Thursday Diary — Walker joins Villa, Agyemang out for the season
Thursday, 6th Jan 2011 23:28 by Clive Whittingham

As expected Kyle Walker today joined Premiership side Aston Villa on loan rather than extending his spell at QPR. In equally unsurprising news Patrick Agyemang is injured again.

News

Rangers had held high hopes of keeping Walker for the rest of the season after the England Under 21 full back excelled during his loan spell at Loftus Road. But when Aston Villa offered Spurs a chance to give him regular Premiership football for the rest of the term that was always likely to be the North London club’s first option and that was confirmed today as Walker signed on with Gerard Houllier’s struggling side.

Walker told Villa’s official website: “I'm excited about being here and proving that I'm good enough to play in the Premier League. That's why Tottenham bought me from Sheffield United and that's what I'm keen to show here at Villa. This is a great opportunity for me and I'm looking forward to taking it. I know several of the players here from England U19s and England U21s - Nathan Delfouneso, Ciaran Clark and Marc Albrighton. I'm really keen to contribute and compete and prove myself here."

Villa manager Gerard Houllier said: "We're pleased that Kyle will be with us until the end of the season. He is 20 years old, an attacking full-back and a very promising young player. He will be a valuable addition to our defence."

Meanwhile back in W12 QPR fans woke this morning to the news that Patrick Agyemang is set for yet another four month injury lay off, ruling him out of the rest of the QPR season. There’s nothing surprising in that, God only knows Agyemang has missed more than his fair share of action while collecting his sizeable wages on a four and a half year contract, but the notion that this latest absence could be caused by a stress fracture of the shin when he has played just 45 minutes of football at Norwich since the start of December is almost as laughable as his goal scoring record.

Loan Watch

Reading may face competition for the signature of Mikele Leigertwood after Ipswich Town entered the race to sign the out of favour QPR midfielder. Leigertwood is currently on loan at Reading from Rangers and impressed in their victory against Burnley on Monday, but Ipswich are hoping to tempt him away from the Madejski Stadium with a £1m bid according to Sky Sports.

Meanwhile, like a bad penny, Rowan Vine is back again. The out of form, shape and favour striker failed to play a single minute for West London neighbours Brentford during a month long loan spell at Griffin park with manager Andy Scott saying his fitness levels simply were not up to the standard of his other squad members.

Rumours

Another day, another name, this time The Metro reports that QPR and Leeds are leading the race to sign Tottenham centre half Jonathan Woodgate on loan. Woodgate has been plagued by injuries throughout his career and missed the first half of this season with a variety of complaints but Spurs are keen for him to get back into action in case they require him at the business end of the season.

Former R’s

Former QPR loanee Leon Best announced his arrival on the Premiership scene with a bang last night, bagging a hat trick in Newcastle’s 5-0 rout of West Ham. Best, who made five appearances without scoring for QPR in Christmas 2004, has missed almost the entire season so far through injury but won a start last night and repaid new manager Alan Pardew with a fine treble.

Pardew told Newcastle’s official website: “ "It was some impact and I'm so pleased for Leon because he's had a bit of a tough time. He's had a little bit of an illness and has been under the weather. He is a really popular lad in the changing room, and I'm really pleased for him. There was question marks when Andy (Carroll) got injured, but the players have responded - particularly the strikers.”

Elsewhere our former trainee Liam O’Brien has signed for League Two strugglers Barnet following his release from Portsmouth. Promising young goalkeeper O’Brien has represented England at Under 19 level, and spent time on loan with Conference side Eastbourne, but has now signed for Barnet where he will compete for the number one jersey with his former team mate at QPR Jake Cole.

Barnet are currently under the caretaker management of Paul Fairclough and first team coach Michael Stone who said: “Paul Fairclough and I are both delighted and excited that Liam has decided to join Barnet at a crucial stage of his career. He has been training with us during the past couple of months and is a talented young goalkeeper with a huge amount of potential. He has great stature and understands that the hard work really starts now as he strives to prove himself as a top class senior goalkeeper.”

Wimbeldon’s move for Pat Kanyuka, reported in yesterday’s diary, is being held up awaiting international clearance as hee is currently contracted to Romanian club Cluj. Manager Terry Brown told the Surrey Herald: “Pat's looked good in training but it's taking ages to get clearance. We've got a defence full of kids, and it's an area we really need to strengthen. Hopefully we can get something sorted soon."

Wimbledon are currently two points clear at the top of the Conference but second placed Crawley have two games in hand.

Championship Shorts

- Preston have today all but confirmed their relegation to League One by appointing former Hull City boss Phil Brown as their new manager. Preston are currently seven points clear of safety and Brown has just six wins from his last 56 league games as a manager but still used the opportunity of appointment today to again state he cannot believe he has been out of the game for so long. He said: “I've had eight or nine months of real frustration and we thought the job we did at Hull would have got us straight back into the game. But now we've got an opportunity to manage a Championship club, albeit in the situation that they're in.”

- Burnley are also hoping to end their search for a new boss soon although an outlandish approach for Norwich manager Paul Lambert today looks unlikely to succeed. Burnley took the unusual step on Thursday afternoon of releasing a statement on their official website confirming their request to speak to Lambert whose Norwich side are currently level on points with second placed Cardiff at the top of the Championship.

- Palace have signed Blackburn youngster Sam Marrow for an undisclosed fee after a successful loan spell.

- Scunthorpe have done likewise with Preston defender Eddie Nolan who had been on loan at Glanford Park for the first half of the season. The Iron have taken over the remaining six months of his deal. Scunthorpe have also signed Chelsea left back Ben Gordon on loan just a day after the Blues recalled him from Kilmarnock so he could be loaned to a club closer to their London base. Technically the Scunthorpe move fits the bill, although you wouldn’t want to go from one to the other for a bag of chips.

- Millwall have also made a loan move permanent today for an undisclosed fee – 22-year-old striker James McQuoid has been at The New Den since November having scored 12 goals for Bournemouth prior to the move. He has yet to find the net for Kenny Jackett but has signed until 2014 on a day when midfielder Liam Trotter also signed a two year contract extension to 2014.

- Leicester’s attempts to loan their way to the Premiership look set to continue with the club enquiring about a temporary switch for Everton striker Yakubu.

- And finally Sheffield United have confirmed the signings of Irish pair David McAllister and Seamus Conneely on 18-month deals from St Patricks Athletic and Galway respectively.