The £2.3m acquisition of Dutch midfielder Tjaronn Chery from Groningen offers clues to what Chris Ramsey and Les Ferdinand’s QPR side will look like, and continues several key trends of the summer transfer window so far.
He came through the ranks at FC Twente, winning the Dutch youth championship and reserve league in the process, but initially found progress into the first team difficult due to his slight stature after making his debut at 20.
He spent time on loan with SC Cambuur and RBC Roosendaal in the lower leagues before being offloaded to FC Emmen in the second tier in 2010. ADO Den Haag brought him back to the Eredivisie in 2011 and were rewarded with 13 goals in 74 appearances.
He moved onto FC Groningen two years ago, initially on loan before completing a permanent €800,000 transfer. He hit his straps last season with 15 goals in 34 appearances from midfield culminating in a starring performance as Groningen won the Dutch cup final. No other Eredivisie midfielder scored more last season.
He’s a free kick specialist, and scored four from 27 attempts last season, a conversion rate of 14.81% and the fourth best in Europe.
Chery was named in the Netherlands squad for the first time at the end of the season ahead of the summer friendlies and European Championship qualifiers. In doing so he became the first FC Groningen player to make the national team squad since 1990 — Arjen Robben had to move to PSV before he was recognised at international level.
This time last year he scored twice in the first seven minutes of a friendly against Aston Villa as the Premier League side was whitewashed 4-1. Villa were said to be leading the chase for Chery’s signature this summer, ahead of the likes of Napoli and Lazio, but Chery has today signed a three-year contract at Loftus Road and moved for a fee in the region of £2.3m.
In doing so he leaves the Dutch cup holders and Eredivisie outfit as they prepare for a Europa League campaign, to play instead in the Championship with freshly-relegated QPR. Welcome to Loftus Road you mad head.
"Playing in England has always been a dream of mine and having spoken to Leroy (Fer), he said that QPR is a good fit for me. I know the passion of the English fans and how they like to see football played and I can’t wait to show what I can do here. It’s a really exciting move for me in the best years of my career.” -Tjaronn Chery
"Tjaronn is a very good technician, a fine player. He can play in a variety of positions in the top half of the field and will bring more pace to our squad, which is something I knew we needed after last season. We’ve had him watched at length and we’re really happy we’ve got him on board with a few weeks to go until the start of the season.” -Chris Ramsey
"Chery is a typical Dutch playmaker with quick feet, good dribbles and a fierce striker of the ball. He is a good goal scorer and a set-piece specialist. However, it should be noted that there seems to be a lot of mixed opinions about how good Chery really is. The view of many may vary, but I am quite convinced that Chery has the quality to play admirably in a mid-table English, German or Spanish club. It must be said also that there is a strong case for Chery to be given a call by Guus Hiddink. Wesley Sneijder could do with a decent goal scoring backup. I would however, agree with many other fans that players such as Adam Maher, Hakim Ziyech, Davy Klaassen and Georginio Wijnaldum seem to be the most likely candidates for the number 10 position in the near future. But if Chery makes the move to a big European league and turns on the style successfully, we could see him eclipse the likes of Davy Klaassen, Hakim Ziyech, Adam Maher, Jonathan De Guzman and even Ibrahim Afellay, for the back-up number 10 position in the Oranje. -Rio Rogers, TotalDutchFootball.com
20 - Five players had 20+ goals/assists in the Eredivisie in 2014/15. Select. pic.twitter.com/pie139RJ1Z– OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) May 17, 2015
"To finish a season training with the nation’s top players is a massive step forward considering that just months prior, he was willing to move to Al Ahli to get a bigger pay-check. In less than a year, the 27-year-old has re-ignited his footballing dreams after making peace with the fact that his main target should be ensuring financial stability.
"A switch in tactics in early 2014 unearthed the better in the suave playmaker. In a style more based on transition and pace, Chery started to develop more as a midfielder, aided by Filip Kostic and Richairo Zivkovic as thankful outlets for the rangy passing of the, by now, fulcrum of FC Groningen’s attack. As the season progressed, Groningen hit a hot streak with Chery as the main inspiration. They won their last nine games, with the creative star scoring five goals in that run, ensuring qualification for the Europa League in the process.
"To everybody’s surprise, he was still at Groningen come the beginning of the new season. And without his two favourite tools in Kostic and Zivkovic, 2014-15 could well have turned out to be a difficult one for him However, not only had Kostic and Zivkovic progressed, but by the time the Eredivisie kicked off again, FC Groningen seemed to have a bonafide class player in their midst in Chery. The ability to dribble was always there, his vision was undisputed, his shot a weapon, but soon it would turn out that Tjaronn was a more focused, physically stronger version of himself compared to the previous season.
"A first glimpse of his new found level was shown against Ajax. Facing the likes of Davy Klaassen and Thulani Serero on the opposite side, there was no question that Chery was the best midfielder on the pitch, elevating himself to another level than any other player out there. The Euroborg star set up both goals for Groningen as they went on to beat the reigning champion 2-0 and, whereas in previous years he had peaks followed by troughs, he continued on a good level in the months following.
"The vision to continually read the play, hardly ever being caught out in possession and the ability to accelerate play was recognised.One of the weak points in previous years had turned into one of his strengths, as Chery was now a physically full-grown midfielder with great stamina.” - Michiel Jongsma, Benefoot.net
@MarkOHaire @James_Fielden @IJTaylor81 I've actually seen almost all of his games the last few years, he's a wonderful player.– Michiel Jongsma (@JongsmaJongsma) July 20, 2015
@MarkOHaire @James_Fielden @IJTaylor81 And thrives under high tempo, as he reads the game very well. Should be a sensation.– Michiel Jongsma (@JongsmaJongsma) July 20, 2015
Firstly, and most basically, Chris Ramsey is addressing the fundamental problem QPR had last season with an ageing squad that simply couldn’t get around the pitch. He’s signing mobile players, and bringing the average age of the side down. As respected Dutch football blogger and Groningen regular Michiel Jongsma said on Twitter tonight, Chery thrives when the game is played at a high tempo. That’s in stark contrast to anything Rangers had at their disposal last season and should mean he doesn’t fall victim to the usual problem central European players find when they come to play in England where the sheer weight of fixtures, and the kick and rush style, is all too much — particularly during and after Christmas when they’re used to a winter break.
Secondly, Ramsey is looking for technical players as well as athletic ones. He knows his team needs legs, but he’s looking for technicians. There is always a risk that QPR are actually coaching their players to belt every attacking free kick straight into the middle of the defensive wall, and will subsequently drag Chery down to their level, but he had the fourth best conversion rate for direct free kicks in Europe last season and that’s in stark contrast to the drek served up at Loftus Road where all but two of the free kicks we were awarded within sight of goal last year were totally wasted.
Thirdly, Ramsey seems to have a thing for late bloomers, players who have perhaps been rejected elsewhere, or players in need of a second chance. Jay Emmanuel Thomas had a huge reputation but ended up in League One after failed stints with Cardiff and Ipswich, Gladwin was rejected by Reading and went into non-league, Luongo was sold cheaply by Spurs to Swindon Town, Mackie failed at Forest and so on and so forth. Chery has had a spectacular season with Groningen, but was previously bumped off into the lower Dutch leagues after being released by Twente because he lacked the physical strength for the highest level — it’s only now at 27 that he’s coming good.
It could be a risky strategy, they were all presumably shifted on for valid reasons, but what it does do is build a loyalty to the manager who gave them their second chance. More valuably given what has happened at Loftus Road over the last four years it gives you players who see playing for the club as a big deal, as a good move for them, and players who have seen the harder side of the game and are now grateful for what they have. It should, in theory, foster a much more harmonious, committed, hardworking dressing room.
And fourthly Ramsey, Les Ferdinand and the new look QPR really seem to be playing the numbers game. We’re not quite at Billy Beane, or even Matthew Benham, levels just yet but QPR are clearly crunching the stats, analysing the numbers and scouting Europe for those ‘Moneyball’ players who are available for a fraction of their actual worth to the team. Journalist Dave McIntyre, away with the QPR first team in Italy last week, said Chery was "porn” to the statisticians and video analysts who lock themselves away with videos of obscure Dutch football matches and spreadsheets all day everyday. It certainly makes a change from dusting off the client logs at Willie McKay’s or Kia Joorabchian’s at ten minutes to deadline to see whatever overpriced toad can be brought in at huge expense.
There are caveats and warning signs which perhaps, if we’re picking over the ashes of another train wreck come next May, we’ll say should have been heeded at the time. Some of those are merely paranoia brought on by the failings of previous regimes at QPR. Reading about Chery’s career, watching him in action, reading his stats… it all seems rather too good to be true to be getting a 27 year old with all this going for him for less than £3m. Whenever I’ve written the words "too good to be true” in signing articles for LFW before — Esteban Granero, Julio Cesar — it’s quickly turned into an unmitigated disaster.
Les Ferdinand says that Chery, and Luongo, turned down offers from Premier League clubs to come here. While most clubs would see that as a coup, at QPR I’ve come to worry about players who would rather play at Loftus Road and train on the Imperial College’s rented sports ground out at Heathrow than go to Aston Villa or Newcastle or Southampton or somewhere of that ilk. It makes me suspicious that we’re still paying massively over the odds in wages. While Filip Kostic and Richairo Zivkovic both got career furthering moves from Groningen last summer, Chery spent time trying to negotiate a mega-bucks deal with Al Ahli in the lucrative, but completely uncompetitive, Middle Eastern leagues. Why would a player who’s just broken into the Dutch national squad for the first time move out of the Netherlands and turn down interest from the likes of Napoli to play second division football in the UK?
Then there’s the concern about the hit and miss nature of players signed from the Dutch Eredivisie. Similar to buying players from Scotland, the step up is often too much to bear for players — although it’s a step up in pace and physicality, rather than quality and technique when they’re coming from the Netherlands. Alfonso Alves is the oft-touted example following his £12m move to Middlesbrough, which gives us a chance to give the "worst Brazilian since David Blunkett tried to shave his wife’s pubic hair” joke another airing if nothing else.
We’re told he struggled to make an impact through his younger years because of his slight physical stature. It’s not a Tuesday night, but we do have the obligatory cold afternoon in Rotherham on our schedule this year — will he cope?
So much hangs on departures still to come: keep Austin, Leroy Fer and Matt Phillips and Rangers have a wonderful looking side for the second tier; lose more than one of them and we’re shot on quality and goals. But overall Ramsey and Ferdinand — and it is very much a joint-manager type set up at Loftus Road at the moment — seem to be building an exciting QPR team for this season. One with skilful, physical, technical, quick, attack-minded players. Plenty of work still to do but it’s been a bold, exciting start to the new era.
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