In the end a low key QPR transfer window befitting a midtable side, with Jimmy Dunne staying at the club after all and presumably about to be re-integrated to the side for tonight’s rearranged homer against Blackburn.
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It’s QPR, of course they’ll be signing somebody. And sign somebody they did. Harvey Vale arriving at literally the eleventh hour from Chelsea, albeit with the substantial kicker that he’s got a mystery injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season. Cue the jokes about Monty Python’s Black Knight being able to pass a QPR medical.
Vale’s pedigree and age continue the club’s latest thrust towards a development model where we finance the club by buying low priced youngsters and selling them for handsome profit a few years down the line. It also continues the apparent fetish for ‘tens’ to play behind a lone striker we don’t really have. To the Ilias Chair, Lucas Andersen and Paul Smyth we already had have been added Karamoko Dembele and Koki Saito (temporarily, for now), a loan for Tottenham’s Yang Min-Hyeok and now Harvey Vale who, unless we genuinely are eyeing Bristol Rovers’ experiment with him as a left back to replace Kenneth Paal, we’ll presumably just be throwing on the pile with the rest. I don’t know how we’re going to fit them all in the car park Ray, I really don’t.
I’m not sure if this is like the Brighton thing where their propriety data model told them centre backs were undervalued and so they just hoovered up a whole load of Adam Webster, Dan Burn types whether they had space for them in the team or not, or if it’s the profile of the player (age and pedigree) we’re interested in more than the trifling business of how they fit together in the team – that’s why you have a miracle working head coach – but on the face of it another attacking midfielder isn’t necessarily what I would have had top of the shopping list.
There was a signing in the more pressing left back spot too. João Henrique (Esquerdinha) is an 18-year-old Brazilian arriving from Fluminense and is initially being pitched as a development squad prospect – although given Kenneth Paal’s form and fitness I wonder if he might see some action at first team level between now and May.
"…the potential to develop into an interesting talent in the context of our inverted full-back profile” is pure ChatGP Nourry talk, but the CEO’s comment about being more aggressive with our development squad recruitment is one bit of his strategy that I like a lot. Too many people had got too comfortable working for too long producing very little at the top end of our academy set up. The development squad often looked like it was doing well on paper, running over the top of Colchester United, but that was often because it was a team of 20-somethings playing against teenagers. It produced precious little by way of first team prospects or sellable assets. The club, for too long, kept Nico Hamalianen, Rafferty Pedder, Charlie Owens, Mide Shodipo types around well into their 20s when they’d long shown you they were no more going to be Championship players than astronauts. Chris Ramsey and Manisha Tailor, meanwhile, networked their way around the circuit talking about what a great job they were doing.
Nourry, to his credit, has stripped all that out and his comment at the recent fans meeting about "if you’re not in the development squad by 17-18 it probably won’t work for you here because we want you in the firsts by 18-19” is a really good mantra to stick to as long as it wasn’t just bullshit. Though I don’t think anybody foresaw the rate of progress Kieran Morgan would make, that is one notable success already in a strategy that traditionally is a bit of a slow burn. Of all the things Nourry has tried to do so far, this is the one I like the best.
Whether they’ve played quite such a blinder with the Jimmy Dunne situation will only be known in time. Or, perhaps, it won’t. If we’ve turned down £2m for a player only to lose him for free in the summer then that’s dim and pig headed. If, as we believe, Sheff Utd were offering precious little of that £2m up front and the rest based on promotions, Premier League appearances, international caps etc which, due respect, there’s a fair chance would never happen, then he’s probably worth more to us alive than dead. We'll likely never find out for sure if it was one or the other, or secret option number three.
Dunne had always seemed minded to stay here before Sheff Utd decided they couldn’t possibly cope with only three of the division’s best centre backs for the next three months and dangled bigger money and potential Premier League football in front of him. The beat of the jungle drums is that actually the sticking point with the Irish defender is he wants a longer contract at QPR than Rangers are willing to offer. With Rob Holding now at Bramall Lane instead, and the window closed, perhaps we can get back round the table on that and he ends up staying here after all?
You could see at Millwall on Saturday how integral his rampaging right back role has become to the team. Ronnie Edwards wasn’t as brave and bold in attack as Dunne is, bar one first half howitzer which just cleared the bar, leaving Smyth isolated in front of him. It was more often Morgan going over to join Smyth, rather than the right back, which in turn left a hole behind him in midfield and from there dominos started to fall as Chair moved across one exposing Paal who already had Crama and Bangura-Williams to cope with. Millwall visited that left side time and again, scoring after barely 30 seconds of the game and soon adding a second from the same flank. It was all a bit of a mess, in the first half at least.
As long as Dunne’s mindset is right after all of this then I look forward to welcoming him back into the team – once his "groin strain” has cleared up of course. I think he’s become something of a talisman for this side and you let characters like that out of your dressing room at your peril. He is, though, just a player in form. It’s worth remembering how poor he was at Millwall last year and the mindset at that point which was, by and large, if Blackburn want him let’s get some money now and recruit elsewhere. It could still be that we come to regret not taking some money while it was on offer. It now also leaves Rangers in the unenviable position of their entire back four at the moment (Edwards/Dunne, Cook, Fox and Paal) all being out of contract together this summer.
For now though, the blessed relief of some actual football.
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Team News: Marti Cifuentes will be back in the dugout on Tuesday after missing the weekend loss at Millwall with flu. Whether Jimmy Dunne will be rampaging around in front of him at right back after his move to Sheff Utd fell through on deadline day will be the key bit of team news the Crown & Sceptre regulars will be listening out for an hour before kick off. Otherwise Rangers are picking from the same squad as they did at the weekend. Zan Celar and Jake Clarke-Salter are the medium term absentees now Steve Cook has returned to the team and Liam Morrison to the bench. Karamoko Dembele completed his first full training session with the rest of the team as part of his comeback on Monday.
Blackburn’s form has started to suffer as their injury list has grown through the Christmas and New Year period, but they have significantly bolstered their attack this week, starting with the arrival of the splendidly named Augustus Kargbo from Cesena in Italy. He watched the Friday victory against Preston from the stand but will travel with the squad to feature here. Deadline day moves for Cauley Woodrow from Luton and former Watford target man Emmanuel Dennis from Nottingham Forest were also signed off in time. Youngster Harry Leonard remains out with the knock he picked up last week. Lewis Travis, who always seems to play well against Rangers, returned from his hamstring injury on Friday.
Elsewhere: With this being a rearranged game from FA Cup Fourth Round weekend, there are only two other Championship ties this midweek. Alongside ours on Tuesday is Scott Parker’s swashbuckling Burnley bravely holding mighty Oxford to a 0-0 draw at Turf Moor. Then on Wednesday it’s Leeds facing a tough trip to Coventry who’ve quietly won four in a row as they threaten to mount their now traditional late rush to the play-off places after Christmas.
Referee: One of the Championship’s most experienced officials, James Linington, in charge of this one – a 29th QPR career appointment. Details.
QPR: After four league wins in a row and only two defeats in 18 Championship games, Rangers have now lost two in a row for the first time since defeats to Boro and Leeds at the start of November. Pretty obvious reason why – having conceded one goal or fewer in 12 of their prior 13 games with five clean sheets among those games, they’ve no conceded two goals in successive matches. At home the 2-0 loss to Sheff Wed halted a run of five straight victories at Loftus Road, but that followed Rangers starting the year without a win here in nine Championship games and 11 in all comps – a club record for a start to the season.
Blackburn won the first meeting between the sides 2-0 at Ewood Park after Jonathan Varane’s first half red card. Victories against Rovers have been few and far between for QPR in recent times. The 2-1 win in Lancashire last January is their only win on that ground in 11 attempts since a 2-0 there in 1999/00. Rovers have won their last two trips to Loftus Road, 4-0 and 3-1 at either end of Gareth Ainsworth’s disastrous tenure in charge. Prior to that QPR had won three in a row on this ground but Blackburn have lost just four of their 23 league games against QPR this century (W13 D6), failing to score in just four of those matches.
Blackburn: Tipped by many for a relegation struggle this year, Blackburn remain sixth in the Championship table. That’s built largely on a formidable home record of 9-2-5 – only the top two have won more home games. They’re less hot away with a 4-4-6 record – those victories came all in a row, four away wins in November at Coventry, Boro, Hull and and Sheff Wed. Since then it’s one point from four away league games with defeats at Oxford, Bristol City and Millwall and a 1-1 at Leeds. That is part of an overall winter downturn with two wins from ten league games, and a run of three straight defeats snapped only by a home win against Preston on Friday night. Andreas Weimann, who has scored league goals against QPR for Villa, Derby and Bristol City, is the top scorer here with six in the league and eight overall.
Prediction: In our Prediction League for 2024/25 we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. For the first time last year we had joint winners so this season you’ll be hearing from one or both WestonsuperR and SimplyNico in the match previews.
Nico’s Prediction: "Next up for the Hoops is Blackburn, managed by Warbs’ former assistant, John Eustace. Blackburn’s form has cratered of late, seemingly due to a spate of injuries. However, they now have Todd Cantwell back from injury, who is always a nuisance. I suspect this will be another close Championship game, but with the Hoops having too much for Blackburn.”
Weston’s Call "Although Blackburn are play-off contenders I’ve not been particularly impressed when I have watched them over the last few months. Their recent away league form has seen them take just one point from the last four away from Ewood Park, let’s hope this continues. No doubt we were poor in our last outing at Loftus Rd but don’t want to lose sight of the fact we were on a great run of home form prior to this and I fancy us to just about do enough.”
Nico’s Prediction: QPR 1-0 Blackburn. Scorer – Michi Frey
WestonSuperR’s Prediction: QPR 2-1 Blackburn. Scorer – Michi Frey
LFW’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Blackburn. Scorer – Rayan Kolli
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