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January transfer rumours
at 21:07 2 Jan 2026

We also had to pay his contract off. And, if I recall, he was able to put his severance forward to cover the comp, so net net we didn’t get any money for him.

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Our Pitch
at 14:04 2 Jan 2026

Ha! Fair play to him.

They are a basket case of a club though. Shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to them as any standard.

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Our Pitch
at 13:57 2 Jan 2026

How on earth can the club oversee such a state of the pitch like this? Presumably the contractor that refurbished it all is being taken to task and the contract with them includes warranties or financial penalties which we’re recovering some money through? It’s been a very dry winter so far. There really isn’t much excuse. When watching highlights I don’t see any other pitches in this state.

The obvious thing right away is to move all non-first team games away from LR to allow it to recover somewhat…

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Kone
at 13:51 2 Jan 2026

Great post.

This is a real bugbear of mine with Stephan. I don’t like inverted wingers at the best of times but when you play 442, it is madness. It makes the middle of the pitch so congested if your wide players are cutting inside. It’s so easy to defend against. Whereas, if your wide players stay wide and try to beat their man on the outside it stretches the opposition defence widthways and creates more space for Kone and Burrell in the middle. Equally, delivered from wide areas and the byline play to their strengths too.

If you ask the width to come from the full backs in a 442, you are going to leave yourself open as you only have a 2 man central midfield with which to cover if a ball is cleared and a counter attack on. Whilst Madsen has done a decent job at covering this season, Varane has been poor at it and is often slow to get back.

Saito can go both ways so can provide width on the left. Smyth can on the right. I’d like to see the rest of them play on their stronger foot side too. I’d like at least one of the wingers to be on their natural side offering width and a threat on the outside and getting to the byline. It’s the Championship. It isn’t rocket science.

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Sam Field
at 18:55 31 Dec 2025

He played in his conventional midfield role in the Leeds 4-0 and West Brom 2-2. The only time I recall him playing at 10 was away at Oxford in the 3-1 win. It was basically the old “Amos 10” high press role. Think Clive gave him MotM too.

Sounds like yesterday he was asked to play further forward in a ball playing role there, not a high press. That is a bit mad.

What I struggle to understand is that his best position is Varane’s. He spent 3 seasons there playing very well and either winning player of the year or runner up. Varane has been coasting all through this season barely playing well at all. Why not play Field instead of occasionally to light a fire under his arse?

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Smyth
at 18:45 31 Dec 2025

Excellent news!!

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January transfer rumours
at 09:38 31 Dec 2025

At least 18 months, might be 30. Sounds like they did it to spread the cost of his first contract extension (for 1 season only) that was astronomical, so as to provide more headroom on P&S this season (for other signings). He gets a bit more money overall because he’s here for longer, and we get a lower salary booked in this season, but it means he’s under contract for longer and taking up salary space next season (and maybe the season after). It was all done before they signed Burrell and Kone, when Kelman was refusing to sign, and the club were presumably worried we’d be left with no one…

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Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 16:50 30 Dec 2025

Smyth’s absence since his excellent display against Birmingham is odd.

I really hope it hasn’t been instigated by the club related to his contract situation. We didn’t do that with Dunne last season (he missed one game when it was expected he would join Utd shortly afterwards but then returned to the starting XI).

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Baggie ball bags - Match Thread
at 22:47 29 Dec 2025

Why not start Field instead of Varane. Better off the ball and more mobile that him and Hayden, with similar limitations. He’s been “the shield” very successfully for years.

Nardi

Mbengue Dunne Cook RND

Smyth Madsen Field Chair

Kone Burrell

That would be my 1st team (assuming JCS is not available…)

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Dunne rescues QPR from more Boxing Day blues – Report
at 13:21 28 Dec 2025

All of that is valid. And I think Portsmouth was that last sentence. The head coach admitted as much about the first half. Hence why I’m saying it should be accepted as “well done for getting a point.” We should aspire to better than that. That is an expectations thing. There is a difference, as you well know, between having standards and being entitled. I’m not suggesting the latter at all. The clubs you mention have fanbases who behave as entitled.

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Dunne rescues QPR from more Boxing Day blues – Report
at 12:37 28 Dec 2025

That’s what I mean. It’s a deep rooted cultural thing. And the only consistent thing over decades really is the fanbase. Worst FA Cup 3rd round record in the country. And something akin to the worst Boxing Day record in the country, certainly away. It’s weird. I think us as fans must have some sort of role in this. It’s inexplicable otherwise.

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Dunne rescues QPR from more Boxing Day blues – Report
at 12:35 28 Dec 2025

Hold on, nix. I’m here when we win, draw or lose, and I don’t actually post too much regardless. Have some spells, for family reasons, where I can’t post. And after home games, I’m usually in the pub so not on here. I’ve been pretty consistent in regularity of posting for some 25 years on here. You don’t have to agree with me, but don’t make stuff up.

As I said, I don’t think it’s a recent thing.

As you well know, I defended Les and Hoos on here extensively a decade ago. They had a huge cultural and financial mess to clear up after the Redknapp and Hughes years, enabled by Fernandes. And they did a lot of good things on the cultural side. Personally, given the scale of cost cutting on the playing side, I think they did a good job to keep us in the league. But after 4-5 years, they started to lose their way. There was no vision or inspiration. We had stabilised the ship but accepted mediocrity. In the years since, Critchely referenced how we’re seen as soft in this league by other clubs. Ainsworth came on and talked about us as if we were the league minnows, which didn’t help. Cifuentes, with a crap squad two years’ running brought back a bit of pride, but we still didn’t show up in cups or win on Boxing Day, and ours wins were usually with <40% possession. He played Kolli and Lloyd a fair bit, because he had to. But those indicators I mentioned before are all still valid.

The progress this year is down to Stephan making an excellent, bold call of going 442, and Nourry and Belk providing him with 2 proper forwards this season. It’s great there is progress, but there is more to be done to show a material cultural change and step forward. I really hope Stephan can demonstrate that. I think he gets it. And the real challenge of a Player Trading model is the selling of the good players and replacing with better players. We haven’t seen that yet. Here’s hoping we can execute that well…

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January transfer rumours
at 12:10 28 Dec 2025

I think that is a really good point.

For a club with our academy and resources, is signing 16-18yr olds who have spent 6-8yrs in Arsenal’s, Tottenham’s, Liverpool’s, Chelsea’s, City’s, Southampton’s youth set ups (the highly rated ones) a wiser move?

Our biggest success, Eze, was that.

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Dunne rescues QPR from more Boxing Day blues – Report
at 11:35 28 Dec 2025

Birmingham’s boss referred to us as a very physical side. I don’t think it’s a valid excuse, nor should we be trying to excuse poor showings. Why do so? If you accept inconsistency you are accepting the lows as well as the highs, which, imo, is a standards issue. This isn’t a Stephan thing. Or a Nourry thing. It’s a club wide, cultural issue we have had for years. My point (raised on other threads) was really whether anything had changed, or have we just (finally!) found ourselves with two good forwards in a weak league (6th looks on for a low total again), hence the improvement from 16th to 10th) but otherwise has much really changed? No youth player making the step up this season (as usual, tbf), forfeited the League Cup as usual, didn’t win on Boxing Day, struggling against bottom 3 sides (we drop our level to theirs)…another bottom 3 side and the FA Cup 3rd round to come.

To be clear, I rate this squad. I like our head coach a lot. I’m merely pointing out big signposts that would indicate if things really have changed. Here’s hoping we meet the test of the next two.

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Dunne rescues QPR from more Boxing Day blues – Report
at 09:19 28 Dec 2025

You’re right, we wouldn’t have got a draw in the same position last year. But we had a much worse side and squad last season. We didn’t have any decent forwards and now we have two very good ones. Burrell has scored 9 so far. Our highest in a whole season by a forward in the last decade is 12, I believe. Keep your expectations, if you want. I think it’s partly what is holding the club back (and has been for a few years now. Warburton spoke of it.

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Dunne rescues QPR from more Boxing Day blues – Report
at 00:32 28 Dec 2025

I posted weeks ago that the performance and result against Portsmouth on Boxing Day would be indicative of whether the culture has really changed at the club…

We need to raise standards. This is a good squad - best we had had in years - and this league is not strong. We have shown we can play to a high level but not that we can play consistently at or near that level. That is a standards issue. It should be expected we play at or near that level week in, week out, not that such a level is a nice thing to do occasionally and that’s enough because doing that and grinding out some draws at a much lower level will have us finish around 16th like usual.

Norwich is the next big test for me. Show up, smash them, move on, like a serious side with standards and expectations. If we struggle in that fixture, it’ll be very disappointing. West Brom away is a difficult fixture. We should expect to compete and win, but if West Brom play well, we might not. Our best should be too good for Norwich’s best. Out 90% should be. Raise expectations.

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Poku
at 13:32 24 Dec 2025

Orient offered him more money than we offered and he chose us because he really wanted to return here and show he was good enough.

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Poku
at 13:31 24 Dec 2025

I like the Player Trading strategy. Agree that it is the only way we become more and more competitive.

But:

a) not every player needs to be signed/renewed with a view to being sold for money. That is myopic. Many do, especially the ones we pay transfer fees for, but not everyone. Performance on the pitch, the balance of the squad, the skills they bring (in Smyth’s case pace and workrate), the role they play within the dressing room culture…all these and more factor into decision making. You can renew or sign players accepting you won’t sell for a profit. That is okay. It can’t everyone but it can be some.

b) not everyone in a squad can be a starter. You need squad players who are happy to get decent game time whilst not starting every week. Smyth fulfils that role.

c) I personally think he is excellent within the dressing room in terms of how he gets on with others (see Saito)

To be clear, I wouldn’t offer Smyth a top salary because, whilst I think he deserves to start currently (Dembele has done it once all season, and Poku is feeling his way back in), he is likely to be a very good back up on the right (yes, I know he used to play inverted on the left at Orient, but at this level he is more effective on his true side).

But I think he deserves an extension, is an important member of the squad. If he chooses not to take it, that’s his choice. If he turns it down because it’s a derisory offer and signs for the likes of Millwall or Charlton, I’d hope Q block aren’t so naive as to sing he’s a c*** when he returns.

And I think some fans are too quick to dismiss him just because some shiny new players are here. Don’t underestimate, pace, availability, and work rate in this league.

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Poku
at 13:13 24 Dec 2025

It’s wishful thinking, sure, but it’s this type of behaviour that builds culture or harms it.

I think we’d miss Smyth more than many think.

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Poku
at 09:10 24 Dec 2025

I’m not trying to do anything.

I’ll spell it out to you, in this thread Beckenhamhoop was suggesting we bin off Smyth. Baz spoke about loyalty and I suggested that it seems this isn’t a situation where the player is being disloyal to the club but some fans being disloyal to the player. Nuanced point I thought worth making.

I’m not “trying to create divisions again”. It’s a thread with different opinions. I’m defending, and by definition backing, one of our players. Is that wrong? Give it a break.

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