Fair enough? — Preview Friday, 26th Aug 2022 20:56 by Clive Whittingham In a week when Watford’s owner passed £16m from his right hand to his left with no player moving anywhere, QPR head to Vicarage Road still kneecapping themselves trying desperately to comply with FFP regulations. Watford (2-3-0 WDWDDL 2nd) v QPR (1-2-2 LWDDLD 17th)Lancashire and District Senior League >>> Saturday August 27, 2022 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather — Sunny >>> Vicarage Road, Watford At the start of the week, when Watford’s owner sold Hassane Kamara to himself for £16m and immediately loaned him back, while we kneecap our manager and team to try and scrape under the FFP restrictions, I thought the preview would write itself. It is now 63 separate transactions with Udinese over the ten years of Pozzo ownership, 53 of them listed as a loan or undisclosed fee. That is the fundamental problem QPR are trying to tackle here, and as much as we point fingers of blame at people in W12, demand and sometimes get sackings, that problem doesn’t change and a solution is yet to be found. Everything I’m about to say is set in that context. There are rich teams, then there are poor teams, then there’s fifty feet of crap, and then there’s us. Not quite last dog at the bowl, but still chowing down on thin rations. My mind did wander during the week to whether Ruben Gnanalingam could make a bit more sly use of his stake in LA FC. I mean, the club costs £1.8m a month to run — we know this. The shareholders, of which Ruben is now the majority, pay this in the form of loans which, rather than recall, they simply convert to equity — so he tips money in, never gets it back, increases his stake. If you’re putting that money in like that to cover the losses, and every penny takes us closer to the FFP limit all the while QPR fans online accuse you of being tight and urge you to “get your hand in your pocket”, then why not get creative? Buy Nico for LA FC, for let’s say £6m. He gets to live in a nice hot place, as is clearly a priority. We get rid of a problem child. Ruben puts the £6m he’s having to put in anyway, but instead of moving us closer to the FFP limit, it moves us further away and creates more headroom. I’m sure there are myriad reasons we don’t - likely QPR doing it would see that loophole immediately close. Nevertheless, I have to confess seeing that Kamara news earlier in the week I did just throw my arms up and wonder what the point is, and feel a pang of jealousy. Typical of QPR to have this fixture, this week, as well. The pitch over the summer was that the previous manager had become too attached to proven, experienced, expensive players — several of whom he’d worked with before — which was fine when the team was pushing for promotion, but not when the results collapsed because what is the point of it all if you’re not even winning games? We need to develop to sell to compete on this slanted field, and three years of Lee Wallace doesn’t do that. Fair enough. Michael Beale was hired because of his ability to develop players into sellable assets, re-open the lines of communication that had been closed off between first team and youth/reserves, and the pathways for players in that system to the first team. Jake Clarke-Salter and Kenneth Paal both fitted that brief of bringing in players with “their best years in front of them” at a price that works on our budget, with loads of sell-on potential. Taylor Richards and Tyler Roberts sort of the same, although only on loan, the former we’re obligated to buy if we don’t go down, the latter has a fairly nonsense signing figure based on a complete fantasy scenario of us going up. Ethan Laird none of the above, you’re developing somebody else’s player for them, but we buy into that because we spent a lot of budget on recruitment we were all really excited by last summer and now have to cover gaps in the squad with loans because money is tighter. I’m basically with you so far. And then today they sign Leon Balogun, a 34-year-old centre back released on a free transfer by Rangers at the end of last season. Now, look, there are positives here. Loads of them. The signing-hungry Twitterati are over the moon. The Rangers fans absolutely loved him, the guy got 29 starts for an SPL side getting to a Europa League final last season, a key part of the Gerrard Ibrox revolution. He’s a classy performer, top bloke by every account. Vastly experienced. We talk about how weak we are as a team, physically and mentally, how easy we are to get at in moments of adversity, how we get bullied by opponents and referees, how we’ve already conceded from four set pieces five matches into the new season, two clean sheets in 24 games — well here's your leader, here’s your voice, here’s that experience we so desperately lack, and it’s within our budget apparently. We know we don’t have a pot to piss in, and you’ve got this guy. If he’s coming on a barrel-bottom wage, and is happy to mostly not play, and just influence things at Heston and in the dressing room, then fucking brilliant. You cannot do a 46-game Championship season, as a non-parachute payment club, with a development team of kids — Barnsley tried it last season, having made the play-offs the year before, and it burned them alive. There has to be a balance, and with the departures we had in the summer perhaps that balance is out of whack. The club continues to be hamstrung by the signing of Stefan Johansen to be ‘that guy’ — something we were all desperate to see them do, but has turned into a disaster with his contract a financial millstone and his performances depressingly shy of those he produced on loan. But, I’m sorry, signing a 34-year-old centre back that even his biggest fans at Rangers will tell you struggles to do two games a week, doesn’t fit with what we’re supposed to be doing, nor why Warburton was shown the door here, nor why Beale was brought here, nor what he and the club have been saying since. If you think this is just me whinging, well here’s Michael Beale one month ago specifically talking about the centre back spots and the decision to release the previous ‘leaders’ Barbet and Lee Wallace… “It's quite exciting. They lack a few grey hairs but how many Championship games do you have to play to be classed as ‘experienced’? Jimmy Dunne played 40 games last year. Does he need 40 more to know how to play in the Championship, or does he know now? If I bring somebody, another Yoann, in to hold his hand and Rob’s hand, yeh we’ve got experience, but when do I let these kids grow up? As a father when do you let go of your kid’s hand to allow them to grow up with a bit of independence. That’s what I’m emphasising to the players.” I don’t know what I’m talking about. We’ve established this. I thought Steven Caulker was a great signing. I thought Clint Hill was a shit signing, and we should have gone for Dusko Tosic instead. I don’t know why you’re both still here to be honest, even I wish I wasn’t any more. Balogun will probably come in and be absolutely brilliant. I’ll use terms like “Rolls Royce centre half” after he cruises us through an October win at Birmingham in a dinner suit; I’ll say he rolled back the years when he tramples all over Swanselona’s grand experiment down our place in January. Ryan Nelsen looked the worst of our 2012 intake and turned out to be by far the best. Who knows, maybe he’ll even Richard Dunne it, and we’ll be watching that lovely big bastard walk up those Wembley steps in May, and you’ll all laugh at me and send me links to this article where I compared him to Alex Baptiste — manager demands crusty centre back he’s worked with before and gets it. I’ll say then, as I say now, I don’t think he’s a bad signing, player or person per se, but given what happened with Warburton and why he left here, given why they hired Beale, and given what they’ve said about recruitment, development and pathways, this one is hard to justify and explain in that context. In that context. It might not be the last of it either. Some pretty wild copy out of West London Sport this morning suggests that, half a dozen games in, Beale has by and large reached the same conclusions that Mark Warburton did. There will be more signings between now and next week, right down the centre of the team — as many as five, if they can offload some of the signings we made previously that we already own. For all the talk of player development, pathways, conversations with the academy coaches, once you scratch below the surface of our starting eleven there’s very little there, and we’re going to get ourselves into some trouble if we pretend otherwise. Every manager we’ve had here recently has reached that conclusion. It feels like, for Beale, that Charlton cup game was quite a moment. I feel like we’ve been around this circle a few times now. Certainly we did with McClaren, and to an extent with Warburton although obviously he had successful periods, and now similar noises again. We hire a manager for his coaching and development potential because we absolutely need to do that to build up some sellable assets so we can trade our way out of this. The new manager comes in and makes very positive noises about working with and coaching what we have here — name drop a couple of young kids. Things then start to go wrong — immediately for McClaren and Beale, post-Eze for Warbs. They see our team, and our midfield, and these players, and they see what we see every week. You don’t have to watch QPR much to know the midfield is crap. The managers then demand some experienced players, often ones they know and have worked with before, and are given them. When results eventually decline anyway, the manager is replaced by a new manager renowned for his coaching and development potential because we absolutely need to do that to build up some sellable assets so we can trade our way out of this. Again, if you think that’s horribly negative and cynical, look at what Beale was saying in July, and look at what he’s saying and doing now. You’re either running a director of football model or you’re not. I personally think the Hughes and Redknapp era showed it absolutely vital that we have that person sitting between these owners and the manager to keep a handle on long term aims and strategy over short term cover ups for medium term problems — signings, basically, that stop the manager getting the sack in the next six weeks, but don’t benefit the team or the players we’re trying to develop. But if the players we’re trying to develop simply aren’t good enough, we’re losing football matches and going down the table, we’re requiring dead-end loans and signings like this to cover it, then something has gone wrong and you have to ask questions of the people who’ve overseen that. Likewise, if you’re just going to let your new manager, eight weeks in, have a 34-year-old centre back he’s worked with before to play in front of them, then really what’s the point of the model, or the people overseeing it? Because Tony and Ruben can say yes to that. Isn’t the director of football model there to say no to that? I’m genuinely so, so sorry. I’m clearly in a bad place, with QPR, with life in general, and it’s probably colouring my writing. This is likely all bollocks. Certainly, in fact. I actually should be doing this job at the moment the frame of mind I’m in. I know you don’t want to read me moaning. Like I say, I was actually going to write about the challenge QPR face with things like the Watford-Udinese link up, and all the good stuff we do to combat that and actually compete. What chance have we got, really? But as somebody who knows absolutely nothing about football all I can do is sit here and write about what it’s like to follow QPR home and away, read the accounts, read the FFP rules, interview the execs, interview the manager, and then point out when something they do contradicts all of that. A month ago they said they wouldn’t be doing loans… wouldn’t be bringing in experienced heads to hold their hands… wouldn’t be playing a back three… I hope Balogun comes in and does brilliantly. Me sucking my teeth over the signing makes this much more likely, you should be thanking me. I hope he stops us conceding from every bloody corner we face. I cannot wait to write my end of term report, give him an A, say he’s borderline player of the year, inspired signing, knitted it altogether, Beale’s man on the pitch… We talk a lot about the 1990s, selling Paul Parker for profit and replacing with Darren Peacock, selling Andy Sinton for profit and replacing with Trevor Sinclair — well that team had Ray Wilkins, and he wasn’t going to be bought by anybody was he? You have to have that guy. Beale has quickly identified that it isn’t here at the moment — and he’s absolutely right. Maybe he is now. I hope so, and if we go and win at Watford tomorrow there won’t be a happier person in the world than me. I’ll sit in this chair on Sunday and do a big, flouncy match report with loads of film references and song lyrics, every bit as over the top as this preview is. It’ll make my whole week, though it doesn’t have much competition. But I also can’t, in all honesty, sit here and not say what I’ve said. It would be hypocritical. Again, I’m sorry for that. Links >>> Window damage — Interview >>> Kings, for a week at least — History >>> Coco the Stroud — Referee >>> Watford Official Website >>> WFC Forums — Message Board >>> Watford Observer — Local Press >>> Voices of the Vic — Podcast Below the foldTeam News: It’s essentially as you were last week for QPR. They remain without Luke Amos, Taylor Richards and Jake Clarke-Salter. Stefan Johansen picked up his weekly injury and left the field midway through the Rotherham game, but has trained all week and is apparently ready to slog through another hour or so here. The bad news is Ismaila Sarr and Joao Pedro are still at Watfird, despite hefty reported interest from basically everywhere else. The good news is, both might be injured. Now, whether that’s the sort of injury players tend to get when a move might be pending, and now moves are apparently no longer pending they’ll suddenly by fine and dandy again, we’ll find out at 14.00 tomorrow. Keinan Davis, signed on loan from Villa, who impressed on loan at Forest last season, isn’t fit to start yet. Kortney Hause, also on loan from Villa Park, is injured as well, so clearly Watford’s medicals are about as shit hot as ours. Nicki Manaj stands by to start in attack. Elsewhere: Alex Neil is in a bad place too — Stoke on Trent. Biiiiig Ray Harford leaving league-leading West Brom to takeover soon-to-be-bankrupt QPR vibes about Alex Neil’s decision to jettison upwardly mobile Sunderland in favour of a Stoke City ship ordering the last boilers lit as it ploughs on towards the FFP iceberg. Neil says the Mackems haven’t backed him in the transfer market, but Daniel Ballard at £2m from Arsenal looked like one of this division’s best signings over the summer and Costa Rica international Jewison Bennette arrived on a four-year deal just yesterday — penny for his thoughts. Stoke, meanwhile, have declared losses of £56m and £86.2m in their last two sets of accounts, dragged back under the FFP line by the sale of their stadium to the owners. It’s one of those weird moves that happens at this level and, like Harford back in the day, potentially benefits none of the three parties involved — Sunderland, Stoke and Neil — but we have said for a while there is goals in that Stoke team if it can only get fit, get on the field, and be unleashed correctly so perhaps… We start to find out tomorrow, with Sunderland rocked and heading to Norwich for the lunchtime kick off, while the new post-Michael O’Neill reign begins for the Potters at Blackburn. Stoke also guilty of another Championship trait — giving a manager all the summer budget and transfer window, then sacking him at the end of August or start of September for perceived failings and problems they knew all about in May. The weekend gets underway tonight, with Sheffield Red Stripe at Lutown. Paul Heckingbottom’s team look predictably good, as we suspected, ten points from five games and top of the fledgling table, Ahmedhodzic looks an absolute diamond. Luton, contrary to our pre-season thoughts, don’t, although they’ve still only lost two home games all year, one of them to us. They have only won once so far — that at Swanselona who, I have to say, I know it makes me a bad person, but I’m very much enjoying early on this season. They take their one-twos in their own penalty box up to Middlesbrough this weekend, for whom the LFW tip for the title millstone is weighing as heavy as ever. Bouncing the other way, our tip for the drop Reading have had a wild, but actually surprisingly successful, start — mixing 4-0 defeats at Rotherham, with 3-0 home wins against Blackburn. I still think they’ll be shit, and I’d be amazed if they get anything at Wwawll, who look a really handy dark horse bet this year to me. Another two we tipped for the drop but, so far, look to stand a puncher’s chance, Rotherham and Birmingham, meet in South Yorkshire. Elsewhere Coventry get to play a game, away at Hullisktas, which will be nice for them. Cardiff v Preston Knob End looks like something you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. West Brom are banging away on the door for 90 minutes and settling for a point at Huddersfield. There’s a north-off between Wigan Warriors and Burnley Burnleys. Blackpool v Bristol City is this weekend’s exciting fixture between two teams beginning with B. The good news? The good news is we get to do it all again on Tuesday. Referee: Women and children into the lifeboats first please. Details. FormWatford: The Hornets have started this season with a pair of 1-0 home wins against difficult, recently relegated, parachute payment opponents — Sheff Utd and Burnley. It means that QPR’s late 2-1 win here on February 1, 2021, is the last time they dropped points at Vicarage Road in the Championship. Since then they have won 11 out of 11 home league games, keeping ten clean sheets, conceding just once, and scoring 22 goals. Rob Edwards’ side is unbeaten in the Championship so far this season, with two wins and three draws. A scratchy side lost 2-0 here in the League Cup to MK Dons during the week. They are yet to score more than one goal in a game, however, with their results so far 1-0, 1-1, 1-0, 1-1, 0-0 in the Championship. Four players — Sarr, Pedro, Cleverley and Manaj — have shared the four goals scored so far equally. When Michael Beale talks about ‘performance happy or results happy’, I’d suggest Watford have been very much the latter so far, getting goals and points often against the run of play. Goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann has been in excellent touch — in four of Watford’s five games so far the opposition have had significantly more shots on target than them (3-5 at West Brom, 1-4 v Burnley, 2-4 v Birmingham and Preston) and yet Watford remain unbeaten. Against Sheff Utd on day one it was 4-3 in Watford’s favour. Needless to say their numbers from the latest Premier League season were not quite so hot — they were effectively relegated months before the end of the campaign, shy of fourth-bottom Leeds by 15 points in the end, winning just six games all season and only two of 19 at home. They conceded 46 goals in those 19 matches, the worst total in the division. QPR: Rangers have started the season with one win, three draws and two defeats. In a week of three matches against teams promoted from League One within the last year, two of them at Loftus Road, they took two points prior to this short hop away to a parachute payment team. Chris Willock is top scorer with two, having netted on both his starts so far. He has seven goals and eight assists — 15 goal involvements — in his last 22 appearances. He has 12 goals in his QPR career and Rangers have never lost when he’s scored — W9 D3. Rangers are yet to keep a clean sheet in six matches so far, and have just two shut outs in their last 24 matches dating back to January. No wins from three away games so far, which means it’s two wins from 14 away games going back into last season — a run that was preceded by five wins from six on the road, and a club record run of scoring in 22 consecutive away games. Prediction: We’re once again indebted to The Art of Football for agreeing to sponsor our Prediction League and provide prizes. You can get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. Let’s see what last year’s champion Cheesy thinks this week… “Watford haven't impressed me so far, even though they are sitting second. Having said that, it's going to be a big test for us. I will be happy with a draw and that’s what I'm going for.” Cheesy’s Prediction: Watford 1-1 QPR. Scorer — Ilias Chair LFW’s Prediction: Watford 2-0 QPR. No scorer. If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures — Action Images The Twitter @loftforwords Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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