West Brom striker Ishmael Miller has signed a 93 day loan deal with QPR this afternoon as Neil Warnock looks to give his side a final push towards promotion.

Facts

Miller is a 23-year-old, six foot three inch, 13 stone monster of a centre forward who came up through the ranks at Man City’s renowned academy before making his name at West Brom. He has twice been promoted from this league with the Baggies, scoring 16 goals when they won the division in 2007/08. For all that though he has proved brittle in his career so far with just 37 appearances to his name in the last three years – a period of time that also included 14 months out of action with a ruptured cruciate ligament and numerous leaves of absence besides with hamstring and other problems.

Having failed to make a real breakthrough at City Miller joined West Brom, first on loan then for £1.6m, in 2007 and has impressed at the Hawthorns whenever he has been fit enough to do so. Leicester have been sniffing around him this January but West Brom have dragged their feet awaiting news of a possible replacement. QPR have remained patient and have got their man on a three month loan deal initially, which they hope will become a long term six month deal if the Baggies can sign another striker during the transfer window.

Miller will wear Paul Furlong's old 29 shirt at Loftus Road.

Reaction

"Ishmael is a player I have been looking at for a long time. I have always liked him and when it was put to me about bringing him in I asked the board to support me. It is not guaranteed yet until the end of the season but we are hoping that before the end of January that might be the case. I thought he did very well in his first training session today - he looked good and fitted in well. We have got a good group here anyway so it is always easy for people to fit in. Having won promotion with West Brom last season he knows what it is all about. He gives us something we haven't got because we have lost Jamie Mackie for the season and Patrick Agyemang for a spell. Ishmael has got an abundance of pace and we are glad to bring him in." Neil Warnock

"When a team like QPR, who are top of the league, come calling you can't ask for much more. I've watched QPR play a few times this season and the gaffer has assembled a great squad. Having met the lads today you can see there is a great camaraderie within the squad. I'm here to get games and kick start my career again." Ishmael Miller

"In the last 18 months he hasn't been able to play one game of 90 minutes. He needs to play consistently week in, week out to be able to reach his full potential and match fitness. We can't give him that at the moment. The stage where we are means we haven't got the time to do that. To play every week will be good for him." Roberto De Matteo

Opinion

Sheffield United fans will tell you that Neil Warnock is a great manager, but cannot spot a decent striker for love nor money. Rob Hulse’s mixed start to life at QPR and Leon Clarke’s lumbering cameos would back up that accusation but in Ishmael Miller I believe he has found us a terrific Championship striker, albeit a player with one huge flaw that may hinder his impact at QPR.

First of all - as with Routledge, Shittu, and just about everybody else we’ve been linked with this January – what we have in Ishmael Miller is a player who is proven in this league, and failed in the one above. Shittu gets away with his mistakes in this league because he has the speed to get back at players, Routledge can cover his own lousy technique with his sheer pace, and Miller gets results in this league simply by overpowering opponents. All three, on their day, can look absolutely unstoppable in this division and all three get found out consistently when they are asked to play at the highest level.

It’s the highest level that we want to be playing at, so hauling in such players could be seen as a lack of ambition and forward thinking. I disagree. You're not going to get many genuine proven Premiership players willing to drop down to the Championship, even to a team that stands a good chance of being promoted from it. Partly because of wages, also because whenever a Robbie Keane type comes on the market there is always a Birmingham/Fulham/Wolves type club at the bottom end of the top flight that will be at the front of the queue. Craig Bellamy is the only quality, proven Premiership player I can remember dropping down to this level while still in his prime. Paul Merson may have been the last one before that.

This time last year Newcastle went out and signed several players of this type – Routledge, Leon Best, Mike Williamson and Danny Simpson. Two have managed to maintain their place in the top flight, two have not, but the point of the signings was to make sure they got there in the first place and that is what Neil Warnock has tried to do this week.

Miller, in his defence, has been restricted in what he has been able to do in the Premiership by a succession of injuries. Perhaps if he could get fit for a prolonged period of time he could become a good Premiership striker - Sylvain Ebanks Blake is making strides this season and Miller is a similar player in many ways. He has made just one start and six substitute appearances this season, last year he appeared 16 times again mainly from the bench, 15 appearances to his name the season before that and again most of them started in the stands. Of the last three years he has missed 14 months with a ruptured cruciate ligament and many more weeks besides with various bumps and niggles. This is his biggest flaw. If Ishmael Miller can start 18 games for us between now and May then he is a fantastic signing, but for the last three years he has been unable to do that and there’s a hint of Dean Sturridge about the whole thing – why should he suddenly be able to string a run of games together for us?

If he does he’s exactly what we need for that lone striker role. He’s powerful, good in the air, with a 16 goal season and two promotions from this level on his CV already. He can win headers, and hold up the ball and bring others into play. Admittedly it was against a defence that included, at varying points of the day, Rehman, Curtis, Cullip, Barker and Stewart but his goal and performance against us for the Baggies three years ago was excellent.

The success and failure of this signing will be determined by the club’s medical people rather than Miller or anybody else.

Photo: Action Images

AshteadR added 13:09 - Jan 22 Thanks for the update Clive. some good additions to the squad. Will hopefully give evryone at the club a boost and provide some added momentum for the remainder of the season. It was good to finally meet you on the train after the Burnley game. I hope you made your connection at Preston (and managed to stock up on your beer provisions) - keep up the good work.
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Northernr added 13:41 - Jan 22 Ashtead - good to have a chat with you too mate. It was bizarre on that Burnley train, I had to walk all the way from the front to the back to speak to the guard about the delays going the other way because my Sheffield mates were stuck on the platform trying to get to Leeds and no trains were running. Walking all the way down the train and back again I got stopped five times by people who read LFW. Very bizarre. The beer continued to flow all the way back to Euston by which time Neil and myself were doing impressions of a Rastafarian gentleman I covered in a court case the other week who was carried from the dock to Milton Keynes nick shouting: "Milton Keynes is a sht ars town."

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Ribenaboy added 14:30 - Jan 22 Totally agree with your viewpoint, I'm suprised we didn't go for a totally different type of player to HH and Hulse though (Kevin Phillips springs to mind). Interesting stat on Routledge - he has played for 6 Premiership clubs and never scored a Premiership goal.
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French_Hoops added 14:40 - Jan 22 I believe you're a bit harsh on Leon Best as he's been out of the game with an injury since last summer so of course he hasn't made it to the Premiership yet but who knows? And who cares anyway? What strikes me most this January is not much that we've signed proven quality Championship players but foremost the fact that we've signed LOAN players. That is a very positive change compared to the past January windows where we gave long-term contracts (and everything that goes with) to players who weren't half as decent on paper as those we just brought in. The situation on the players front will be re-evaluated in May depending of which division we'll be playing in next year and that proves NW is very much in charge and knows what he's doing (despite the Clarke debacle so far... but once again, if Clarke scores the goal that clinches promotion for us, everything will be forgotten!).

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Northernr added 15:12 - Jan 22 He could be this year's Eric Sabin!
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SomersetHoops added 15:40 - Jan 22 Well I've just watched (on the box) Wolves v Liverpool and from what I could see Wolves didn't have anyone who has 'premier quality' in that game and could by some miracle stay up. Obviously we would need to strengthen but we might just be building the basis of a team that could cope - I hope. We've got to get there first and Cardiff 3 Watford 1 is not sounding good I was hoping for a draw there. 4-4 anyone?

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richranger added 21:41 - Jan 22 If I was supporting one of our promotion rivals I'd be very worried about us now. We have added real pace with Miller and Routledge AND have Adel! I was getting a little nervous but the signings we've made in the last couple of days make me very confident we will go up this year.
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John added 23:28 - Jan 22 Dont get why 3 months rather than the rest of the season? We only have 3 more games to play after it ends. Are WBA thinking they might need him for the dogfight at the end?
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Northernr added 01:20 - Jan 23 Might be wrong John but in a short term loan, i.e. one to three months, the parent club has a short call back option on the player. If they loan him out for six months they lose him for the full term. So going by what warnock says they're expecting to sign another striker this transfer window and if they do then he can have six months.
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SW17_RRR added 08:23 - Jan 23 I'm just enjoying the run at the moment and hopefully the promotion party, as champs, at the end of the season! At least we've made these signings, hopefully, to get us there, even if their not going to make the grade in the premiership - I'm sure our rich owners will stump up when the time comes! =) =) =) uuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssssssssssssss!
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