After lasting just four minutes of his first match for QPR, injury prone utility player Keiron Dyer has been ruled out until Christmas and could have played his final game for the club.
Manager Neil Warnock told the Fulham Chronicle that he feels for the luckless player, but admits there has been talk about allowing him to find another club with the foot injury he picked up against Bolton now set to rule him out until the end of the year.
Warnock said: “It’s not looking good for Keiron and it looks as if he will need a lengthy rehab. There seems to be new ligament problem at the front of his foot, and he has been in a lot of pain. I feel for the lad, especially after the training and effort he’s made to get back. There has been talk we should maybe think of finding Keiron another club at Christmas, bearing in mind we have a number of new players. But I would like to keep him until the end of the season – he deserves that at least.”
Dyer infamously made just 16 starts in four seasons at West Ham but after signing for QPR in the summer claimed he was fighting fit and blamed the medical staff at Upton Park for mismanaging him during his time there.
Lee Cook has also almost certainly played his last game for the club, however a proposed loan move to Nottingham Forest has fallen through after Steve McLaren’s abrupt departure from the City Ground last week. Cook had been on trial in Nottingham hoping to earn a loan move which Rangers say they will refund the cost of if his troublesome knee injury, which has decimated the last four years of his career, flares up again.
Elsewhere Neil Warnock has defended Adel Taarabt against criticism for his behaviour at Fulham last weekend. Taarabt left the ground at half time after being substituted and was later photographed with fans on the Fulham Palace Road after apparently trying to catch a bus home.
Warnock told the PFA website: "It doesn't bother me. The dressing rooms at Craven Cottage are in one corner of the ground, the bench is on the halfway line on the far side of the pitch. I'm not going to insist he walks 60 yards just to sit and watch us lose. People talk about him storming off. I didn't even know he'd gone. And he certainly didn't go to the pub for a pint as some have reported - he's a Muslim and doesn't drink.
“Adel is young and emotional. He does these things. Last year he said he'd never play for Morocco again after he was made substitute in a game. Guess where he is now? Heading for Morocco to play for them. I'll see him at training when we get back and, with the rest of the team, we'll start preparing for the next match at Blackburn. My main concern at the moment is which defenders we'll have fit and available, not Adel. You're going to get days when Adel throws his toys out of the pram, that isn't a worry for me, I'd have more problem if someone was happy being subbed."
In his latest blog entry chairman Tony Fernandes said: “It was a poor result on Sunday but that does not deter me . When you lose a class player like Traore and then his back up Connolly, it’s going to hurt. Then you bring Orr out and move Luke Young to the left side. And at warm up the third choice centre back pulls a hamstring. Total disruption. Anyway we get Gabiddon, and Traore back for Blackburn. Let’s see. “Think we have a good squad, though it needs to be strengthened in the January transfer window. But this is a long road; we should be attacking more at home, maybe play with two strikers. It’s good to have Mackie back. But I’m thrilled. This year is about avoiding relegation, sorting out our future home, building a good squad, build new training facilities and a new academy and growing new commercial opportunities.”
Off the field the issue of a new stadium for one, two or all three football clubs in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham continues to cause debate. QPR, Chelsea and Fulham are all looking to upgrade or relocate with both Chelsea and QPR said to be eyeing the soon to be vacated BBC site at White City. Fulham meanwhile have dismissed reports linking them with a groundshare with Rangers and are instead pressing ahead with a new stand at Craven Cottage which will increase the capacity to 30,000.
New chief executive Phllip Beard told The Mirror: “Loftus Road has a hell of an atmosphere when there is a game on but we're constrained by the fact we have under 20,000 seats in the stadium. So if we are serious potentially about the long-term growth of the club then I think we have to be serious about looking at what I call a new football stadium as part of a hub of a wider entertainment destination. Literally down the road from us you have Westfield and you've got great transport facilities.If we can grow our fanbase, both homegrown and internationally, then I hope the future is very bright for the club.
"I think we have got to look at ourselves as a Premier League club. Hopefully for the foreseeable future that is the case and because of that I think we have to look at the facilities and everything we do at the club. The reality is that the playing squad spend most of their time at the training facility and at the moment we rent Harlington, which isn't as good as a lot of other Premier League facilities. We're looking at everything at the club and my aim is to look across at other Premier League clubs and feel we are comparable in all aspects of the business. Both on the pitch and off the pitch, a club that can match most other clubs in the Premier League."
And although it’s old news it’s worth reiterating, as LFW ramps back up to full power after my enforced absence last week, that two further fixtures have been moved for television coverage. The home game with Man Utd will now take place on Sunday December 18 at noon while the Boxing Day game at Swansea is now a day later, Tuesday December 27, at 5pm. The home game with Sunderland is now on Wednesday December 21 to avoid a short turn around with the Man Utd game but is not being televised.
The Sutton Guardian reports that Rangers are continuing to monitor Hampton defender Dean Inman who was invited for a trial at Loftus Road in the summer but suffered an injury with his parent club before he could take up the offer. QPR scouts attended Hampton’s 3-1 weekend win against Weston Super Mare and will invite Inman, and 17-year-old striker Dan Thompson who recently trained with Stoke City, to Harlington for trials in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile Hogan Ephraim and Patrick Agyemang are set for loan moves to South London. Neither player made the 25 man Premiership squad at Loftus Road despite featuring in the opening matches and are now on the lookout for first team football elsewhere. Ephraim is set to join Crystal Palace, with whom he has been repeatedly linked throughout his time at QPR, while Millwall are hoping that Agyemang can be the man to cure their scoring problem this season.
And the time honoured QPR tradition of buying players who play well against us could be about to make a return with The Mail reporting that Rangers are eyeing up both Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson for January transfers. Johnson is coming to the end of his contract and Zamora has fallen out with manager Martin Jol. The pair scored four goals between them in Fulham’s 6-0 rout of QPR last Sunday.
Martin Rowlands was replaced at half time in Wycombe’s 1-1 draw with Walsall on Saturday after picking up a bang to the ribs. The 32-year-old will be assessed for any lasting damage during the week. Staying in League Two Max Ehmer played another full 90 minutes for Yeovil as they drew 2-2 at Colchester, Angelo Balanta’s MK Dons play at Oldham on Monday night.
Gary Borrowdale played a full 90 minutes for Barnet as they fought back from two goals down to draw level with Shrewsbury only to lose the game in injury time. Elsewhere in League Two Crawley kept up the pressure on leaders Southend with a 1-0 win at Northampton but Michael Doughty only saw a brief few moments of action after coming on in the last minute. Bruno Andrade wasn’t included in Aldershot’s matchday squad for their 2-1 defeat against Macclesfield, Troy Hewitt played for an hour but didn’t score as Dagenham and Redbridge lost 2-1 at Cheltenham.
Young centre back Taylor Parmenter has joined Conference South outfit Basingstoke Town on a one month loan deal. Bradley Simmonds, 17, has also moved to a Conference South side, joining his brother James on a temporary deal at Hampton and Richmond.
Good to see Gavin Mahon anchoring the Notts County midfield to great effect in their televised game with Hartlepool today. County moved into the League One play off positions with a 3-0 home win as Martin Allen continues to work his magic in what has been something of an impossible job over recent years.
On the other side of the Trent Nottingham Forest have failed in a bid to bring former manager and academy director Paul Hart back to the club following Steve McLaren’s departure last week. Forest wanted Hart to work as technical director but his current club Charlton, where is running the academy, wanted £500,000 to release him.
- Blackburn manager Steve Kean continues to cling to his job despite mounting protests from supporters. Blackburn beat Pune 3-0 on a tour of India this week and the clubs owners have described him as a “brilliant manager” but fans are already lining up protests against him at future home games. A “Kean out” banner which appeared at the friendly match this weekend was removed by organisers. Jason Roberts scored twice in the victory.
- Corinthians will not be returning with a second bid for Man City bad boy Carlos Tevez. The Brazilian outfit claimed to have lodged a £35m bid for Tevez in August but ran out of time in the transfer deadline. Former Arsenal midfielder Edu, who is now the club’s technical director, said: “At the moment there are no plans to try and sign him again.” Tevez’s controversial adviser Kia Joorabchian has meanwhile said a “misunderstanding” was to blame for his refusal to come on as a substitute in the Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich last week. Tevez has been suspended by the club for two weeks over the incident and manager Roberto Mancini says he will never play for him again.
- Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere says criticism of manager Arsene Wenger is “a joke” as fans prepare to unveil banners asking for the manager to step down at their next home game. Wilshere told the Evening Standard: "We haven't won anything for six years and that's not good enough. [The criticism we get] is harsh, though, especially on the boss. He has been great for Arsenal. The criticism Arsene gets is just a joke."
As well as normal service resuming on LFW this week ater an enforced break, the Twitter account is ramping back up as well. Follow @loftforwords