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Reply | Palace cup tickets
at 18:52 4 Sep 2024
I guess we'll see if we charge a tenner for adults and let kids in for free when we play Orient at home in the next round. |
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Reply | Palace cup tickets
at 13:49 4 Sep 2024
It's not disingenuous in the slightest. And we got to a play-off final and then promoted with those prices so the football was quite good.
In Div 2 (or L1 in new money in 2004) with Frayling's lower priced tickets we averaged over 14k at Loftus Road.
That went up by 2k when we did. It took Paladini (and Briatore) to comprehensively dismantle that ticketing goodwill. By 2009-2010, coming 13th in the Championship with some lovely players, we were averaging 12k. So we were fuller in L1 with cheaper tickets than in the Championship with better players.
I think £19 is decent. I've bought a ticket. But I also think Brentford charging a tenner for adults and letting juniors in for free is better, and smarter long term. The two things can be true at once. |
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Reply | Palace cup tickets
at 09:26 4 Sep 2024
Yes. Or...you just reward your loyal home fans who've been through three seasons of turmoil and dirge football with cheaper tickets in a nice local derby against higher placed opposition. Nice bit of fan PR, fill the ground, good vibes. Different strokes. It's the old Jim Frayling model which meant we had a packed ground in D2 even.
I'm still going though, of course. |
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Reply | Palace cup tickets
at 08:11 4 Sep 2024
On one hand:
I bought three pints of lager in Covent Garden the other day. It cost me £24 and they lasted in total about ten minutes. And we had to stand outside the pub to drink them.
£19 + booking fee for 90 minutes of 3rd round cup football against a Prem team in a local derby featuring our former favourite son is insanely good value in comparison.
On the other hand:
Brentford are charging all adults a tenner for their game against Orient. Less attractive opposition, for sure. But still. [Post edited 4 Sep 8:12]
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Reply | Dykes sold apparently
at 11:48 30 Aug 2024
Disagree. It's the owners' money. If they want to overspend massively in L1 on a load of Championship level players (some of whom have failed at that level), that's on them.
It's the model Fulham used successfully first under Keegan and then under Tigana (Tigana!) and which numerous clubs - including QPR - have failed with disastrously. If (big if) they come up, they'll have a load very highly paid players on long contracts who we know are not quite good enough for anything above a lower Champ team.
They have to hope that Chris Davies is Kevin Keegan or Jean Tigana, too. (He's probably not). That's a lot of gnarly pros to manage for a 39 year-old novice when the going gets tough. |
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Reply | Dykes sold apparently
at 10:55 30 Aug 2024
Exactly this. Been used since the 1920s.
Interesting to note - to my mind, anyway - that Spain won the Euros in 2012 with Fabregas as a false 9, because they had so many technical midfielders and wingers, they just adapted. Chair could definitely play that role centrally with Dembele and Saito either side, with Madsen and/or Anderson just behind him with a Field/Varane holding. You look at the squad QPR have built this window and it does look to be with that in mind. Celar also looks like a forward who comes to the ball in that mould.
If you have a central forward who drops to the ball, it allows your technical midfielders to get beyond into forward positions. It's why Chair always looks like he's holding the ball too long: nobody breaks ahead of the lines and makes space for the pass. Dembele and Saito will, Madsen/Anderson fill in the gaps behind. Ironically, I think Dykes could actually do the false 9 better than a real 9 too.
This is quite good about the false 9 history:
https://www.coachesvoice.com/cv/what-is-a-false-nine-explained-messi-kane-firmin |
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Reply | Transfer rumours 2024
at 15:59 29 Aug 2024
I think that's exactly what they're thinking: have a look at it in January. Might need a striker then, might need a LB (and they may sign that RB they've been after for some reason). We have a first team and a good bench until then though, with lots of players to bed in. Let's see where we are in four months without burning through the cash now. |
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Reply | Transfer rumours 2024
at 15:28 29 Aug 2024
So (pushes up glasses in nose)...
You're saying: we had a first choice pair of centre backs in 19/20. And then we had a reserve pair of centre backs. And we also had Cameron (who had played centre back many times). So we in fact did have CBs, we had five. You don't think three of them were good enough (they weren't), but the numbers were there. It can't have been that much of a CB crisis as that January 2020 we made FOUR loan signings: two CFs, a winger and a midfielder who barely played. We didn't sign a CB, though. Probably no need.
And you know what? It was absolutely fine in the end with those CBs because we finished 13th.
We have several left backs at the club now. As you say, we've just loaned one out who presumably the club don't think is good enough to challenge this season. Maybe they'll sign another tomorrow or in January, or maybe they reckon between Paal, Fox, maybe JCS , even Shann in the Development, who is highly thought of, the club has enough left backs. Instead, perhaps they're choosing to spend their money elsewhere. I don't blame them if so. HR is not Football Manager.
There are loads of players for every position at QPR, as always. More to come too. The question is, are they good enough? We shall see. |
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Reply | Transfer rumours 2024
at 09:24 29 Aug 2024
Ha! I reckon Chair, Dembele, Kolli and Lloyd all fancy a bit of that false 9. I bet Smyth could give it a bash too. Maybe even Anderson. We've got loads of forwards who don't really have a position now. It's the game model, baby! |
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Reply | Transfer rumours 2024
at 08:57 29 Aug 2024
Don't worry about the squad sizes, the places available. I can't believe people are even debating it.
"We can't go a whole season with just two strikers!"
Even if, for the first time ever, QPR don't try to loan out/sell and loan in/buy loads of players in the last 48 hours of this window...you do all realise that the window reopens in January, right? Then, once again, more players will join and more players will leave.
Every window, every season, it's the same: QPR sign loads of players. Do not worry. We will never, ever go short of players in any position. It's never about volume, that's never the issue at QPR. It's always about quality.
(And for what it's worth, when Chair is fit, and if he's still here, I can see Marti sometimes playing without a CF and with a false 9 instead. Pep will be doing the same this season from time to time. Where he leads, MC follows.) |
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Reply | Dykes sold apparently
at 14:27 27 Aug 2024
He scored six goals in 41 league appearances last season (30+ starts), and one of those was a penalty. He didn't score once between January and April. One assist all season.
In the season before, he didn't score at all between November and April. Eight goals in total.
In 21/22, he only scored two goals between October and May - and they were in the same game. Eight goals in total.
In the last two seasons we've escaped relegation by the skin of our teeth and Lyndon Dykes has contributed 14 goals from across 80 games, with around three assists.
I don't think Cifuentes is a particularly radical thinker in deciding this is not the guy that will change that sequence for him, aged 29, nor for trying different players up top. The team were malfunctioning just as badly with him in the team. |
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Reply | Dykes sold apparently
at 13:25 27 Aug 2024
Bemused not everyone is glad about this. What is Dykes good at?
He has a poor first touch and technique. He's a very unreliable finisher. He doesn't score headers (or win many), he doesn't create assists, he's not particularly fast. Every season he's been the number 9 there are threads on here suggesting that what this team needs is a number 9 to flourish.
He's 29 next month and therefore as a CF past his prime. He cost £2 million and scored 37 goals in 166 games. He's been a poor signing by any metric. To my eyes, this season's Frey looks to be better at Dykes's role - strong number 9, bullies CBs, chases balls, threat in the air, veteran - and that we need a different, more agile and much younger CF to be third choice.
A million quid for a well-paid CF who doesn't score or assist goals at Championship level and is about to hit 29 years-old is great business, surely. |
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Reply | Dykes sold apparently
at 11:27 27 Aug 2024
I can understand feeling sentimental about Ilias Chair, but Lyndon Dykes? Come on.
He's 29 next month. So if he goes to Brum, and they come up, he'll be 30 in the Championship. Will he have improved bullying L1 defenders in that time?
According to Wiki he's scored 37 goals in 167 games for us, which is a poor return for a number 9 who also takes pens. He's always appeared very game, but has his technique improved in any noticeable way since we re-signed Austen on loan to help him out? I don't think so. He's always looked more of an athlete than a footballer to me.
I think you sell 29 year-olds with that kind of record on big wages for £1 million (Mail reporting it's £1.5 btw) and buy a 22 year-old with potential for a quarter of that price generally. We can cry about the price, but you can only sell for what someone is prepared to pay. Why hang on to a 29 year-old number 9 on a three year dry run otherwise? |
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Reply | Varane
at 17:33 5 Aug 2024
I don't think anyone at the club is expecting anything but a finish well above lower bottom half.
I seem to remember you were the poster who told us in January that the club were cutting their cloth for League 1 then, that they'd accepted relegation and we should too.
When told this was unlikely as there were 23 games left and we needed maybe 7 wins you replied (and yes I did look this up, it is petty, but the condescension was striking):
"We all want to believe that it’s all to play for, but at some point we as supporters need to be as realistic as the club are about the chances of us putting those 7/8 wins on the board."
In fact, we put another nine wins on the board. The club was not planning for L1. This summer they are not planning for a lower bottom half finish. They're planning for top ten, minimum.
And I agree with them. I think we'll start slowly and grind out some points, it will be painful initially, but we will build up a head of steam.
But we'll see, I guess.I don't see the squad, the coaching staff or the mood of club as anything as negatively as I have done in previous years (or as you do, clearly). |
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Reply | Varane
at 09:44 5 Aug 2024
1st team squad players that have left and their replacements since May:
Begovic - Nardi
Adomah/Kakay - Santos
Hayden - Varane
Armstrong - Celar
Larkeche has not been replaced (yet) but we've added a defender in Morrison who looks decent and has played at a good level in L1. Judging by Zyed's performance yesterday, he's a better defender.
Which leaves Willock, who we will definitely replace before close of window, if not by two signings then at least one. In the meantime clearly the idea is to muddle along with a combination of Kolli/Lloyd/Bennie until reinforcements arrive.
I don't agree that the squad is significantly worse than in May and I do think it will be significantly better by September. We look like a squad who will neither concede nor score many at present - but a couple of loans can transform that positively late in the window. The foundations look really solid, more solid defensively than I can remember, and I trust the coaching team since last season 100%. |
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Reply | Varane
at 14:16 4 Aug 2024
It looks stronger than it did a year ago on August 4, though.
Joe Gubbins, Charlie Kelman and Ossie Kakay aren't about to start at Watford tomorrow, for example.
The squad is significantly stronger than it was at the start of last season. It will look much stronger still when the window closes. All those players that you mention other than Willock and arguably Hodge and Larkeshe have been replaced. All will be replaced. And then there'll be other players, too, as always. Nobody can convince me the squad is weaker for not having Begovic, Kakay, Drewe and Dozzell available for calamity. I think Willock and Armstrong will be missed - but we'll get more attackers.
It's QPR. More players are always guaranteed. |
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Reply | Gab Sutton Championship Previews
at 16:27 1 Aug 2024
Certainly seems unlikely in the PL, but McKenna is good isn't he at getting players to transcend their level, if that that's where he goes.
And the money Blackburn get for Szmodics will be transformative - though with Gallagher it strips a lot of goals from them: so they'll be buying loadsa players, probably from other Championship teams (Dykes?). It's impossible to judge what shape most squads will look like in a month. |
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Reply | Gab Sutton Championship Previews
at 09:17 1 Aug 2024
There are several transfers that will rearrange the entire league: Szmodics and Summerville being the two that leap immediately to mind, Philogene was another: and now Hull have that money burning a hole. Suddenly all the squads are playing Jenga. I do think Chair may go in this window (and if the offer's good, now's the time) and that we'll be replacing both he and Willock with PL loans. But no idea, really. |
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Reply | Gab Sutton Championship Previews
at 08:50 1 Aug 2024
Whole prediction thing is a massive fool's errand now. There are thirty days until the window closes. Many squads throughout the division are going through huge churn right now: Leeds, WBA, Boro, Blackburn, Coventry...
Nobody will look the same in a fortnight, never mind a month. If Leeds sell Summerville this week as likely, that's 20 goals plus a dozen assists and the league's outstanding attacker gone. Big hole. (Replaced by Chair? Or Jack Clarke? Domino effect ripples through league...)
Every season that I can remember - even those before a window existed, even in the 80s! - QPR fans have said, 'Oooh, I'm worried about this squad' or 'If we can get one more forward in, we'll be ok'...and every season loads of players rock up in the first weeks of the season, filling positions we hadn't bargained for. Always! QPR can be in administration, going for promotion, fighting relegation, going nowhere, pushing top six, constrained by FFP - doesn't matter. One thing is for certain: QPR will always, always sign more players than you expect. |
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Reply | Armstrong
at 14:04 21 Jul 2024
I reckon Sinclair Armstrong would score lots of goals for Poole, Hayes and Eccleshill United too. But we'll never know, because he plays in the Championship about six-to-eight levels higher (he does score goals in international football, which none of them were playing at that age).
Surely the examples of Les, Austin and Wells is proof that what you are as a 20-year-old striker does not define what you will be as a 24 or 25 year-old striker? I find it a really odd argument saying they are proof that he's not. Les in particular was not playing at his level and still took another three seasons to reach anything like his potential.
Let's just see. We offered him a contract as we thought there's something there as a striker, so did Bristol City (and Stoke). Glad, still, we have that sell-on fee if true. |
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