QPR have stolen a second bright, young, English prospect from relegated Cardiff City today - Jordon Mutch signing a four year contract at Loftus Road for a fee of £5m.
Jordon Mutch, still only 22 years of age, first crossed the radar of most QPR fans just before Christmas 2010.
Back then he was a young player making his way Birmingham City after they’d picked him up from the youth system at Derby County. He learnt his trade through a spate of loan spells: five games at Hereford in League Two a year before, and then 17 appearances for Doncaster (mostly as a sub) in the second half of 2009/10 in the Championship preceded a half-season loan deal at Watford.
He’d already scored four goals from midfield for Malky Mackay’s Hornets before an outstanding performance, goal and assist in a 3-1 win at Loftus Road in a Friday night fixture televised live on the BBC. Rangers, top of the table, had been unbeaten in their first 19 matches of the season prior to that unwelcome intrusion from the north of the city.
One of the puzzling aspects of Mutch’s career to date was the lack of opportunity for him at Birmingham City, considering their demise during his time there. Mutch followed academy coach Terry Westley from Derby to St Andrew’s and the Blues paid compensation to get him. Back in 2007 they tried to select him on the bench for a League Cup tie at Blackburn when he was still just 15 but were prevented from doing so by the league’s child protection rules. He was voted academy Player of the Year during his time there, and is the club’s second youngest first team debutant ever behind Trevor Francis, but by the time he left for Cardiff he’d made just 30 starts and five sub appearances for Birmingham.
Cardiff swooped in June 2012 when Mutch’s former Watford manager Malky Mackay showed enough faith in the player’s recovery from a broken ankle to spend a fee of around £1.3m on him — Birmingham’s much publicised cash flow issues dragged that price down somewhat. Cardiff were promoted into the Premier League but Mutch was restricted to 23 appearances and no goals by a persistent problem with nerves in his foot and ankle.
Mutch announced his arrival on the Premier League scene with a 25-yard barnburner in Cardiff’s 2-1 win at Fulham last September and enjoyed a breakout year that included seven goals in 26 starts and nine sub appearances and a series of eye-catching performances despite the Bluebirds’/Red Devils’ struggles and eventual relegation.
Mutch, who has been capped by England at every level from under 16s to under 21s, has signed for £5m and penned a four year deal at Loftus Road.
"I don’t see a better place for me than QPR at the moment. The club is heading in the right direction and I’m really excited about the season ahead. I thought I had a good first season in the Premier League last year with Cardiff, so I was delighted when QPR came in for me and offered a route back to the top-flight. I’m really happy to be here and hopefully we can do well this season.” - Jordon Mutch
"Jordon’s a fine young player, with a big, big future. He’s already shown what he can do at this level with Cardiff last season with a decent goals return — and this move will provide him with a great platform to take his game on to the next level. He wants to learn and improve his game. He’s a good pro with a great attitude and this is a big opportunity for him at QPR.” - Harry Redknapp
"I am gutted. From the first time I saw him play for City against Newcastle in a pre-season friendly a couple of years ago, it was obvious this lad was something special. He has pace, an eye for a pass, strength, a hell of a strike on him with both feet the lot. In short, you don’t get players like him coming along very often. The only issue he had was his unfortunate knack of picking up niggling injuries.
"It seems now that his ability is being appreciated further afield, and Harry Redknapp certainly knows a good player when he sees one. Out of all the exit’s this summer, this one will hurt the most. For what a fully fit Jordon Mutch can bring to the table is irreplaceable. Fraizer Campbell we have Adam Le Fondre, Steven Caulker we could possibly have Fonte, Gary Medel we have Peter Whittingham to fill that role in the Championship.” - Haydn Gleed, Cardiff fan
"People go on about 'arry the wheeler dealer, but add on the bunch of bo locks he's got rid of and wow - a prime wheeler dealer. Sign up Remy on new deal and shut up shop - best transfer session we've ever done.” - kysersosaqpr
"Pleased if we do end up bringing Mutch in, this is the sort of signing we've all been calling for - right age, seemingly hungry footballer, not a massive 'FM2005' signing. Frankly, I'm shocked.” - QPunkR
QPR are a relegation candidate in this season’s Premier League. They’re potentially in big trouble.
The thing is, so are more than a dozen other clubs. The monied elite, who only get richer with each season of Champions League football lifting them further away from the mere mortals, are very clearly defined. It’s Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal with Liverpool and Spurs just about clinging to their coattails — although if those two miss the top four for any length of time they’ll struggle to do that. After that, everybody could go down.
Everton are something of a special case — expertly managed — but apart from those seven they’re all potential future Championship clubs. Last season Southampton, Stoke and Newcastle finished eighth, ninth and tenth. Would you be surprised if that was the bottom three this season? Maybe surprised is the wrong word… would you be shocked? Really?
The next three down were Palace, Swansea and West Ham. Same question.
It doesn’t need much to suck a team into the relegation whirlpool when the situation is like this. Swansea did well last season to replace the goals of Michu in 2012/13 with the gals of Wilfried Bony. What if he endures a second season like Michu this time around? What if they sell him? West Ham lost for fun through the winter last season when Andy Carroll and all their defenders were injured. Carroll is already injured again. What if Benteke gets injured at Villa? Newcastle’s record without Loic Remy last season was abysmal and if they’re coming back for him this summer then they’re playing it mighty cool.
Once you’ve accepted that the Premier League is essentially one group of six or seven and another of 13 or 14 then your approach to it as a club changes markedly. Last time QPR were here they didn’t seem to grasp the concept, and ran around signing whichever big name player came along, seemingly in pursuit of some impossible dream — Julio Cesar, Ji-Sung Park, Jose Bosingwa yadda yadda yadda. One of the millions of problems this creates is if you do go down, and you’ve a three in 14 chance of doing so whoever you sign, you have to start a fire sale to get that wage budget down, while at the same time signing a load of players capable of competing in the Championship, all in a three month summer transfer window. QPR deserve credit for doing it so well this time a year ago.
The trick is one mastered by West Brom before they lost technical director Dan Ashworth and went a bit schizo on us. You come up, you stick all the television money in the bank, you sign players that fit your system, and improve your team, at an affordable price, and a decent age, with some potential sell on value, who aren’t going to need to be burnt in a fire sale if the worst does happen. The Baggies yo-yod between the top two divisions repeatedly, enhancing both their bank balance and their team as they did it. They weren’t afraid to splash cash if the right player came along, but they signed people like Chris Brunt, James Morrison and Shane Long, not Ji-Sung Park, Julio Cesar and Jose Bosingwa. Young, Premier League quality players, who won’t break the bank, and won’t be throwing toys around and spending time on loan elsewhere if you do go down.
QPR finally seem to be getting it. The fact that Jordon Mutch and Steven Caulker have left just-relegated Cardiff City to come here undermines the point somewhat, but if we are to drop back down at the end of this season then I doubt we’ll be going cap in hand to PSV or Real Sociedad to take Caulker and Mutch off our hands on loan with us still paying 80% of their wages as we were having to do with foolish signings last summer.
Mutch, like Caulker, is just 22 years old and is an absolute steal at just £5m. He scored seven goals from midfield last season in a Cardiff City team relegated from the Premier League. QPR were too reliant on Charlie Austin for goals last season and didn’t score nearly enough from midfield. Just as he did with Matt Phillips, Austin, Danny Simpson, Caulker and others Harry Redknapp has identified a clear deficiency in his team and addressed it with an astute signing. Redknapp is of course prone to a frequent Yossi Benayoun, Oguchi Onyewu, Javier Chevanton addition for the sake of making one — I expect a minimum of three late deadline day signings one of which will almost certainly be Peter Crouch.
But in Mutch, Phillips, Austin, Simpson and Caulker he’s also signed exactly the kind of player QPR should be looking at. Age, fitness, ability, attitude, pedigree — these players are ticking all the boxes. Mutch in particular is a player any QPR fan attending our 3-1 demolition at home by Watford during the 2010/11 promotion campaign should have kept a close eye on. He was exceptional that night. And now he’s ours.
Plus, as LBlock on the message board points out, it sets up the dream line of: "Dunne to Mutch, Mutch to Yun”. What’s not to like?
What’s wrong with us? I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images