Rangers have loaned exciting young attacker Angelo Balanta to League One side MK Dons for the 2010/11 season. A chance to gain experience, or a last round of drinks in the last chance saloon?
Facts
After three new arrivals at Loftus Road this summer, Rangers have started to trim the squad back a little with the news that Angelo Balanta will join League One side MK Dons on loan for the whole of the 2010/11 season. Balanta, who turns 20 in July, seemed set for an extended run in the QPR first team last term after a blistering pre-season but an injury sustained on day one against Blackpool limited him to just one start and three substitute appearances.
Rangers spotted the Colombian born attacker as a 16-year-old playing Sunday league football for Brunswick and quickly snapped him up. He was a league winner in Joe Gallen's all conquering youth team before graduating to the first team, scoring on his full debut at Loftus Road in a 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield United under Luigi De Canio and then bagging against Swindon in the Leeague Cup and at the Loft End against Nottingham Forest under Iain Dowie.
Overall he has ten starts and 19 substitute appearances to his name at Rangers, and during 2008/10 clocked up nine starts, two sub appearances and three goals in League Two with Wycombe Wanderers during a loan spell. Has represented England at youth level despite being born in Santiago de Cali in Columbia. Regularly touted as the most promising youngster on the books at QPR, this looks like a very good signing on paper for the MK Dons.
Reaction
QPR manager Neil Warnock: "I just think Angelo needs to get out and play some games and MK Dons will allow him to do that. He worked with John in the past and he will relish the chance to go there and make a few headlines." QPR official website
MKDons assistant boss John Gorman: "Angelo is only 19 but he has so much potential. He's a wonderful talent and we're fortunate to have acquired him because there will have been plenty of other clubs in the hunt. He was a revelation during his three months on loan with Wycombe during their promotion campaign so hopefully he can come here and do the same kind of job. He'll be a very exciting player for the fans to watch. He's genuinely two footed and will offer us something different either off the left flank or as a striker." MKDons official website
Opinion
Apart from short times in charge at QPR what else do Neil Warnock, Mick Harford, Paul Hart, Jim Magilton, Paulo Sousa, Iain Dowie, Luigi De Canio and John Gregory all have in common? None of them have ever selected Angelo Balanta to play regularly in the first team.
Some find this hard to understand, me included. I mean on his rare appearances he has done well, scoring against Sheff Utd, Swindon and Nottingham Forest, on loan at Wycombe he impressed with some eye catching goals and performances in a promotion campaign, on the training ground we hear good reports of a tricky and skillful two footed player with great potential and balance. You’ll never find anybody - player, manager or fan - at QPR who will ever say a bad word about him. Quite the opposite in fact, most fans rate Balanta as our best prospect for years and talk about his emergence into first team regular as a when rather than an if.
And yet as he approaches his twenties he is increasingly marginalised in our squad. Behind younger youth team graduate Antonio German in the pecking order, behind useless lumps like Agyemang and Vine, and sinking lower down the ladder behind new arrivals this summer.
Personally I think Balanta may benefit from the same tinted spectacles syndrome as Buzsaky, Connolly, Cook and others enjoy among our support, and people like Hall and Priskin suffer from. Priskin is a poor footballer, clearly and obviously, but on the odd occasions he did play well last season (Palace and Preston away) fans were loathe to admit it because they didn’t like him. Yet when the well liked Akos Buzsaky is average for months on end nobody says a word. Similarly when Fitz Hall gets injured all the time the fans are quick to jump in with talk of how expensive he is and what a liability it is to have such an injury prone player in the squad earning loads, yet when the similarly stricken Lee Cook breaks down for another three month stint on the sidelines everybody is full of sympathy.
I understand why this is and I’m very guilty of it myself. Of the examples given Buzsaky is the division’s most talented midfielder on his day and we have seen and know full well what he is capable of, whereas Priskin was a poor loan signing who rarely gave any clue as to why he was a footballer at all. Cook is a terrific club man who on his day can turn a game for us, Hall is a mercenary who lives off a past reputation and on the rare occasions he is fit and playing well he’s still prone to falling on his arse and costing us a goal.
In Balanta’s case, similar to that of Tom Heaton, the fans’ love of him seems to be based on very fleeting glimpses rather than facts. He refused to go on loan to Torquay last season and stayed on our bench instead, he started very well at Wycombe but then regressed, and he has struggled regularly with injury. When we've seen him in the first team he's looked right at home, certainly possessing a better first touch and greater maturity than anybody else that has come out of our youth set up, but something he does out of sight of the fans puts manager off because he's rarely picked.
MK Dons is a good move on the face of it - it’s a League One club where he will play regularly and link up again with John Gorman who is the new assistant manager there. I did initially think they will struggle next season with Paul Ince leaving citing planned budget cuts and being replaced by the inexperienced Karl Robinson, but they have recruited well this summer with Dieter Hamman, Lewis Guy and Neil McKenzie already through the door along with Angelo. While some are seeing this as an excellent chance to gain some first team experience, I’m viewing it more as make or break time. Angelo will be 21 when he comes back, not a fresh teen any more, and it’s time for him to really kick on now.
If he goes there, tears up trees, gets 15 goals and impresses, then fantastic let’s have him back and give him a good prolonged run in our team. If not it may be time to part ways. The irritating thing is had we used the 20 or so dead fixtures we’ve had at the back end of the last two seasons to start him regularly for us we’d have a better idea of whether we’re loaning him out for experience for our benefit, or as a shop window exercise to his.