He may have spent more time making headlines at the front of the tabloid papers than the back over the last 12 months, but Danny Simpson is exactly the sort of character QPR need according to manager Harry Redknapp.
Danny Simpson, a 26-year-old right back, certainly fits the footballing profile QPR are looking for in their attempts to make a swift return to the Premier League. Under 30 and available on a free transfer, the graduate of Manchester United’s academy has won promotion from the Championship twice before.
The first was in 2007 when he joined Roy Keane’s Sunderland team on loan. Like many Man Utd juniors he’d spent time at Royal Antwerp in Belgium in 2005/06 to further his education and he went on to make 14 appearances for the Black Cats as they regained their place in the top flight. No permanent deal was forthcoming though, and opportunities were few and far between back at Old Trafford, so he was forced to look for loan deals once more.
A mediocre eight game spell with Ipswich at the end of 2007/08 was followed by a season long spell in the Premier League with Blackburn – but again he only clocked up 20 appearances, of which only ten were league starts.
He came of age during another temporary spell the following season at Newcastle. Like QPR this summer the Magpies found themselves relegated with a squad chock full of big names and high earners with a divided dressing room and bad atmosphere around the place. A heavy pre-season defeat at Leyton Orient suggested a tough season was in the offing but the senior pros pulled together under the guidance of Chris Hughton. Simpson played a big part in that, making 22 appearances and scoring his first senior goal from right back in the first half of the season before signing permanently for £750,000 in January.
Newcastle won the title with something to spare, clocking up more than 100 points. Simpson had his regular Premier League place at last and didn’t look out of place as Alan Pardew’s Newcastle side ran the Champions League places close in 2011/12 – Simpson played 40 games in all competitions that year. The influx of foreign players at St James’ Park, notably Mathieu Debuchy and Davide Santon, shoved Simpson down the pecking order and his contract was not renewed at the end of the campaign. He left the club with 137 appearances and two goals to his name.
QPR will be very much hoping he can add a third Championship title winners medal to his collection in the near future.
“I want to play week in week out. That was the main thing for me. Harry wants me playing and he wants me involved. He’s a top manager, and as soon as I spoke to him I knew this was the right move for me. In training and games I will give 110 per-cent. I know Harry has spoken to other coaches about me and I am sure one thing they would have said is that I am a good pro and that’s what he wants in his squad. From what I have heard from Harry and the staff I have spoken to, along with some of the players here who I know well, they are very determined to put things behind them and start afresh and get back into the Premier League where the club belongs. I want to play my part in that and do everything I can for the club and the fans. I really think we can go straight back up.” – Danny Simpson
“He’s the type we want at the club. He’s a good professional, a good character and a good player who knows his job in the side. He’ll be a really fine acquisition for us. It’s a fantastic piece of business for the club on a free transfer. I spoke to a few of the coaching staff at Newcastle – friends of mine from over the years who I know and trust – and they spoke very highly of him.” – Harry Redknapp
“Danny Simpson is a great defender for the Championship, but he is prone to making mistakes you can't get away with in the Premier League. He often jumps into tackles where positioning would be a better bet. You might even find he chips in with some goals for you in the Championship. He wasn't the biggest twat at the club, but then we are comparing him to Nile Ranger in that regard. I’m sure you know about him leaving his pregnant missus for Tulisa from the X Factor – guess there’s no accounting for taste is there? In the last window, when we signed Haidara and Debuchy, the writing was on the wall for Simpson. Suddenly he wasn't even second choice as Santon's natural position is right back. He served us well and was just what we needed in that position when we went down so I think he's a pretty decent signing for you overall.” – LFW’s man in Newcastle, James Harrison
This also helps move Onouha to CB which is something I have wanted for a long time. Then again I wanted a QPR season ticket for a long time and that could turn out to be awful. -Simmo
Good enough player, experienced and solid at Premier League and Championship level. The question is why did he sign for us in the Championship (£££££) and why weren't Premier League teams like Sunderland, Norwich, Hull etc interested? A defence of Simpson, Onouha, Hill and Traore could be pretty well balanced. -Adhoc
Seems like a player whose main motivation for a move to London is the bright lights and party scene which is probably a priority for him ahead of his career progression. Therefore in many ways he is a perfect signing for us and will no doubt hope Cisse stays so they can party together. Have rarely felt so underwhelmed by a signing. N12 Hoop
Decent signing, right age, attitude (on the surface) seems OK. After the last two years I'll be sceptical as to the attitude being right when it comes to the crunch, but I'm prepared to wait and see. It's a position we need to fill: Onouha to play centre back, Harriman too raw for 46 games, Luke Young barely fit enough to walk, Boswanka - nuff said. Hopefully we're no longer paying top dollar. Derby Hoop
As far as the pace of change at Loftus Road is concerned, this summer has certainly been more Bob Malcolm than Wayne Fereday so far. That’s sod’s law really because in the last four transfer windows when dramatic, sweeping changes to the squad were not required the club went out and completed 28 permanent purchases, and now when a total overhaul of the senior playing roster is desperately needed the whole thing has stagnated.
Those signings lumbered QPR with a whole clutch of players on wages only clubs way beyond their ability level could afford to pay – Manchester United wages for Scunthorpe United players – and means that while Harry Redknapp, and the club’s finance director, would no doubt like to see the back of a dozen of them in double quick time it’s not likely to happen. Should any club actually still be interested in the collection of reprobates in W12 after what happened on the pitch at Loftus Road last season they’re surely going to wait until the very end of the transfer window when the player may accept a cut in terms to get a move, and QPR’s bargaining position will about as strong as Tulisa Contostavlos’s wrist action.
Which brings us neatly onto Danny Simpson, the one player both Redknapp and the QPR board have so far agreed would be a decent addition to the squad. On paper, judged purely on the football side of things, it’s a shrewd acquisition. The right side of the defence – much like the left side, centre, midfield, wings and strike force – was a problem for the R’s last season with Nedum Onuoha visibly uncomfortable in the role and Jose Bosingwa not exactly winning friends and influencing people with some hard running, committed displays.
Simpson is more than capable of holding his own at Premier League level – near ever present as Newcastle finished fifth in 2011/12 – and has won the Championship twice before. QPR have managed to secure him on a free transfer. In the process they’ve reduced the chances of Bosingwa ever playing in hoops again and freed Onuoha to become a regular centre back where he impressed at the end of last season and surely has enough about him to be massively impressive in the division below. With Chris Samba and Clint Hill still in situ and Michael Harriman making a strong case for more regular inclusion you’d think QPR have the makings of a very good back four for the second tier. It looks like good business all round.
But then we’ve been here before haven’t we? That clutch of deals done first by Neil Warnock and then Mark Hughes with Kia Joorabchian distancing himself from the assists has bred a deep suspicion of any new signing coming into the reception area at Loftus Road. The immediate reaction of most is “there go QPR throwing money around again” and Rangers fans would be forgiven for thinking any new player arriving at the club in its current state has simply seen a chance to make a tidy sum while giving very little back.
Harry Redknapp has sought to allay those fears by repeatedly stating his desire to bring “the right sort” to the club. Today’s official statements from the club are dripping with assurances that Simpson is in fact some kind of saint in waiting, who will be parted from his quiet nights in reading the original works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy only when it’s time to train – which he’ll do bloody hard and make sure all the other players follow suit – and literally sweat blood and tears out on the pitch on a matchday.
That’s rather in contrast to his unofficial public profile over the past 12 months leading up to Newcastle’s decision not to renew his contract at the end of the season. He’s better known for his very public fling with coke-touting X-Factor mouth Contostavlos than anything he’s achieved on the field - worrying not only because she’s clearly as rough as a sack of coal but also because he left his pregnant girlfriend to do it – and has more recently been snapped sprawled out on the ground with his nose spread across his face after a disagreement on an evening out. QPR are keen to portray the newbie as Lisa Simpson when he’s actually behaved rather more like Bart over the past year. Redknapp described Simpson today as a good character. Not for the first time I wonder if we’re mistaking “the right sort” for “a right sort”.
Time will tell. Football wise it looks a very decent move and a good signing. If he can avoid the trappings of the London nightlife, rise above the fractious, cliquey situation in the Loftus Road dressing room and then be followed into Harlington by five or six others of similar ilk he could turn out to be exactly that. But having sat here last summer and used terms like “no brainer” and “hard to see how this could possibly be a bad move” for the purchases of people like Esteban Granero, Julio Cesar and Ji-Sung Park I’m approaching these write ups this year with a real sense of trepidation.
Good player Simpson may well be, but Redknapp’s job this summer is more about man management and pulling a group together who get on and want to achieve something as a team than simply piling yet another layer of apparently half decent players on top of the 42 senior professionals Rangers finished up with last season with. When making and judging signings this summer words like collective, unity, togetherness, team, ethos, attitude are as important as whether the boy can play or not. Picture Brendan Rodgers sitting cross legged on the floor while tinkling a pair of finger cymbals.
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Pictures – Action Images