This Week - QPR's forgotten men
Thursday, 10th Jul 2008 11:48

Worried by the protracted and so far unsuccessful pursuit of our summer transfer targets? Me too. But fear not, think of the following four players and take a few deep breaths. If that doesn't work, marvel at how wonderful Martin Rowlands is.

The forgotten men
Have you seen that Peter Kay stand up set he does about dinner ladies? So true. One droplet of water splashes down from the sky on the cheek of a dinner lady and suddenly all the kids are being rushed in by middle aged ladies racing around the play ground screaming “it’s spittin, gerrem in, GERREM IN”.

When such an event took place at my school they used to bung us all in the hall with a teacher and play this game where you started in the middle, the teacher shouted a question out and you went off to a corner of the hall depending on what you thought the answer was. Normally what happened was everybody raced off with their mate to one corner only to see when they got there that the kid with half a brain had gone to another and there followed a ten or 15 second period of time where you could change your corner and decide whether to go and stand with the smart kid or stay with your mates. At the end of the day we’d all have rather been out in the rain playing football but that’s another story.

There’s been a bit of this hedging of bets and shifting between points of view among the QPR fans in recent weeks. As names come and go, targets move elsewhere, and the days tick by without what you would call a big name signing, a proven player at this level, people seem to be getting more and more concerned and there’s plenty of hand wringing going on around the message boards at the moment. I’m the same, I’ll confess at this point to being pretty disappointed with what we’ve done in the transfer market so far. It would only take Kaspars Gorkss, Ben Watson and Ched Evans to turn me around but at the moment QPR seem to be making a superb job of stuffing up the simplest transfer known to man in Gorkss’ case, the price and number of other clubs interested in Watson keeps increasing and Evans is away in Germany with Man City at the moment.

Some people have been more distraught and overly dramatic than I’m being, but that’s the nature of message boards. Plenty of people are getting twitchy though. Standing in one corner of the hall with the majority trying to tell themselves we’ve got a great squad already, there’s two more months of transfer window left, the foreign kids are going to be magnificent – but all the while glancing over to that ever growing gathering over there with the kid that’s normally right. People are twitching to varying degrees, wanting to believe the bookies and the absurdly optimistic amongst us, but steadily suffering at the hands of the voice at the back of their head that’s telling them it really would be nice to spend £3m on a Championship busting centre forward.

The club has made a rod for its own back really. They justified ticket price rises by saying the money would be spent on players and then saying we'd sold record numbers of season tickets - presumably lots of money for players then? Amit Bhatia said a couple of weeks ago that we are talkin to some very exciting players and there's little evidence of that so far - unless these kids from Serie A are going to turn out to be world beaters. Who knows? They might do.

A few weeks ago I wrote in this column that we may already have enough to do very well in this league based on our performances in the second half of last season and the added fitness and organisation that Iain Dowie will bring. So for those of you that are twitching and getting a bit worried, allow me to present a list of QPR’s forgotten men – players who everybody seems to be discounting when they say we need to spend money on this and that over the next few weeks. I'm finding the following names quite useful in my quest to remain calm and patient. Try thinking of a calm blue ocean and repeating the following gently to yourself - "if we don't sign anybody else this summer it won't matter because we still have...

Simon Walton
Presumably Watson is being lined up as the all action midfield player to go alongside Rowlands in the middle of the QPR midfield? Dowie is looking for a box to box player who never tires, puts in some crunching tackles, and will stand tall when the going gets tough. Watson looks ideal on the face of it – he was the outstanding player on the pitch in Palace’s play off semi finals despite finishing on the losing side and his performances at the back end of last season were really superb. But the deal to bring him to Loftus Road now looks in doubt as Palace continue to ask for more money and Rangers continue to shy away from paying big transfer fees – especially when the player is out of contract altogether this time next year anyway.

Disaster? Maybe not. QPR already have a midfielder with all of the attributes mentioned above in their squad, fit and with a point to prove. Simon Walton was a big signing for the R’s last summer when he arrived from Charlton and looked to be just what the doctor ordered on the evidence of the pre-season games until he sadly broke his leg against Fulham. He was this site’s man of the match in his one and only start of the season at Plymouth and then spent the rest of the campaign on loan at Hull. Now back, and playing under a manager who spent the thick end of £1m to get him to go to Charlton from Leeds, he’s in a terrific position to claim a permanent place in the QPR midfield. We may not need Watson, this highly rated young player needs a good season after many false starts and injuries and I fancy him to make a big impact over the next 12 months. Hopefully with us.

Angelo Balanta
The other players rave about this lad and the things he does with a ball in training. He made his first full start for the R’s at Watford and despite looking very naïve in that match he produced two wonderful passes that led directly to goals for Martin Rowlands. After that he looked like he’d been playing in the Championship for years. I cannot recall an incident in any other game where I thought “you can tell he’s inexperienced after that”. Even at Barnsley on a Tuesday night in a gale force wind he calmly went about his business and played a sensible game while other more experienced players, Mikele Leigertwood for example, lost their heads and played dumb football. He scored his first goal for the club at home to Sheffield United and has represented England at youth level. He has shown he can be called and relied upon in wide areas on both sides of the pitch and up front alongside a more muscular presence and yet I see plenty of talk about lack of wingers and the need for strikers. The answer may already be with us, and it may well be one we’ve grown ourselves.

Matt Connolly
As QPR do their very best to show how not to complete a transfer with the Gorkss and Blackpool row rumbling on people have been turning their attention back to Martin Cranie, Danny Shittu and other centre halves we were linked with before electing to go with a summer of bartering over the Latvian. But are we really in desperate need of a centre half? Everybody presumes Fitz Hall will start because Dowie has tried to take him wherever he’s gone and if Gorkss does finally get to Loftus Road legitimately then most assume that will be the centre half partnership. But in the second half of last season Connolly for me looked the best of all the January buys – a proper all round defender and just the sort of player you need alongside a big man like Hall. He can tackle, he can run with the ball, he can distribute it well, he doesn’t panic, he’s decent in the air, and he can play full back if necessary. If Gorkss doesn’t come we have this excellent all round defender to play anyway. Behind him Damion Stewart and, dare I say, Zesh Rehman also offer cover. If the signing of Gorkss marginalises Connolly and harms his progress it might not be worth all the trouble we’re going to, even if he is only going to cost three and six.

Rowan Vine
Aims to be back in October from his broken leg and there isn’t a club in the league will be adding a player of this quality to their line up at that stage of the season. Time dulls the memory but just before his injury he was playing superbly in a wide midfield role cutting in to score eye catching goals against Scunthorpe, Blackpool and Barnsley. Not prolific enough to lead the attack you would think but a seriously attractive player when coming from deep or wide positions and we’ll see how much we’ve missed him in attack when he returns. If Iain Dowie’s famous demands for commitment and work ethic can cure his occasional laziness and dislike of a strong tackle then we could be looking at a future fans’ Player of the Year here.

So there you are. Like I say I’m disappointed with our activity so far this summer having shelled out £600 for a season ticket but there’s still time so I’ll try and remain patient – and even if we fail to bring in anybody else there are some very good reasons already at the club why we should have a decent season in 08/09. Considering where we were this time last season it seems ungrateful and churlish to be complaining about anything to do with our club now but expectation levels have shifted.

I'm still twitching, but I'm trying to remain calm, and I'll stay in my corner for now.

Martin's mixed week
Nobody seems to know who Martin Rowlands actually supports. Some say he’s a Brentford fan, others say he’s QPR and some have even suggested that he, and everybody else in his family, is Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal or Manchester United. Maybe one of you faithful readers can enlighten me once and for all. One thing is for sure is he’s QPR through and through now – whether he was originally or not is unclear but over the past five years he’s become everything you want of a player at your club and he was named officially as captain for the forthcoming season on Wednesday. Anybody who thought Dowie may not rate him as much as De Canio did has been quickly reassured by the manager’s decision over the armband.

The week didn’t start quite so well for Rowly – another far fetched story on our club this summer, just one in a series, linking our reigning Player of the Year with newly promoted Hull. Now if he is a QPR fan then he’s effectively been faced with a dream and a nightmare within three days – captaining the R’s or moving to Hull. Now in order for me to continue taking me seat at the KC Stadium to watch the only Rugby League side in the world that thinks it can go through an entire season with no half backs I better put on the record now that I think Hull gets a bit of a bad rap from the national media – many of whom have never been there. There are nice parts. Then again there is the east part.

Anyway whatever you think of the place it’s hard to imagine Martin upping sticks and moving there. He is of course the Ruislip boy who bounced around at QPR’s promotion party in Sheffield wearing a vest that said “See you all in the Black Bull” on it. And he did. I find it quite hard to envisage a similar vest with “s’the in t’Silver Cod” on it. Would he really give up his home, his excellent contract at QPR, the captaincy of a club going places, the adoration of our supporters and London for what in all likelihood would only be nine months of Premiership football in, shall we say, a less desirable part of the country? I don’t think so. In fact I think he probably struggled to stop laughing at the idea all day on Monday – as ever the message board posters said it better than I ever could; “bit like your mates telling you an ugly bird fancies you”. Brilliant. And so true. His denial was out on Talk Sport and Sky Sports News almost before the story about him going there had been published. Still Hull are about to sign Bruno Mendy so they’re clearly destined for big things without him.

So having seen that off Rowlands only had the duty of accepting the captain’s arm band at Loftus Road on a permanent basis on Wednesday afternoon. Manager Iain Dowie told the club’s official website: “I’m delighted to have a player of Martin’s character and ability at the club and he will skipper the side again next season. He’s a hugely important player for us. He shares the same ambition for the club as I do and he’s really looking forward to the new campaign. It’s flattering that other clubs are interested in our player but he’s going nowhere.”

So there you have it. QPR have sold their reigning Player of the Season for the last two summers but don’t need to do that any more and we can look forward to a season of Rowly in Hoops – minus the first three games of course after his harsh sending off against West Brom on the last day of last season.

That’s fantastic news. Rowlands’ energy in midfield, his range of passing, his goals frm deep positions, his penalty taking and his attitude make him everything you want from a player in your side, everything you want from your captain. He deserves a chance in the top flight, I’d dearly love to see him do it with us. It would be good to have a constant from the dark days in the team as the new regime hopefully ushers in a new era.

It’s amazing to think having said that, and having watched Rowlands over the last 12 months, that this time last year many people, myself included, were questioning just what the future held for the former Brentford man. Player of the Year and top goal scorer from right and left wing in his first season with the R’s he struggled to adapt to the Championship for the first three seasons, mainly because he couldn’t stay fit for any length of time. He missed pre season campaigns and three month chunks of the season with alarming frequency as he was troubled by calf and hamstring injuries. Last season was the first time he’s played more than 35 games since we were in the lower league – his 45 starts more than he’d managed in the previous two campaigns put together. For that reason I said last summer, and I wasn’t alone, that if he couldn’t rid himself of the injuries and have a good season in 2007/08 he may well not have much of a future at the club.

Thankfully he came through the entire season unscatched, and a switch to the middle of midfield in a free-flowing passing style of football under Luigi De Canio suited him down to the ground. If he can repeat the form of last season there won’t be a central midfielder in the competition next season that can get near him. I certainly wouldn’t swap him for anybody else at our level and if we can pair him with Ben Watson of Palace as has been suggested then that’s the best midfield pairing in the division right there as far as I’m concerned.

A word of warning though – Rowlands is already set to miss the first three games, and has spent the summer so far recovering from an ankle injury that ruled him out of a Republic of Ireland comeback in May. That was a blow to him as Ireland are criminally short of quality players in his position but it also raises concerns about his fitness again. Fingers crossed he can recover, Dowie says he’s back in training this week, and get back in the team for the Doncaster home game in August because he’s a player to admire and a captain to be proud of.

Like a sieve
I've got to say, I really like our new home shirt. I know it's fashionable among QPR fans to be miserable about everything, and normally I do the job really well, but the new home shirt looks the business as far as I'm concerned and despite promising my bank manager I wouldn't be shelling out the extortionate rates clubs demand for such garments again this season I have to say I may well be tempted. If I get Leigertwood's name on the back as well I'll be back into my overdraft.

I'm not sure what my now sadly departed Grandad would have made of the Arabic writing on the front, this the man who once infamously walked past a Delicatessen and said "what a funny name for a pub, The Delicate Susan", but as long as it doesn't say "death to the infidels" as some message board wits have suggested I'm sure we'll cope. The colours of our new lucrative sponsors actualy blend quite nicely with the rest of the shirt and certainly the profile of Gulf Air and the money they're putting in, said to be as much as £7m over three seasons, adds to the club's growing image and bank balance. Amazing to think that just five seasons ago we were taking less than £100k from JD Sports to sponsor our home and away kits for an entire season.

I must confess I have had a few more days to get used to the new shirt than most. I was sent pictures on Monday last week, four days before the official unveiling, from a friend in the Middle East where the publicity shots with local children were taken. Of course looking back I probably should have splashed them on here, scooped everybody and taken the added traffic it would have brought. But knowing, as I do, that those at the top end of the club are annoyed by the way information leaks out of Loftus Road and would like to put a stop to it as much as they can I decided to hang on rather than antagonise them further. In the end somebody else got hold of them on Wednesday and posted them around the message boards and I felt like an opportunity had been missed. That'll learn me, as they say in Grimsby.

The fact is QPR still leaks like a sieve. The new badge was discovered a month before the new owners wanted it to be, now this has happened with the kits and the message boards are chock full of the rumour and innuendo that seeps out of Loftus Road on a daily basis.

Sneek previews of badges, kits and transfer targets are pretty harmless as far as I'm concerned - and it happens at every club in the world. Nobody will ever stop it altogether unless they sack everybody that works at Loftus Road and run the club as a one man operation from a darkened room in Lapland. The club may well just have to get used to it. However there was a small article on another QPR site this week regarding information leaking out of the club that I only hope was a joke or banter gone wrong. If not it was somewhat concerning.

Everybody has a thought or a theory on where this kind of thing comes from. It will be interesting to see how those at the club that would like it to stop go about making that happen.