 Wednesday, 12th Sep 2012 00:28 by Clive Whittingham Esteban Granero was presented to the media today following his move from Real Madrid. In other news Philip Beard has been speaking about the prospects for a new training ground and stadium, and Samba Diakite has been talking about his recent absence.
NewsGranero is already building up a reputation as a likeable member of the QPR squad just a fortnight after arriving in W12, and spoke to the press today intelligently and in almost flawless English. The Spaniard was quoted in the Evening Standard and elsewhere saying: "It wasn't a hard decision to come here. I'm hungry and here I will be able to grow as a player. Real Madrid is a great club, I have played there since I was eight. I spent three years in the first team and I will always be thankful to them. But it was time to change and the best way to do that was join QPR. "Since two weeks ago my thoughts are here and I don't miss anything about Real. I wanted to be a part of QPR. I'm sure the project here will be good for me, and I'll be good for QPR. Everyone at the club trusts me and that's all I needed. I know I've made the right decision. There are a lot of new players here so we must get to know each other first. We must improve, but this team will do that when it spends more time together. "One point from the first three games is not unexpected, but this is not the way it will remain. This season will be great - I can see that in my team-mates' faces. There are quality players here, so just give us time." Whether Mark Hughes has had much chance to start getting that understanding into his team during the fortnight off remains to be seen but he’ll have been hindered by the absence of several players on international duty. Jamie Mackie was a late substitute for Scotland at the weekend against Serbia, then played 75 minutes tonight against Macedonia as they put a massive dent in their own World Cup qualification hopes by starting with two home draws. Ryan Nelsen travelled slightly further to captain New Zealand to a 6-1 victory against the Solomon Islands and will be back Down Under in October when they play Tahiti in Christchurch. New signing Stephane M’Bia was part of a Cameroon team beaten 2-0 by Cape Verde – a result that leaves them in danger of not qualifying for the African Nations Cup in January – and Adel Taarabt was in the Morocco team beaten 2-0 by Mozambique. Michael Doughty made his debut for Wales Under 21s as a late substitute in their 5-0 defeat against the Czech Republic. So Hughes will await their arrivals back from far and wide ahead of this weekend’s big derby game with Chelsea. Thankfully neither goalkeeper Julio Cesar nor full back Fabio Da Silva were involved for Brazil this week. Whether Samba Diakite plays or not remains to be seen. He was the victim of a typically crass piece of journalism from the Daily Mail last week who chose to announce to the world with an “EXCLUSIVE” that the Malian had been given leave from his first team duties to battle depression. A debate about whether the story should have been run without input from the player, or indeed at all, raged through most of Friday before Diakite spoke to French outlet RMC Sport denying the claims outright. He said: “Frankly, I do not understand why some people start rumours like that. I was a bit tired in the last few days and my club allowed me to spend three days in Paris . But I am not depressed. My club are my employers and I was in contact with them every day. All of a sudden I wake up this morning, open the newspapers and learn that someone has said that I am depressed. This is ridiculous and disappointing. I am currently in London and I have been to training, so this is amazing. It saddens me because I received calls from concerned members of my family. Fortunately I am a strong character as this could have had serious consequences for someone who is weak. I want to assure my friends and fans of QPR that I will be at training on Monday with the rest of the group and all is well." In other on field news Djibril Cisse has said in interview today that he intends to see out his contract at QPR – which runs to the end of next season – and then return to France. Off the field CEO Philip Beard has been giving various interviews in which he says the new Warren Farm training ground is on track to open in time for 2014/15, but the much talked about new stadium is proving more difficult to progress. On the stadium he told London24: “We do have a preferred option, but these things are always slightly more complicated than you would like them to be. There are limited sites available to us that are big enough and have the transport links needed to build a new stadium. We are running feasibility studies on several of them. There are normally more parties involved so it takes a little longer to get decisions made. I would rather not raise expectations in terms of time and delivery because we are some way yet from knowing what’s going to happen. It has to be economically viable. I want us to build the fan base over the next few years both domestically and internationally.” But Olympic Stadium architects Populous are already on board for the Warren Farm traning complex and Beard told the club’s official website: “Having secured Warren Farm, we wanted to work with the best people in the industry to develop a training ground which will benefit not only the first team, but also the academy and the local community. Populous have great experience in this field and are the perfect fit for us. Over the summer, a great amount of renovation has taken place at our current training ground at Harlington which has reduced the urgency for us to move to a new site. We are working very closely with Ealing Council and are very excited about what we can create. It is our intention to have a fully operational training facility in place ahead of the 2014/15 season.” Finally Rangers have taken an additional allocation of 600 tickets in the lower tier for the forthcoming trip to Spurs, taking the number of seats available to Rangers fans next Sunday to 2,200.
Loan WatchBad news for Our Joey out in France – he announced through his personal website last week that the remaining eight matches of his suspension will have to be served with Marseille before he can take the field for them. He’s passed the time with a feature interview for GQ magazine, quoted in The Sun today where he tries to explain his actions on the field at Man City last season that led to the 12 match ban being imposed. Barton, who attacked two Man City players after being sent off for an off the ball incident, said: “I completely let myself down but it’s not a rational situation. I knew we could be relegated, they could win the league and I’m captain. There’s a bit of a media spotlight on me so if we go down, I’m going to take a lot of shit. I was already getting it on Twitter so pressure started building and I didn’t handle it well. My inner chimp doesn’t work well with injustice, it reacts too quickly. I look at it now and it’s almost like it’s not me. I’m like ‘What the fuck were you thinking?’” While Joey waits for his debut in France, and Jay Bothroyd does likewise at Sheffield Wednesday, Rangers are working hard to ship out other players who didn’t do enough to make the 25 man Premier League squad for the coming season. Rob Hulse had been linked with a move to near neighbours Brentford but the Fulham Chronicle reports that this has now fallen through. DJ Campbell meanwhile looks set to rejoin Blackpool temporarily. He told West London Sport: “I’m looking at all the possibilities before I decide what’s best for me. My focus has been on getting fit and making sure I’m ready to play this season. Last year I missed a lot of the season through injury and I don’t want that to happen again, so I’ve worked really hard to get in the best shape I can be.” No moves forthcoming for those who were named in Mark Hughes squad which is bad news for our old boss Neil Warnock at Leeds who, according to the Chronicle was hoping to secure the services of veteran central midfielder Shaun Derry once again.
Former R'sWe’re hoping – once Paul Finney from Indy R’s has sobered up sufficiently – to bring you a more fulsome account of last night’s memorial match in Belfast for late R’s captain Alan McDonald. Kevin Gallen and Paul Furlong scored in a 3-2 victory for a QPR Select XI against a Northern Ireland legends team that included Gerry Armstrong and former R’s managers Iain Dowie and Jim Magilton. Afterwards Bradley Allen, another of McDonald’s former team mates at Loftus Road, told the club’s official website: “Macca was one in a million, he really was. He was a great character with a wicked sense of humour and someone people loved to be around. His loss is a huge one for everyone and he was on our minds throughout the night and always will be. Macca understood what it meant to play for a club like Queens Park Rangers. Having come through the system, he was fully aware of what the club stood for and the supporters related to that. He was someone we all looked up to.” Elsewhere, in the lower leagues, Lee Cook got his first goal of the season for Leyton orient as they secured a surprise 1-0 away win at newly promoted Swindon in League One. QPR fans can catch Cook, Martin Rowlands and Kevin Lisbie in action for the O’s when they take on Brentford live on Sky on Thursday night. It’s unlikely that Antonio German will be involved for the Bees as he continues to find opportunities for first team football limited following a move from Stockport, however he told London24: “I am trying to make the next step and play games. I’m 20 and have been playing reserve-team games for a long time. I want to get myself established. I am judged on goals, if I keep scoring I hope to get another chance.” Goals not a problem for either Jamie Cureton who scored his fourth and fifth of the season so far as Exeter won 4-2 at League Two high flyers Oxford at the weekend, or Daniel Nardiello who got a consolation strike for Rotherham in their 6-2 weekend massacre at Port Vale. Raheem Sterling, forever to be known as the ‘one who got away’ from QPR, was a surprise call up to Roy Hodgson’s England squad for tonight’s match with Ukraine but didn’t make it onto the field. And finally, the Daily Mail reports that the former QPR dream team of Gianni Paladini and Flavio Briatore are eyeing a takeover of Birmingham City. Chortle.
Premiership Shorts- The transfer window may be closed but clubs are still finding a way to quench their insatiable thirst for new faces. Free transfer signings of unattached players are still allowed and to that end Fulham have added veteran Greek international Giorgos Karagounis to their arsenal on a contract to the end of the season. Karagounis, known for his emotional outbursts on the field of play, has been capped 120 times by Greece in a career that has seen him turn out for Inter Milan and Panathinaikos who released him in the summer. - Swansea have also found a free transfer that suits their needs with former Holland Under 21 full back Dwight Tiendalli signing a contract to the end of the season following his release be FC Twente. The Swans lost welsh international full back Neil Taylor to a broken ankle in their recent draw against Sunderland. - Injury woe too for Man Utd defender Phil Jones who will be out for eight weeks after surgery on a knee problem.The 20-year-old England international hurt his back in pre-season and hasn’t turned out for United at all so far this season prior to picking up this latest problem in training. - As if the transfer window closing three matches into the English season wasn’t farcical enough, it turns out that it remains open past August 31 in different parts of Europe. Wasn’t the whole idea of this thing to regiment the transfer market across the game? Anyway, Spurs found a crack in the window just wide enough through which to heave David Bentley on his latest loan adventure with Russian Premier League side FC Rostov the grateful (for now) recipient. Bentley cost £15m when Spurs bought him from Blackburn in 2008 but he has since made just 62 appearances for them. - The loan market remains open downstairs and Hartlepool have taken advantage by bringing in Sunderland youngster Craig Lynch for a month. Crewe meanwhile have signed Arsenal midfielder Chuks Aneke on a similar deal but have lost Man City loanee Harry Bunn who ruptured his knee ligaments in their 0-0 draw with Tranmere and has already been ruled out for the rest of the season.
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