". In this case, players should be recruited to fit that game model. And yet we keep recruiting players who can't hold the ball and progress it forwards.
The rumoured Saito signing is a case in point. I like Saito, rate him highly, and in isolation he's a good signing albeit maybe a bit expensive at the rumoured 2.8m. But the problems we are facing are everywhere but AM/wing. If anyone watched Sat and thought "the answer here is to get another winger" they are simply mental. I'd also say he maybe fits the "game model" better than e.g. Dembele, but I'm not sure he's a great fit for the game model... and if we need players to hold and progress the ball, why did we pay 2m for Dembele again?
While there are clearly questions to be asked of Belk, I'd say the flaws in the transfer plan highlighted above come more from the top... |
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Reply | Coventry City 7 Queens Park Rangers 1 – Report
at 06:43 25 Aug 2025
Top, top writing Jamie.
Think there are way more of us who appreciate your work Clive than there are those idiots out there... but the idiots sadly tend to be louder. Take care of yourself. |
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Reply | Julien Stéphan
at 17:55 23 Aug 2025
It increasingly looks like that, both metaphorically and literally.
Post Plymouth interview conveyed the metaphorical for me. This kind of glazed smile saying "I was told to play this team".
Now it can be argued that it's a poor metric as they are 5-10 min snippets of the week, but the inside training vids ring alarm bells... it is mainly drills walking balls past de facto dummies into pop up goals or hammering past helpless keepers.... the kind of stuff I did at different non-pro levels. Compare that to the intense and fascinating (or at least I found them) exercises under MC.
A more cynical man than myself may say that a French CEO hired a French manager working outside his native country for the first time as that's a lot easier to control than a Catalan who's worked in half a dozen countries / leagues or a manager of any nationality who's already experienced England...
Interested to see how this plays out. |
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Reply | You're the boss: What's your current thinking?
at 11:36 29 Jun 2025
We're absolutely loaded with attacking mids at all levels of the club. Most of the senior ones will legitimately want to be starters (Chair, Poku, Dembele, Vale, Smyth... thats before even getting to Madsen) and we've got Kolli (part AM part striker), Sutton, Bennie and maybe at some point Trujillo knocking on the door.
So for me has to be 4-2-3-1, probably similar line up to Dannyblue, just swapping the CB and striker from time to time.
And I'd be absolutely screaming to sign at least one centre mid. We are about 1.5 injuries and suspensions away from having to stick Madsen back in there. Would also ideally want a left back, though would depend a bit on how Larkeche and Esqurdinha do pre season. |
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Reply | Steve Bould
at 15:14 25 Jun 2025
100%, exactly my feelings.
I've really not been a Nourry fan, but on paper there are some pretty impressive moves been made here (the nuts Ben Williams fudging aside) and I'd say getting Steve Bould in is top among them. If transfer rumours are true, it even sounds like big lessons were learnt from last year's incoherent, inexperienced trolley dash.
Also getting quietly excited about the season... words I'll probably regret by October! Now if we can just get a refund on Madsen... |
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Reply | The QPR summer managers rumours thread
at 05:04 12 Jun 2025
Stephan will be a strange one if true. On one hand I can see the potential, some good runs and a record of player development. On the other hand, wasn't a key criterion for the club experience of the many 3 game weeks we get in the Champ? 3 roles in Ligue 1 France is not going to help with that. Decision influenced maybe by Le Bris coming from Ligue 1 last year and getting promotion? (are our 28 year old French CEO and Sunderland's 28 year old French chairman close?) |
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Reply | Come back Southgate...
at 15:48 11 Jun 2025
Yes that Potter.
Southgate had a win percentage of 20 something percent at boro, far from setting the world alight. But he's the second most successful England manager ever.
Sven and Capello won more or less everything going at club level, and arguably with the players at their disposal, both underperformed for England. Not even a semi final between them across their 10 years.
Good club manager does guarantee a good national manager. While only a gut feeling, I think Potter with a good range of experience, including importantly in English leagues, would have been a better option than Tuchel (with Howe probably the best option). |
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Reply | Come back Southgate...
at 05:24 11 Jun 2025
Yeah also though it should have been Howe or Potter.
This does so far have a very Capello feel to it.. hopefully it will change, but Tuchel is known for his falling outs (generally with hierarchy admittedly rather than players), and the treatment of some players so far and the reaction of others does not bode well.
I do find it bizarre that we are the only "major" football nation which keeps hiring foreign managers... not seeing France, Italy, Spain, Germany or Netherlands doing that. Yet our best runs in competitions have come under English managers, even if some of them like Southgate have club records which could be called average at best.
In the end though, I guess around this time next year we'll find out if the Tuchel experiment worked or if the FA is facing a multi-million contract payoff. |
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Reply | New manager bottom of the barrel
at 04:27 5 Jun 2025
Funny, I thought of that quote on the club having a list of managers to replace Marti yesterday while wondering when we'll get news. When comparing that quote to the situation we are in - Marti 6 weeks into gardening leave and no replacement with some names rumoured to be on that supposed list getting new jobs - it does suggest the decision was hasty and/or poorly thought out.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, Nourry needs this next appointment to go very well given we're in a mess of his own doing, and that is probably just adding to delays. While not a CN fan, looking at ins and outs I don't think it's beyond him to get the next appointment right; though there is probably an equal chance he gets it very wrong. I'd say the time to start really worrying is if we get to late June and there is no news. |
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Reply | Head of Set Pieces role
at 03:50 7 May 2025
Nice idea on paper, but surely it has some major flaws.
1. If working across teams, it means we're likely to trial new set piece ideas in the youth and dev teams before rolling them out in the first team. So as an oppo championship scout, if I wanted to know what unique set pieces might occur then I'd watch the youth and dev games to get ideas.
2. This person might be highly confidential, but is the rest of the club, including coming and going players e.g. loans going to be as "confidential"
3. 40 hours a week just on this? Honestly?! Gonna look mighty silly when throws still don't clear the first man.
I can imagine Arsenal with their massive setup can afford to do something like this, but do we know if any champ teams do? (I'm doubtful) |
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Reply | Pre Match
at 06:48 2 May 2025
Two things stick out:
1. As one of the comments on YouTube says, it looks like they've been taken hostage!
2. With Xavi, it's like hearing Marti's words come out of Xavi's mouth. As has been the case the few times he did media duties in Marti's place. Makes me think its unlikely that he stays on, more likely he goes wherever MC goes next. |
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Reply | Cifuentes on gardening leave
at 15:17 30 Apr 2025
On CN / Reuben, was thinking the same. Could be reading between the wrong lines but picking up from the various bits bounced about over the last week and 24hrs: Reuben stepped in to stop MC being fired by CN earlier in the season, and may or may not have had a go at CN after Burnley. So may be less that happy with this situation.
Problem is CN (apart from all the other crimes) may have snookered both himself and the whole club here. Even our owners surely know they can't overrule the CEO/DF, so can't step in to save MC if they are unhappy (would completely go against the idea of having our setup). But if not happy and think CN has really screwed this up, they may want to bin CN too. But to replace with who given the process to get him in? Indeed can they even be bothered to get on the merrigoround again?
There is part of me that fears this could quickly get even messier than it is. I actually hope I'm reading between the lines wrong... |
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Reply | Dunne off?
at 15:28 2 Feb 2025
One thing I think which has been entirely forgotten is that Jimmy lost his dad just a few months back. Many of us will have either experienced first hand, or seen someone else - a big personal loss like that being followed closely by big changes or challenging oneself. Who knows what he's ultimately thinking, but that could play a role in it.
Hope he stays, if he goes it will be sad but as said many times we'd be mad not to take 2m in the last 6 months of his contract. |
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Reply | If It's Wednesday, This Must Be Belgium match fred
at 18:00 25 Jan 2025
Agree, and for that 60 minutes or so we had Bannon in check. He then dropped deeper to find space, our midfield balance somehow went wrong with our subs and game over.
Frustrating given I think Marti got it fairly right the first half with Varane more or less stopping Bannon, Field on Charles and Morgan free to create more. But second half Rohls yet again won the tactical battle. |
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Reply | Clive meeting with Nourry
at 09:44 16 Jan 2025
Nice one. Reckon one Alistair Campbell would be impressed by some of CN's spin there! |
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Reply | A mist opportunity as Foxes hit QPR for six – Report
at 07:29 13 Jan 2025
Think there was a sliding doors moment with Saito during Oct / early Nov. During our injury crisis then, he was probably the bright spot. One game in particular I remember thinking "how has he not scored 1 goal and possibly 3" - everything was going through him and I think he hit the post twice, curled a beauty just wide, had one cleared off the line. Around that time he was looking like the real deal. Since Chair has come back, he seems to have gone into his shell. Reckon if he'd got at least one goal during that period (and he certainly deserved at the very least one goal if not several goals) we'd be looking at a different player now. I think there is a hard-working, talented player in there (unlike certain others *cough* Madsen) but can we get the best of that player out? |
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Reply | Alfie Lloyd
at 11:10 7 Jan 2025
Alfie Lloyd reminds me of Jamie Mackie, more than any other player we've had since Mackie.
Will work his socks off, making up for his technical and physical limitations through pure effort (saw him literally throwing himself into bigger, stronger players last night). Not quite a striker, not quite a winger; may well be a bit short of the technical skills required for a champ level forward, but it doesn't matter because of pure effort and enthusiasm. A real asset in the kind of game situation we had from 70 mins yesterday.
On a side note I was very impressed by Frey last night again. The guy is almost the dream target man. Strong as an ox, but with the touch of a ballerina. A really skilful lump who is showing an ability to finish too. Long may his form and fitness continue. |
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Reply | Help (live stream)
at 20:07 6 Jan 2025
Was having the same problem (no stream button) despite actually legitimately being in a permitted country.
Give this link on official site a try - I found it after digging through a few pages and it works for me: https://www.qpr.co.uk/stream/video/34198. Might for you if you have the package and are on VPN |
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Reply | Celar
at 07:30 28 Nov 2024
Happy for him, and for us, but like some others I'm still not sure he's the type of striker we need / fits the system we're playing - Marti's system does seem to need more a disruptive, hard working target man.
Watched his Lugano goals again just now, recurring themes seem to be (1) having a bit of time in the box - often a 2 touch finish like his first last night; or (2) breaking the offside trap and having time to finish, like the second. Getting the most out of him goalwise will require either somehow getting him more space in the box, or more frequently breaking a defensive high line. Admittedly he made a bit of his own time last night for the first, which is a good sign. |
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Reply | Andy Belk
at 06:25 23 Nov 2024
The problem with the data approach is there is no metric to measure attitude / culture or team fit. All our data-based failures fall into the group of "good stats, but bad attitude / culture / poor fit" (Dozzell being the poster boy). This summer signings were basically all data based and sure enough... Ironic that the one thing Ainsworth did was prioritise culture over data with his signings, and a year on we are still pretty reliant on his signings.
Belk IMO should have learnt this lesson by now... stats alone are not enough... and certainly he has to learn from this summers intake otherwise he's basically a liability. But IMO Nourry has to take a lot of blame for me for sanctioning big fees based entirely on data with no regard for culture or fit. |
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