QPR have given DJ Campbell another shot at the Premiership after agreeing a £1.25m fee with relegated Blackpool.
Campbell started life at QPR, as a trainee, but was not offered a deal and left the club with something of an unsavoury reputation to his name. He subsequently scored reasonably prolifically for Chesham in the Isthmian League Premier Division which then earned him a move to Conference side Stevenage but again he found his face didn’t fit and he was offloaded, first to Billericay on loan and finally on a permanent deal to Yeading in 2003. It was here, at Andy Impey’s old club, that he really started to fulfil his potential – 83 goals in 109 appearances helped Yeading win Isthmian League Division One North and then enjoy an FA Cup run a year later that culminated in the Newcastle game that was moved to Loftus Road for safety reasons.
It was Martin Allen who signed him for Brentford, and Allen came to the rescue again when his time with Birmingham fizzled out after 12 goals in 50 appearances. Then manager of Leicester Allen spent £1.6m to bring him in from St Andrews having sold him to Brum for £500k initially. Campbell’s time at Leicester didn’t work out, firstly because Allen was very quickly sacked by Milan Mandaric despite a reasonable start for the team and two goals in Campbell’s first three league games and secondly because, after a brief spell with Gary Megson in charge, Leicester then appointed Ian Holloway who had described Leicester’s decision to pay such money for a Birmingham reserve player as “absolute madness” when he was Plymouth boss. Leicester were relegated with Holloway in charge and new manager Nigel Pearson had no time for Campbell, choosing to loan him out to Holloway’s Blackpool side rather than pick him in League One.
That move became permanent last summer and Campbell bagged an impressive 13 Premiership goals for the relegated Tangerines last season, the second top English scorer in the Premiership last season. He joins QPR for a few of £1.25m on a two year contract aged 29.
"He is someone I have admired for a while now and he had a fabulous season in the Premier League with Blackpool last year. He is a QPR fan and you can tell he has a great desire to do well for the Club he supports. That shone through when I met up with him - he can't wait to play for us. He also gives us that extra element of pace which we need and I am sure he will prove to be a big hit with the fans at Loftus Road this season." Neil Warnock
I’m not blinded by his 13 Premiership goals in a relegated side last season, although that certainly is an encouraging sign. Anybody who watched Blackpool play last season will know that they went about their business in such a way that I’d have fancied myself for seven or eight goals if I’d played up front for them all year. When you’ve got Alex Baptiste and Ian Evatt as your centre halves it’s probably a good idea to keep the ball at the other end of the pitch for as long as possible and that’s what they did. Normally when somebody scores a lot of goals for a relegated team, Andy Johnson at Crystal Palace for instance, it’s something to sit up and take note of because chances tend to be few and far between. To be fair Johnson scored a lot of penalties that he won in dubious circumstances for himself and Campbell was always going to score a few for Blackpool last season because there were plenty of chances to score. Blackpool fans will tell you he missed more than his fair share as well. The key to matching the total for QPR this season, and I think we’d all take 13 goals from him now if given the chance, will be whether our team can provide a decent supply of chances.
I digress, the reason I like Campbell is because unlike Bothroyd whenever I’ve seen him in a big match or whenever the going has been tough he’s shown up. There have been no mystery toe injuries, there have been no anonymous performances in big games, and when he’s been in a struggling team he’s gone about his work on the pitch with gusto. He’s made many mistakes, and upset a lot of people along the way, but he’s built a career at the top level for himself by working his way back up from the very bottom. Bothroyd, by comparison, traded for the best part of ten years off his reputation as a promising Arsenal graduate without ever actually producing anything until he got to Cardiff. Compare Bothroyd limping out of last season’s play off final against Blackpool to Campbell’s showing in the same match. Compare Bothroyd’s performances, if they can be called that, in this year’s semi finals with Reading to Campbell’s frankly awesome demolition of Forest at the same stage of last year’s competition.
I don’t want to create the impression that I hate Bothroyd and think he’s an awful signing, because I don’t and he’s not, I’m just trying to explain why I’ve always rated one player and not the other when they’re both very similar.
Here’s the repeat line of the summer – Neil Warnock has earned the right to be trusted on signings with the business he did last summer and if this player is his choice then that’s fine by me. What Rangers have done with Bothroyd and Campbell is improved their attack without question, an area that needed attention with Agyemang, Hulse, Helguson and Clarke not really inspiring anybody. They’ve got players with points to prove, at good ages, and at excellent prices. The contracts, in length at least, aren’t lumbering us with players on four year deals as in the past and on paper Bothroyd and Campbell looks and sounds like it could be a bit of a handful as a partnership.
It’s a shame the trail went cold on Routledge because to add him, Campbell and Bothroyd to our attack for £3m would have been an outstanding piece of business. Warnock is working his tight budget well.
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