On Friday QPR secured the signing of Blackpool winger Matt Phillips for a fee said to be as high as £5m.
Aylesbury-born Scottish international Matt Phillips started his footballing career at Wycombe Wanderers who scouted him as an eight-year-old at a local five-a-side tournament and added him to the centre of excellence roster. He worked his way through the ranks at Adams Park before eventually making a first team debut in 2008, aged 17, as a substitute in a 1-0 setback against Notts County. His full debut followed a week later in a home win against Bradford where he was named the sponsors’ man of the match.
In the summer of 2008 he signed his first professional contract with the club and the 2008/09 season proved to be a breakout year for him. He scored his first Wycombe goal in a 4-1 FA Cup win against Wimbledon and followed it up with one in the league away at Aldershot. He became a regular in Gary Waddock’s team, playing either left or right wing as circumstances dictated, and by the end of the season had a clutch of medals to begin his collection. As well as Wycombe winning promotion from League Two, Phillips won both the club’s Young Player of the Year awards and the League Two Apprentice of the Year prize at the annual Football League dinner.
Although Wycombe struggled at the higher level, and were eventually relegated back to the bottom division, Phillips proved a natural, again impressing on both flanks. His form had not gone unnoticed and Premier League new boys Blackpool paid £350,000, potentially rising as high as £700,000, for his services right at the end of the summer transfer window in 2010. He left Wycombe with 147 appearances (42 from the bench) and nine goals to his name.
Blackpool became everybody’s second favourite team that year, attacking the Premier League with scant regard for the defending required at the other end. They were wonderfully entertaining and totally attack orientated, which suited a fleet footed winger like Phillips. In only his third full season as a professional he played 28 times in the top division, scoring on his debut with his first touch as a late substitute in a home defeat by Blackburn.
Sadly the Tangerines were relegated at the end of their first season in the top flight, and things went rather stale for Phillips as well. Unable to push his way through and gain regular first team football, with Tom Ince now ahead of him in the pecking order, it took a loan spell at Sheffield United to reignite his career. He scored six times in six matches for the Blades in League Two, including two goal hauls against Exeter and Preston, which was enough for him to go back to Blackpool and regain his place in the team. The goal scoring touch was back; over Christmas he scored two hat tricks in four games, the first in the league against Barnsley on Boxing Day, the second in the FA Cup against near neighbours Fleetwood. Two goals followed in an impressive 3-1 away win at Cardiff, the Welsh side subsequently had an £800,000 bid for his services rejected. By the end of the season he’d played in the Championship play-off final against West Ham and was a full international, starting for Scotland — for whom he qualifies through his grandparents despite playing for England Under 19s and Under 20s - in a 5-1 defeat to the USA.
Interest in him was now sky high. Southampton, newly promoted to the top flight, offered a reported £5m for his services, and when Pool turned that down the winger submitted a transfer request. That was refused, and he was left out of the opening game of 2012/13 against Millwall. Manager Ian Holloway said: "The lad is very disappointed and very stubborn. I just want to keep the players I have here now," added Holloway. What we do we do together. He has handed in a transfer request but that means nothing. They have offered £5m but we don't need the money. So what can they do? The player is on a contract and he's signed it."
Phillips was restored to the starting line up for the opening home game of the league season and scored in a 2-1 success against Leeds. In all he made a further 35 appearances for Blackpool that season, and one for Scotland against Belgium in World Cup qualifying, scoring four times including one on the final day of the season at Bolton in a 2-2 draw.
Phillips, still only 22 and surprisingly tall for a winger at 6 ft 1ins, began pre-season training with Pol again this summer but broke his arm in a training ground accident and had to have surgery. That injury, meaning a lack of pre-season training and any action on the field since May, has potentially allowed QPR to sneak in and nab him ahead of other suitors. Rangers have paid an undisclosed fee, reported as high as £5m, and handed him a four year contract. He will wear the number seven shirt recently vacated by Park Ji-Sung.
"The direction in which the club is heading, with the signings that have already been made this summer, it seems like the perfect time to come here. We all know what Harry Redknapp is about and personally I can’t wait to play for him. I’ve had a taste of the Premier League and nothing would please me more than to help get QPR back into the top flight.” -Matt Phillips
"Matt’s got a big, big future ahead of him in the game, so we’re delighted we’ve been able to get him here. I like having wingers in my teams and he’s very direct. He can take people on and make things happen. He’s quick, he gets at people, he can make goals and he can score goals.He gets people off their seats and that's what you want to see as a supporter. He’s a really exciting signing for us.” -Harry Redknapp
Versatile, young, wants to prove himself,known to be a good player. Think long term this could be the best signing in years if it comes off. Even a blind man with unlimited darts will hit the bulls-eye occasionally. -Phildo
This is an excellent signing, I saw him when he made his debut for Wycombe & quite a few times after, always impressed me with his pace & work rate. My son was gutted when he left Wycombe, at least they will now get a % of the money we paid for him. - -HoopNo7
I've been extremely critical of our transfer policy this summer, with too many stop gaps and short term solutions targeted. But this one and Charlie Austin are along much better lines. Players who are clearly talented, young, room to develop and might actually make us some money down the road too. We have a decent record if signings from Blackpool too. Have to admit, haven't seen lots of Phillips, but what I've seen I've liked. Seems slightly surprising Olly didn't go for him, mind. Or maybe he did! This is much more like it, though. Signings like this are always welcome, although guess we won't be seeing him play for a few weeks... - Antti Heinola
Blackpool supporting friend of mine describes him as good player, pacey tricky winger, decent crosser, OK goal scorer. Down sides - doesn't track back and got a big head (angled repeatedly for a move). - BathRanger
Are Arsenal in crisis this week or not? It really is hard to keep track these days. A 3-1 home defeat by Aston Villa on day one, where the Gunners admittedly played poorly but were nevertheless on the end of some rough refereeing decisions, almost brought about the total collapse of the club if you believe the over-reaction afterwards. Since then it’s gone completely over the top in the other direction, with two victories against poor Fenerbahce and Fulham sides apparently proving that Arsene Wenger still has the magic touch after all.
The truth, as ever, probably lies somewhere between the two. It’s impossible to deny that Arsenal are in a very steady decline — from a team boasting the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry that was capable of going through an entire season unbeaten to the one we see before us today entering a ninth trophy-less year.
Perhaps the main reason for that could be found in amongst the free-for-all the Villa defeat sparked. The suggestion that Arsenal were going to react to that defeat, and growing pressure from supporters who pay the country’s highest ticket prices, by spending £35m on the Swansea duo of Ashley Williams and Michu shows the difference between old and new Arsenal. The story, like 99% of the stuff published as "news” during a transfer window, is more than likely a load of rubbish but ten years ago it would have been so far fetched even a rag like the Daily Mail wouldn’t have dared to print it.
A decade or more ago Arsenal would have been the ones buying Michu when Swansea did — spending £1.7m on a player few people had ever heard of from Rayo Vallecano and then reaping the rewards as he marauds around in that space between Premier League defences and midfields that only he seems to find. Arsenal used to do things like sign Nicolas Anelka for £500,000 from Paris SG and Patrick Vieira from AC Milan’s reserves for £3.5m. Now they’re trying tricks like offering £40m plus a pound to activate Luis Suarez’s release clause only to find that there are deeper pockets and more ruthless sharks than them in that big money market.
A similar thing has gone on at QPR over the last 20 years. QPR, like Arsenal, used to be masters of buying low and then selling high at exactly the right time. They used to go to Brentford and sign Andy Sinton for £350,000, then sell him a few years later for £2.3m and reinvest £600,000 in Blackpool’s Trevor Sinclair. They picked up Darren Peacock from Hereford and sold him for a big profit to Newcastle, and did likewise with Les Ferdinand from Hayes. That is how clubs outside the big five or six in this country need to operate to survive — scout the places others aren’t looking, root out the hidden gems, polish them up, cash in, start the process again.
Rangers went away from that when Chris Wright’s money arrived. Suddenly, despite being a division lower, QPR started spending Premier League money and wages on players like John Spencer and Mike Sheron. It was only when that policy led to financial collapse that they returned to the old model and, what do you know, they finished higher in 1999/00 than any of the previous three seasons with a side including the likes of Rob Steiner, Jermaine Darlington and Stuart Wardley who all cost a measly few thousand quid each. Peter Crouch, signed for £60,000 from Spurs’ reserves and, even with the administrators calling the shots, sold for £1.5m a year later. That’s what QPR should be doing. They went away from the model again when first Flavio Briatore and later Tony Fernandes owned the club — the results of which were seen in all their glory last season.
The signing of Matt Phillips represents a bit of old and new QPR. He’s young, with lots to prove and a lot of potential sell on value — which can’t be said of many of their recent signings. But if Rangers had been doing their job properly, they should have had him several years ago for a tenth of what he has cost the R’s this summer. Phillips was with Wycombe from the age of eight. QPR have more connections to Wycombe than most lower league clubs with John Gregory, Gary Waddock and Gareth Ainsworth all managing there; several QPR youth team graduates including Michael Harriman, Bruno Andrade and Angelo Balanta spending time on loan there; and regular summer pre-season friendlies. Somebody at QPR was surely aware of Phillips, who won the League Two Apprentice of the Year award while at Adams Park.
And yet it was Blackpool, some 200 miles away up north, who scouted the player and picked him up for an initial £350,000. Pool, and their notoriously tight chairman Karl Oyston, will relish the thought of that sort of scouting making them a handsome profit this week with QPR, who’ve given up scouting in favour of signing ‘names’ again in recent years, having to pay through the nose to get a player they could have had a long time ago for much less. Blackpool were a Premier League club when they bought Phillips initially, making them more attractive than Championship QPR, but Rangers should have been in long before that and even had they gone head to head with Pool money could well have swung it their way — Rangers pay handsomely, Pool not so much.
Never mind, he’s here now, and with pace and creativity the only two genuine problems for Rangers so far in an excellent start to the Championship season he looks like an exciting, well timed addition.
Tweet @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images