Armand Traore has revealed he thought his season was over following another recent injury lay off which doesn’t bode well considering Clint Hill’s admission that he no longer has the legs to play left back.
Injury prone full back Armand Traore says he is relieved he is still able to play this season after initially fearing he had broken his leg in a tackle with Robert Snodgrass at Norwich in the second league game of the season.
Traore, who returned as a second half sub at West Brom last weekend, told the Fulham Chronicle: “They told me I was out for at least six months. I went to see a specialist, who said there was no fracture but a stress response, which meant that if I keep playing on it it will snap. It was a big relief. I'm very happy but I'm still a bit scared - my confidence is not there. I hope it should be okay now. I'm just going to have to wait and see. I just want to build up my confidence now and play as regularly as I can. I know what I can do and just want to stay injury-free and push on.”
Just as well really, considering the man he replaced at half time at The Hawthorns has said he’s no longer physically capable of playing the position any more. Clint Hill, given a torrid time by James Morrison, told West London Sport: “I’ve got to that age now where I know my limits. I’ve been punished a few times because my legs won’t get there at this time in my career. I’m trying to do a job because we’ve had a few injuries with Fabio and Armand. He’s come in so hopefully he’ll be alright now.”
Hill isn’t the only QPR playing speaking honestly about the club’s predicament – bottom of the league and yet to record a Premiership victory as we approach the end of October. Defender Ryan Nelsen, who missed New Zealand’s 2-0 win against Tahiti at the weekend with a knee injury but is expected to play against the same opposition tomorrow night before racing back to London, told the Sport Review that the players are letting down manager Mark Hughes.
Nelsen said: “We have to live up to expectations. It’s our livelihoods, we have to win games. It takes time to gel and injuries to players in key positions haven’t helped. The only real bright spot for us is that at least this run is happening now. There’s a long way to go yet but we know each and every one of us have got to be a lot better. We’re letting the manager down here. We just have to win matches. I think every player has let the manager down at some stage this season.”
Similarly Esteban Granero told West London Sport:“We know we have the best manager. It’s not his fault – it’s our fault. Against West Ham he told us what would happen and it did. It’s our fault – the people on the pitch. We are the ones who have to improve. I didn’t expect to be where we are, but I think we’re strong enough to turn it around. This has happened in the beginning but we have a long time to go. I’m very happy here. The reality is we’re at the bottom but we have a long time to improve and do better. I want to be part of this.”
Hughes is the bookies’ favourite to win the Premier League sack race but insists he feels comfortable in his position. He said: “I speak to both Tony and Amit all the time and they’re very supportive of what we’re doing. They see the changes we’ve made to the club, not only in terms of personnel but also mentality. They understand what’s required in terms of building a club and they see the massive changes we’ve made to the club in a short space of time.”
But the temperature was turned up on Hughes and his players by former fans’ favourite Lee Cook who told the Daily Star last week he felt some of the new signings that have been brought to the club are hear for the wrong reasons. Cook said: “Every time I saw Park at Manchester United he was a workhorse. For me he doesn’t seem to be working as hard as he did there. People I know think that a few of the players are there for a payday and they are on big wages. By halfway through the season you will be able to tell if that’s true or not.
“I really don’t think Tony will muck about. When it was Neil Warnock’s time to go, it was ‘See you later’ and he didn’t hold back. Just because it’s Mark Hughes and a big name it means nothing.”
But Fernandes remains steadfast in his support for Hughes, regularly taking to Twitter to forcefully deny reports to the contrary and criticise the supporters who are bombarding his social network accounts with pleas for a sacking after matches. Fernandes told Sky Sports News: “If the team was playing badly, if the dressing room was dispirited then you would have to say something’s not right, but the team is playing well. Unfortunately or fortunately we are a higher profile club, we are five points away from being in the middle and you don’t see the other clubs getting the kind of pressure we’re getting but that comes with the territory. So no panic. Mark’s done it in Fulham, he’s done it in Blackburn and I have got to say even at Man City the core championship side were players Mark brought in. So he has my full confidence and I hope I am proven right in a big way that I can answer all these critics and armchair critics.”
On the criticism of marquee signing Park Fernandes told the Yonhap News Agency: "It's a new experience for him in that he's never played so much at Manchester United. He also has to adjust to new players. I am not the sort of person that's going to write people off after six or seven games."
One of the players moved out of the starting line up by Park and the other new arrivals is Jamie Mackie, and he endured a frustrating weekend on international duty as well as he played the last six minutes of Scotland’s 2-1 defeat by Wales. Under fire manager Craig Levein must now decide whether to restore him to the starting line up for a daunting trip to Belgium on Tuesday evening.
Elsewhere former captain Joey Barton has given the standard interview he always trots out after moving clubs to the Sunday Times where, true to form, he criticises the management of the club he’s left, talks about how he’d been so miserable he’d turned to drink, but promises this is a new fresh start where everything is wonderful and, most of all, nothing that happened before was completely his fault at all.
Among other things Barton claims: “You get a gut feeling for things. I walked into QPR and straightaway thought, 'this isn't right'. I'd left a club I loved, Newcastle, and I knew I'd come for money and think I was always uneasy from that moment on. I'd sold out a bit. On my first captain's list was 'six plugs' because the players — at a Premier League club — were plugging up the baths with tissue paper. Tinpot stuff. They were paying people massive money but not spending on the basics."
A great start for Bruno Andrade at Wycombe following the completion of his one month loan deal last week. The 19-year-old scored a fine goal on his debut at high flying Fleetwood to seal a 1-0 away win for his caretaker manager Gareth Ainsworth. Andrade was later named in the League Two team of the week for his efforts.
He’s the second QPR player in a week to score on the first game of a loan spell elsewhere after DJ Campbell bagged one on his first Ipswich appearance the week before. Sadly it wasn’t enough to prevent the Tractor Boys from slipping to a home defeat by Cardiff for whom Heidar Helguson scored twice.
Campbell told the local sports Green ‘Un: “It was always in my mind to go back there one day, I was fortunate to get there, but for whatever reason it hasn’t worked out so far. I don’t know what the situation is with QPR if I’m being honest, whether they want me back in January or to be in the 25-man squad. I haven’t got a clue. There are rumours that they do but I haven’t actually spoken to the gaffer about it and I just want to concentrate on getting fit and playing and doing my best for Ipswich really.”
No such luck for Rob Hulse who has clocked up two late substitute appearances for Charlton without a goal so far, or Jay Bothroyd who hasn’t scored in six appearances so far for Sheffield Wednesday.
Congratulations for former QPR left back Ian Baraclough who is celebrating leading Irish side Sligo Rovers to their first league title in 35 years.
Baraclough, who made 138 appearances for Rangers between 1998 and 2001, was appointed as Sligo boss in February, two days before their summer-based season began. The move followed his sacking by Scunthorpe United in march 2011 after just six months in charge but he shrugged off that disappointment to post a record of 17 wins and just one defeat from 28 games this season that was good enough for the title.
Baraclough told public broadcaster RTE: "I came here two days before start of season and certainly didn't expect, come October, to be celebrating a first league title in 35 years. It's testament to the amount of hard work and sacrifices made by not only the players but the staff, committee members and supporters. Steadily the attendances have grown and I think they've been happy with what they've seen - not just results-wise but the football's been magnificent.”
- Stoke have allowed 29-year-old winger Jermaine Pennant to join Championship side Wolves on a three month loan deal. He joined the Potters in 2010 from Zaragoza for £2.8m and has made 77 appearances so far but has fallen behind Michael Kightly in the pecking order this season since his summer move in the opposite direction from Molineux.
- Swansea captain Gary Monk has strenuously denied claims in the national press that the senior members of the squad are at loggerheads with new manager Michael Laudrup. The Swans won their first two games of the season scoring eight without reply but have lost three and drawn two of five since. Last week the club was forced to issue a statement denying reports that there was a rift between players and management.
- Newcastle’s bad-boy striker has admitted assaulting two police officers in the city while resisting arrest. Two other allegations of assault, that the officers were trying to arrest him for, were dropped after Newcastle Crown Court heard Ranger was racially abused and struck first.
- Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has accused Fifa vice president Jim Boyce of seeking publicity after the official accused him of cheating during the recent match with Stoke and branded such actions a “cancer in the game.”
- Everton boss David Moyes has been named the league’s Manager of the Month for September, but must do without talismanic attacker Marouane Fellaini for the next three weeks after he suffered a knee injury.
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