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Dykes turned 25 on October 7, four games into the season. Kone is 23 this July. Come on man. They're at different stages. Kone is 22 this season, Dykes was 25.
Dykes got 12 goals in his first season playing for a QPR that finished 9th, with Willock, Chair, Johanson and for four months BOS providing assists. He started the season poorly, neither he nor Bonne could score, so we signed Austen to help them out. That team would beat the QPR we're fielding in 2026 every time. We'll never know for sure, but I reckon Kone scores 15-20 in it.
Look, time will tell. We'll know more when he's 25, I guess. But now he's the only striker we have, who's been available every week, and is now playing with absolutely no service from out wide or through the middle in a dogsht team with zero confidence or know-how. I don't see the value in slagging him off.
On today's excellent West London Sport, it was interesting to hear David Mc say that a "year two Richard Kone could well score 20 goals" and that even though he's younger than Cook or Dunne, he should be part of a leadership group.
I think this career path, while not guaranteed, is more likely than Lyndon Dykes's.
Dykes came to QPR when he was 25 having never hit double figures in a season in three seasons in the weak Scottish Championship nor his one season in the Scots Prem. Since then, he has only once hit double figures, for us, in 2020. During his 25 appearances for the free-scoring L1 title winners, he scored once.
Lyndon Dykes is now 30. Richard Kone is 22.
This is Richard Kone's third season as a professional footballer. In his second season, playing for Wycombe in L1, he scored 18 goals from 40 games (the same season Dykes scored once for a better team in 25).
Let's revisit their careers when Kone is 30. But if Dykes was really as good as Kone is now while playing 40 games and scoring 4 times for Livingstone at the same age then, wow.
I've said this before, but Sam Field was being offered to other Championship clubs before Stephan joined. It's game model biz, which has nothing to do with the coach.
We have Stephan because he's a guy who can accept whichever player is given. Many coaches wouldn't. Who'd accept being told who his number 1 is, for example?
When Dave Mc asked Stephan if he was picking the team, there was outrage, particularly on X. Dave Mc was not trolling. That's not him. He was getting that on the record because he also knows the parameters that the QPR coach must operate within under the current administration.
"Ripping everything up" would be less apocalyptic than you imagine. It would be healing. And better than going again like this next season. Bu most of it, the uneven squad, the lovely training ground, the players we spent far more on than they're currently worth...that all stays. Hopefully everything is managed more sensibly, with less insane narcissism and we can resurface sooner.
I think it's too easy to say "it's all been terrible for a decade, it's all the same thing."
On the pitch, yes, it has mostly been meh. Really, though, we could and should've done a Sheffield Weds.
When Les Ferdinand was appointed DOF in Feb 2015, QPR were about to be relegated, rock bottom of PL, with several players on £50k a week, including the likes of Sandro, who had no resale value nor intention of contributing to QPR. The wage to turnover was 198%, the highest in football. QPR were also about to be given a world record fine and potential embargo with a squad of over-paid and old losers. Meanwhile, the club trained in L1 standard rented facilities on different sites for each age group...
When he left - which it was time for after sacking Warburton so disastrously - the wages to turnover had reduced by over 100%, to 92%. We'd sold several youth graduates for actual money for the first time in decades, including the club record fee. We also owned our own top-of-the-range new training facilities.
QPR of 2024 was a blank slate. A totally different club. Its most healthy in many ways in a long time. Nourry got the keys to an entirely different vehicle, with finally some playing investment available. At the moment it looks like he's driven that into a ditch.
That's on him and whoever appointed him. It definitely didn't need to be like this.
...but if they lose at Leicester and bin Stephan as I suspect they may have to just to throw some meat to the mob, they could do worse than give the team to a combination of Cook and Betsy for the last eight games (maybe Bould too, if they can coax him into the dugout). I imagine Cook knows better than most what needs fixing and if that was his hamstring, that's his playing season done.
I'd copy and paste this and send it to the board, Ruben, sign it on behalf of LFW. I can't see a word of it that can be contradicted, a suggestion that would not improve QPR 26/27. And 26/27 needs radical improvement because a traumatic season feels in the post right now.
The story was originally that a player would never be in the first team, no? Did this definitely happen? Has the player said so? If the QPR employee took exception to people posting about this on QPR messageboards and there is no proof, it is libel. Though I assume everyone here can prove it happened.
Do you think most fans who are upset about the way QPR are playing and operating at the moment know anything about the canteen story?
My point was: getting annoyed because fans were not "riled up" abut an incident at the training ground that the vast majority have no knowledge of nor were not witness to versus getting upset about matches we are watching live and broadcast on TV is daft.
Because the results and performances happen before our eyes. They are televised. The lies told are happening before our eyes, to our faces and can be contradicted easily by subsequent events.
With the best will in the world, "the bullying of a young player" is an uncorroborated rumour on a messageboard. The player in question has not publicly stated it. The players who witnessed have not publicly stated it. No training ground staff have publicly stated it. If repeated on here in full, with names attached, it would be defamatory and Clive would have to close it down.
So, terrible as the tale is if remotely true - and true does not mean you have a good source for it, it means several corroborated witnesses - most people don't know the rumour. If QPR have 10k season ticket holders, fewer than 100 know about this. They all know the results, they all witness the performances, they hear the dishonesty in interviews.
So that's the difference between being "riled up" about losing 11-0 on aggregate on TV across three games and the rumour on a messageboard. The fans are not the problem.
The "French football agent" whose dad he says played for Bulgaria, who won't reveal his name, or a website for his agency, and who only started posting about QPR in late 2023, always massively enthusiastic about the current plan (and always very down on Sam Field, funnily enough), was first on X straight after the match yesterday...
"Usual headloss from fans after a defeat".
Just amazing chutzpah. Shameless.
QPR have in the last ten days lost:
0-5 0-2 0-4
"Usual headloss from the fans after a defeat".
There's absolutely nothing usual about any of this, least of all the French-Bulgarian football agent who loves QPR's game model and its noble young prince CEO.
Every new detail about the Steve Gallen non-hire is damning. The guy who presided over that should be first out.
Agree with all your points except for the fans being apathetic. It's not 1987 anymore, the only time you will get fans physically mobilising is for an existential crisis, such as administration. And I think that's right. Bad appointments, playing issues, losing runs - not worth marching or banging the doors about, it lessens the impact should something that threatens the club's existence needs protesting.
The fanbase is pretty split anyway, mostly on age demographics. I don't think LFW is a fair reflection of the youth up in Q or R blocks really.
But the sight of the ground emptying on 82 minutes twice in a week (Christian, how about opening that nightclub for fans to stay and dance the night away under The Loft?!) will spell out a similar message loudly enough.
As will threads like these and some of the posts I've seen on X. Probably more potent and targeted than 50 people standing outside chanting about the CEO or some cringe banner.
Those were six very stressful and difficult years between Wright stepping down in 2001 and Briatore buying the club in 2007, often straying into real existential fear. And QPR had far smaller debts and was a much cheaper proposition then.I would not return to those days.
A Championship club will fold in the next decade when the football bubble bursts, and one with so much valuable West London land as its only assets but tens of millions of debt with more accumulated each month is a good bet.
Better off just hoping they hire a new CEO and DOF in the summer.
Nourry bots on X already firing off plenty of 'talk to me about possible Stephan replacements' posts, there's never any suggestion that management setup, squad assembly or, heaven forbid, Nourry may be at fault there...
Finney has just pointed out that Cook's changed his X profile to remove mention of QPR in his bio. Changed the photo from a QPR shot to one playing for Bournemouth.
The whole 'Steve Cook has been rested" official communication is exactly what's wrong with everything coming from the club. It's clearly bullsht. Now revealed as so to the fans, it must have been known as such by the players too.
So, in trying to pointlessly control a narrative, Nourry has hacked off the player and the fans, possibly the coach - who will ever know - and probably sown distrust amongst the squad, because if they treat a former captain and experienced pro like Steve Cook like this, how will they be treated?
Tell us what's happening with Steve Cook, tell us the severity of Madsen's injury, update on Chair's injury, on Burrell...there is clearly no sporting advantage being gained in not doing so, the GDPR bit was a lie as no other club toes that line. Please behave like a professional football club with tens of thousands of paying customers who were there before the current administrators and will be here long after too. Just grow up.
They could've handled this so much better, as with everything recently.
If I was the major shareholder, I'd be calling a meeting with each of my "performance" employees to find out how they explain these performances, ie these people the club list as full time staff:
Physical performance coach Performance scientist Head of Analysis Operation Analyst Performance Therapist Recruitment Analyst Head of Recruitment Director of Sporting Operations Performance Physiotherapist x 2 Analyst Head of Goalkeeping Performance Therapist Head of Methodology Nutritionist Performance logistics & Player Care Lead Individual Development Coach Head of Performance Services (ooh la la!) Head of Integrated Services
Head of Defensive Coaching Head Coach First Team Coach
+ Methodology Lead U17- U21 Academy Methodology Manager Player Pathways Manager
Then, I'd call in the CEO and Chairman to explain why this current set-up is better than that of Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey's of five years ago, which achieved better outcomes with significantly fewer staff members.
Then I'd probably commission a staffing and performance audit, ironically.
Because I reckon Nourry has probably learnt enough on a steep enough curve to make better future decisions, but he needs to have his workload halved and redefined as answerable to a genuine CEO, both of whom communicate regularly with fans as LF/LH used to, even in the toughest moments. At the moment, it's insulting and contemptible.
He signed after a trial, on recommendation of Beale who had worked with him at Liverpool. It was an 18 month contract, not "a four year deal that made him a millionaire".
He played 20+ games. Did well, though suffered a couple of injuries (he'd also been injured at Liverpool - these things stack up).
In July 24 he'd done well enough though to earn another contract. I doubt very much it made him a millionaire or runs for very long. The story is here:
Since then, two experienced, good managers in Cifuentes and Stephan have looked at him and said, 'no'. They've said 'yes' to other younger players. So it's probably on EDB.
Players fall short for all kinds of reasons. Maybe, yes, the club mismanaged him. As you say, wouldn't be the first. But maybe he just fell short of Championship standard and dealt badly with that, maybe his injuries took something away, maybe he's depressed, maybe he's had trouble, maybe he's not in love with the game...
If the club can take EDB from Liverpool and he's failing at Wealdstone, but take Morgan from Spurs and he's in the first team in the same position, I reckon it's up to the players, not the club.
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