QPR have signed veteran defender Paul Konchesky on loan from Leicester City for the season to cover for an injury crisis at left back.
The 34-year-old left back was most recently with Leicester with whom he made 155 appearances and scored five goals after joining for an undisclosed fee from Liverpool in July 2011. He won the Championship title with the Foxes in 2014, and made 29 appearances in the top flight last season — picking up two red cards in the process — but has been told this summer by new manager Claudio Ranieri to look for another club.
He enjoyed a good career through his 20s. West Ham bought him from Charlton for £1.5m and he played in an FA Cup Final for Alan Pardew’s side before moving to Fulham for £2m. While there, under Roy Hodgson, he played in the Europa League final against Atletico Madrid. Both matches ended in defeat — Konchesky scored in the FA Cup final but missed a penalty in the shoot-out after a 3-3 draw.
Hodgson saw enough in Konchesky to take him to Liverpool for £3m when he got the job at Anfield. Sadly, amidst the downfall of the Hicks and Gillette reign there, Hodgson crashed and burned and Konchesky was one of the prime targets for fans’ ire. He was loaned to Nottingham Forest, and then sold to Leicester.
He has 15 England Under 21 caps, two senior caps and will wear squad number 15 at QPR. His signing has been necessitated by injuries to QPR’s three senior left backs — Armand Traore, Yun Suk-Young and Jack Robinson.
"I’m really pleased we’ve managed to get Paul in ahead of Saturday. Left-back is an area we’re light on in terms of numbers at the moment owing to a couple of injuries, so Paul will come in and compete for the shirt immediately. He’s got years of experience playing in both the Premier League and the Championship and he’ll come in and add that knowledge and know-how, as well as his undoubted defensive qualities, to the group.” - Chris Ramsey
"Paul is a proven performer, year on year, with a wealth of experience. He’s always been a physically fit player — his stats back that up — and the fact he played 29 times for Leicester last season shows he’s very much up for the challenge that lies in wait this season. We’re delighted to welcome him into the squad at a time when Yun and Armand are both sidelined through injury. He’ll add great competition to our defensive options.” - Les Ferdinand
"Fantastic signing, well done QPR. Can't be soft in this league. Green, Konchesky, Perch, Onohua, Hill......I like it, I like it a lot.” - FreddieEddie
"Really? I think he's rubbish. Inconsistent and loves a hospital backpass. I suppose he's experienced, and it's an area we're short in, but still... Just told two Fulham and Leicester supporting mates and they both think he's dreadful as well.” DevonWhite
"I look at more as a loan move, not a waste of money, another back up which we need, and possibly a good bit of influence of Kwepkwa and Yun when/if needed. Sensible.” - Rangers4Ever
QPR want to be better run. Or, at least, they say they do. They have realised that throwing money at big name players is bringing neither results on the field, nor on the balance sheet. QPR don’t want to be the laughing stock, they don’t want to be the club everybody hates, they don’t want to be the place every agent comes to offload his overrated clients looking for easy money, they don’t want to be held up as an example of everything that’s wrong with football, they don’t want to be the club that hasn’t graduated a youth team player to its senior side for 15 years, they don’t want to keep throwing good money after bad. Les Ferdinand, Chris Ramsey and Lee Hoos have all been appointed to their current positions at QPR to stop the club being what it has been for the past few years.
QPR, apparently, want to be that club that scouts lower leagues and abroad for gifted young players who have slipped below the radar. They want to be the club that picks of Tjarron Chery for £2m one summer and sell him for £8m the next. They want to be a place parents bring their excellent young boys to play their football knowing there’s a genuine pathway to the first team. They want to go to Swindon and pay Massimo Luongo and Ben Gladwin and give them their chance. They want to take a punt on Seb Polter. They want to give Reece Grego Cox first team football if that’s what his performances in the youth and reserve ranks deserves.
But there are harsh realities to QPR’s situation as well — realities they weren’t even close to being exposed to last time they were relegated. Two years ago Harry Redknapp couldn’t stop telling everybody about how difficult it was going to be in the Championship because of the amount of players he’d had to move on. Esteban Granero and Loic Remy loaned out, Chris Samba back to Russia, woe is me, life is so hard. When Redknapp decided he was short of a left back — he wasn’t, he had Yun Suk-Young, but he never picked him — he was allowed to go out and get Benoit Assou-Ekotto on loan for the year from Spurs. Assou-Ekotto was rich, and getting richer — a full Cameroon international, a Premier League regular on a Premier League regular’s money, and only 28-years-old. He spent £4m on Charlie Austin, £4m on Matt Phillips and when the accounts came out for the 2013/14 season they showed Rangers had played a Championship season nursing a wage bill of £77m. The subsequent Financial Fair Play implications are still mired in legal red tape.
That isn’t how a normal relegated club behaves, and it seems it’s not how QPR are able to behave this summer. However deep the pockets of the club’s Malaysian owners are, nobody is going to stomach £200m losses every four years for no return unless they’re absolutely stark raving mad. Do QPR want to loan Steven Caulker to Southampton, leaving only Clint Hill and Nedum Onuoha as recognised senior centre backs? No. Do they want to loan Leroy Fer to Sunderland? No. Do they want to sell Charlie Austin two hours before the transfer deadline when West Ham or Newcastle inevitably come in with less than the asking price and the player says he wants to go? No. These are the realities of the situation.
Do they want to sign Paul Konchesky on loan for the season? I suspect not. They’d rather Yun Suk-Young or Jack Robinson weren’t injured, first and foremost, or that Cole Kpekawa was capable of stepping up and playing regularly to cover them — but they are and he’s not. They wish they could find a Luongo equivalent to sign and play at left back, but these talented young players available now for less than £1m aren’t forming an orderly queue around Batman Close.
Similar problems finding a suitable candidate are hindering the team at centre half and centre forward. "It’s not rocket science” is something I’ve seen on Twitter and message boards over the past seven days when people come to talk about needing to buy a centre forward. Maybe not, but you can’t nip over the road to the Spar shop and pick up your standard 20-goal-a-season Championship striker whenever it suits you. Even when Harry Redknapp tried to do that he only came back with Mobido Maiga and Will Keane.
Konchesky was steady in his prime and little more, he’s been in decline for some time and was rated as a weak link in the Leicester team. But he’s experienced, he’s available and he’s ready to play, so here he is.
Assou Ekotto didn’t work out — quite the opposite in fact, he cost the team goals regularly and made it patently obvious he didn’t give a shit about what he was doing. Konchesky’s signing shows the new restrictions placed on the club — which are relatively nothing compared to others in the division — every bit as much as Assou Ekotto’s highlighted the approach last time. Hopefully they will also have opposite effects on the pitch.
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