Stephane Mbia is the latest big-name to leave Loftus Road this transfer window. LFW looks back at his time with the club, while looking ahead to Tuesday night’s game with Swindon.
League Cup second round >>> Tuesday August 27, 2013 >>> Kick Off 7.45pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
This time next week, much to the dismay of the Fans Network lawyer, a crack team assembled from LoftforWords’ vast editorial staff will return to our bunker in Earlsfield and once again try to make sense of the final 11 hours of the transfer window.
That basically means we’re all going round to Andy Hillman’s house for pulled pork with a bit of live piss taking of Iain Dowie and Dave Bassett thrown in for good measure.
When we first came up with this idea a year ago the results - now sadly pulled apart somewhat by a site redesign and various legal panics — went down very well, so we’ll aim to please again on Monday.
It’s a shame, in some ways, that Stephane Mbia couldn’t hang on for another week before leaving for La Liga side Sevilla on a season long loan deal, as he has done today. One of the abiding memories of the last deadline day was waiting patiently, as the alcohol and barbecued meat started to take effect, to see where Mbia’s private jet would land and whether QPR would secure his signature before the 23.00 deadline. We used phrases like "final piece of the puzzle” and lamented the club’s decision to "only” give him a two year contract, for surely they were setting themselves up for a transfer disaster when Mbia inevitably took the Premier League by storm only to leave on a free transfer in 2014. Mbia, for his part, arrived dressed as a snooker player, accompanied by bizarre Wikipedia entries about the length of his penis. Watching him fly out again exactly a year on might have offered closure on a lousy 12 months.
Mbia was an oddity from minute one. Mark Hughes seemed to believe he was going to be the answer at centre half, once fit, and started him there at Arsenal where he ruined 80 minutes of decent performance, and his new club’s chances of a very creditable draw, with a mindless sending off for kicking out at Thomas Vermaelen after QPR had actually been awarded a free kick. Those who like to say they know about such things said that he’d be wasted at centre back and was actually a midfielder, and then when he played in midfield for the rest of the season to no great success whatsoever the same experts said he was a centre half out of position. In truth the only time he really looked happy in his skin was in his one appearance at right back against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
He did crazy things like scaling away ends to find small children to give his shirt to, and disrupting his own photoshoots by pulling ludicrous faces. On the field he would dive around ludicrously, often making out like he’d suffered a career ending injury and bringing a concerned hush upon the crowd before leaping to his feet and running off. He liked to concede free kicks on the edge of his own area, seemingly because he enjoyed the danger and excitement of the situation. He peppered large swathes of Acton with his long range shots on goal.
At the end of the season, with the mood black and the team relegated, he took to his Twitter account - which had previously been used sporadically to talk about his "missions” and to pick out random members of opposition teams soon to be faced to tell them to watch their backs — and asked Joey Barton if he wanted to swap places so he could go back to Marseille. When this provoked an angry response from QPR fans he rapidly accelerated through the stages of Twitter denial — not my account, is my account but it’s been hacked, is my account but it’s operated by a rogue publicist - and when all of that failed he came out fighting and said it was him after all, and he’d do it again given the chance.
The only conclusion you could draw in the end was that whatever was wrong with Stephane Mbia, it was no little thing.
So another one bites the dust, and while it’s only yet another loan deal that two year contract (a blessing as it turned out) means he’s effectively left the club, just like Ji-Sung Park. QPR have started the season remarkably well considering the depths they sank to last term and the upheaval that has gone on since. We’ll no doubt get a clue as to who, of those that remain, Harry Redknapp believes could still play a part in what’s currently shaping up to be a solid revival of the team’s fortunes on Tuesday night in the League Cup.
It’s the sort of competition a team like the one QPR have at their disposal could actually do a bit of damage in this season, but whether Redknapp would welcome the extra games must be in doubt. The need to hack into the wage bill and shift on various slackers, troublemakers, and lads Redknapp neither believes to be "top”, "top, top” or "triffic” was always going to create a bit of a bottle-neck in this early part of the season where the squad gets very thin, to be topped up with further signings before the window closes and loans thereafter. Rangers have started the season well, but clearly missed Junior Hoilett at Bolton on Saturday and will continue to do so until he returns or new signing Matty Phillips gets fit. Similarly, any knock to either Andy Johnson or Charlie Austin propels Bobby Zamora into action despite no longer being fit for purpose.
On paper a front four of Hoilett, Johnson, Austin and Phillips is exceptional at Championship level, but reading from left to right they have bad hamstrings, bad knees, a bad knee, and a broken arm respectively. Between them they’re one beautiful footballer — separately they look like the waiting room at a Bupa clinic. Having them all fit as often as possible could be key to the success this season which means, as ever in these early League Cup games, the team selection on Tuesday night will probably be a good deal more interesting than the match.
Links >>> Opposition Focus >>> Referee >>> History
Youth team graduate Ollie Burgess wheels away to celebrate his first goal for the club, scored against Swindon at Loftus Road in November 2001. The Second Division fixture marked the return of Kevin Gallen to the club for the second time and finished 4-0 to the Super Hoops.
Team News: Neither of QPR’s first choice wingers — Junior Hoilett (hamstring) and Matt Phillips (broken arm) — are fit to take part here. Harry Redknapp is highly likely to rest several other first team names, almost certainly Andy Johnson and either Richard Dunne or Clint Hill in my opinion, which could open the door for some fringe players to stake a claim. If Johnson is omitted, might Ipswich goal hero Tom Hitchcock make a first senior start?
Swindon have doubts over winger Tijane Reis who has a knee injury.
Elsewhere: There are 25 matches taking place over the next two nights with the majority scheduled for Tuesday evening. This competition has become ripe for upsets in recent times with clubs at the upper end of the game often deliberately sacrificing their place in it lest it distract them from the important business of finishing seventeenth in the Premier League. With that in mind, keep an eye on Fulham’s trip to last season’s beaten League Two play-off semi-finalists Burton Albion and Newcastle’s televised Wednesday night clash at Morecambe. If the Toon happen to lose there they’ll be looting and turning over cars by the Tyne for days given the start they’ve made to the season. League One leaders Leyton Orient host Premier League newbies Hull which also looks like a handy place to stake a little money. Cardiff go to James Beattie’s Accrington (recently renamed) on Wednesday as well, with Crystal Palace at League One Bristol City.
And although Sky’s decision to show Liverpool v Notts County on Tuesday smacks of lazy, audience chasing scheduling, it’s not been beyond the realms of possibility for lower league sides to win at Premier League grounds at this stage either. Liverpool themselves fell to Grimsby at Anfield a few years back. What price Newport County, victors at Brighton in the last round, winning at West Brom, or Cheltenham giving West Ham a bloody nose?
Referee: East Sussex police officer David Phillips was originally down to take this fixture, which would have been good news for Swindon who have only ever lost one of seven appointments with him. However we were informed by the club on Monday that there has been a switch of officials and Phil Gibbs from the West Midlands is now taking the game. Gibbs was last in charge of QPR for their 1-0 win at Doncaster in the Championship promotion season of 2010/11. If it’s still Phillips, his case file is available here, or if it’s Gibbs you can read his history with Rangers here.
QPR: Following the horrors of last year, QPR have made an excellent start to life at the lower Championship level. There has been no hangover from a campaign of just four league wins, and the R’s have already put four successes on the board before the end of August this time around with the other game drawn. Unbeaten in five matches, the R’s have only conceded two goals and haven’t let one in for two and a half games now following consecutive 1-0 wins against Ipswich at home and Bolton away. Their 3-2 victory over Swindon at the County Ground in the first round of this competition in 2008 set them up for subsequent wins against Carlisle and Aston Villa before a narrow defeat at Manchester United in round four — their best recent performance in the League Cup. Both Rangers and Swindon have won this trophy as third division sides — the R’s beat First Division West Brom 3-2 having trailed 2-0 in 1967 while Swindon beat Arsenal 3-1 at Wembley in 1969.
Swindon: Prior to Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Gillingham, Swindon had been miserly at both ends of the field so far this season. They’ve won two, drawn one and lost two so far with just five goals scored in their first four games all of which ended with one of the sides keeping a clean sheet. Away from home so far they’ve lost 1-0 at Peterborough and 2-0 at Shrewsbury so not only do they await their first away win, but they’re yet to score away from the County Ground as well. Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon registered the club’s best performance in this competition for 18 years last season when they reached the fourth round, knocking out Championship sides Brighton and Burnley and Premier League Stoke in the process. They reached the second round this year thanks to a 1-0 home win against Torquay a fortnight ago. Swindon are unbeaten in their last four cup matches on the road, winning three and drawing one. Three of those matches have been against sides from a higher division.
Prediction: Mase, the reigning champion in our Prediction League, tells us…
"A very good outcome at Bolton means we've started the season a lot better than I had anticipated and it's looking like no fluke. Then the etiolate League Cup comes along to serve as a distraction from the main focus of our season. As with our match in the first round, we face a lower league opponent of whom I know very little and who we could either labour to defeat or brush aside. It seems as though we're building a good head of steam and in the infectious spirit of optimism that has engulfed our support I am tipping us to get through assuming we pick a vaguely strong side. I don't think it will be all our own way though - I foresee a goal against acting as a jolt that will inspire us to a 3-1 win.”
Mase’s Prediction — QPR 3-1, First QPR scorer Andy Johnson
LFW’s Prediction — All the way to extra time.
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