QPR have signed former West Ham centre back Danny Gabbidon on a free transfer and one year contract.
The announcement today that Gabbidon would be part of Neil Warnock’s squad for the 2011/12 season came as little surprise as the Welsh international defender has been on trial with Rangers for the last fortnight.
The 32-year-old centre back made 113 appearances in all competitions for West Ham after signing from Cardiff in 2005. He has 44 full Welsh caps and was named the Hammers’ Player of the Year in 2005/2006 in his first full season at the club. Prior to that he graduated from West Brom’s youth set up as a junior and went on to play well over 200 times for Cardiff City, including against Rangers at the Millennium Stadium in the 2003 Second Division play off final. With contracts coming to an end Alan Pardew, then West Ham manager, managed to pinch Gabbidon and his club and country team-mate James Collins from the Bluebirds for a fee of just under £4m which turned out to be shrewd business.
Since winning the Hammer of the Year award at Upton Park however his career has nosedived. In 2006/07 he lost his place in the team to Matthew Upson and Anton Ferdinand and spent the majority of the campaign in the physio room or under the surgeon’s knife as a succession of hamstring and groin injuries rendered him unfit for action. In August 2007 he signed a new two year deal saying he was determined to prove his worth to the club but injuries again destroyed his prospects – he didn’t play a single game from December 2007 for 18 months until the start of the 2009/10 season. His rumoured wage packet, coupled with lack of action and poor performances when he did get on the pitch, drew criticism from West Ham fans and Gabbidon was fined £6,000 by the FA last season for posting: “U know what, fuck the lot of you, u will never get another tweet from me again, you just don't get it do you. Bye bye” on his Twitter account.
It's a good club. Hopefully I can learn more about it in the coming weeks. I had a good week with the lads in Cornwall and I'm pleased to have signed. My agent spoke to the manager and he said to come down and train for a week. It went from there. He was a big part in me joining the club. I've been quite impressed by him. "He's straight talking, which I like. If you're doing something right I think he'll be the first to tell you and, if you're not, he'll be the first to tell you again. As a player, that's what you want. I was impressed with what he had to say about the Club and what he wants to do this season. I think we can do well. The lads showed last season that they're already confident and hungry to do well in the Premier League." - Danny Gabbidon
"He's impressed me in the last 10 days or so that he's been training with us. I think he's just the type of player we need - a quality defender with plenty of experience. I hope I can reinvigorate his career, because a couple of years ago I thought he was one of the best defenders in the country." - Neil Warnock
By all accounts, Sam wanted to keep him on at West Ham and it was his choice to leave. Don't understand the immediate negativity over players with premiership experience we are linked with. We're not going to be signing the Roger Johnsons of this world for 7 million quid, so why be so negative over players like Upson and Gabbidon? - Fakerby
A 32 year old centre back who has played 15 games a season due to injury does not bode well for anyone other than Derby fans who are looking forward to seeing their name removed from Premier league history books. - OakwoodR
He's got the two things that NW seems to be prioritizing - versatility and PL experience. Add to that the fact that Warnock is confident in his ability to keep players with ongoing niggles playing games and you can see why he'd be having a look. - BklynRanger
Alternatively it’s possible that having tried to sell the club this summer and failed our owners will now turn their attention to making sure they still have a Premiership club to try and flog again this time next summer by strengthening the team. Whether it’s either of these or another reason it seems things are finally moving a little bit. Danny Gabbidon has signed today, goalkeeper Brian Murphy will pen a two year deal when the boys return from Italy next week and it seems the impasse over DJ Campbell’s move from Blackpool is about to come to a positive conclusion from our point of view.
The announcement that Gabbidon was coming to the club on trial was met with widespread rolling of eyes among the online QPR support base. West Ham were relegated last season despite having a team that looked a long way from the worst in the league on paper. Rather than moving for the likes of Noble and Parker who fought so valiantly to keep them up we’re instead picking off the players who most at Upton Park felt were part of the problem – the ones with the huge pay packets, long injury records and questionable attitudes. At West Ham both Danny Gabbidon and Kieron Dyer ticked all three boxes.
However Neil Warnock’s time at QPR has been punctuated by one signing after another that hasn’t met with anywhere close to universal approval. Ok Leon Clarke is an embarrassment and Rob Hulse hasn’t exactly set the world alight but people like Shaun Derry, Clint Hill, Jamie Mackie and even Adel Taarabt all arrived to question marks over their ability, attitude, age and/or fitness. Warnock likes players with experience, and players with something to prove, and Dyer and Gabbidon have both in spades. Neither has been given the typical QPR four year contract which they can sit back, relax and build up their pensions from – they will have to work hard for their place in the team in the knowledge that if they don’t make a go of this they’re unlikely to find another Premiership club willing to take a chance on them ever again.
The budget Warnock is working to is quite clear. If he had money to spend would he be looking at Danny Gabbidon? No, I don’t think so. But he doesn’t, and therefore with sights adjusted this isn’t a bad signing. It’s an experienced Premiership defender with a point to prove and no transfer fee required. If he is fit he’s substantially better than the centre halves we already have here and like Dyer he’s only signed a one year contract so our risk here is minimal. If we’re not spending money then the players we are going to be bringing in will be flawed – with Bothroyd, Gabbidon and Dyer there are question marks over fitness and attitude. Warnock has shown since arriving at Loftus Road that he’s capable of game-managing players like Heidar Helguson who have struggled with injuries before, and man-managing people like Adel Taarabt, and he’ll certainly need to repeat that this season.
I keep harking back to my technique of assessing what QPR do in an attempt to see a news story without the blue and white glasses we all wear. I always try and imagine what I’d be writing and reading on the message board if this were happening to one of our rivals. If Norwich were putting out statements like the one we were treated to at the weekend, if Paul Lambert was saying the things Neil Warnock is saying, if Norwich were signing Kieron Dyer and Danny Gabbidon we would all, rightly or wrongly, be laughing and talking about Derby’s points record being smashed. That’s a fact. But then Norwich have spent £9m this summer on seven players and apart from Kyle Naughton I wouldn’t be that keen on having any of them at Loftus Road.
If you’ve been reading LFW at all this summer you’ll already know what I think. If the board truly does want to secure us in the Premiership I don’t believe it can be done with this sort of signing alone. I don’t want us spending £6m on Carlton Cole, but I would quite like to see us in for the likes of Kevin Nolan and Matt Taylor who have moved for reasonable money this summer and would improve our team no end. Who knows, maybe there’s a deal or two like that to come, starting later this week with Campbell?
In the meantime I can’t help but feel that at the moment our chances of staying up rest largely on the shoulders of physio Nigel Cox.
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