Dexter Blackstock will become a Nottingham Forest player in the next 24 hours after QPR confirmed they had agreed a fee with the Midlands club.
The news comes as no surprise at the end of weeks of speculation about the striker's future. Blackstock did not travel to Slovenia with the rest of the QPR players, instead staing in the UK to discuss terms over a permanent switch to the City Ground.
Blackstock, who scored two goals in six appearances for Forest on loan last season, was in Nottingham for a medical yesterday and having passed that and agreed personal terms he is now set to complete the switch for a fee in the region of £1.6m on a four year contract.
The move is proving to be a controversial topic among QPR fans with people split on whether it is a good or bad thing. Blackstock has been the QPR top scorer for two of his three full seasons here and scored 12 goals last year before being shipped out to Forest on loan for the closing six weeks of the campaign - manager at the time paulo Sousa said that was done by the board without his consent or knowledge. Blackstock's contract was due to expire next summer after the offer of a proposed extension was withdrawn by the club before Christmas 2008. Once again, as with Lee Camp and Damien Delaney, it seems that players not rated or liked by chairman Flavio Briatore will quickly be moved out of Loftus Road whether Jim Magilton wants them or not.
Only last week Magilton said: "As I see it, Dexter's a QPR player and you haven't heard anything from me to reverse that situation. I'm sure if an offer came in for any player at any club the length and breadth of the country, the board would always consider it. But at the moment there hasn't been any offer. Dexter's applied himself terrifically well. I've absolutely no problem with him or any of the other players being here and, as long as they keep applying themselves in the same manner, there won't be any problem.”
The most pressing question is that of Blackstock's replacement. The club is yet to bring in adequate cover for Delaney or Camp following their departures and QPR were already criminally short of quality up front before this move. Alessandro Pellicori is expected to sign a permanent deal with Rangers shortly but his strengths seem to lie in hold up play and target man roles rather than scoring goals. Yesterday's link to DJ Campbell would make more sense as a direct replacement, with the Leicester player likely to be available for around half the amount Rangers have received for Blackstock.
The move takes Forest's summer spending so far to just shy of £5.5m with Brighton's Joel Lynch expected to sign today and boost that further. They have added Southampton's David McGoldrick and Bristol City's Dele Adebola to an attack that already included Nathan Tyson, Robert Earnshaw and Joe Garner - not bad going for a team that scored eight more goals than QPR last season.