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Reply | England
at 10:35 18 May 2026
Depends how you define "performed" - he was great in qualifying when we were sticking six past Andorra or whoever, and rubbish at every major tournament bar his first. He has fewer World Cup goals than John Stones. Wouldn't even make the subs bench for me - Kane, Shearer and Lineker all miles ahead of him.
Also in terms of Seaman - he dropped off horribly and was a complete liability by 2002, but was absolutely immense before then, Euro 96 in particular. Decent argument for having Pickford in ahead of him, but it's definitely between those to for me (though obviously it's Banks going back further) |
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Reply | England
at 19:24 16 May 2026
From my lifetime only, and trying to get the best / most balanced side rather than just the best players:
Seaman
Walker
Ferdinand
Adams
Pearce
Robson
Gazza
Beckham
Scholes
Sterling
Kane [Post edited 16 May 19:24]
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Reply | Team shape 2026/27?
at 16:40 13 May 2026
I feel like the only time in recent years that our formation has been fully aligned with the players at our disposal was when Warburton switched to a 3421, with Barbet knocking his diags about and Chair and Willock causing havoc behind the striker.
Switching to 3 at the back would allow us to get Kone and Burrell on the pitch together, or a striker and various combinations of midget 10s, without immediately leaving us wide open in midfield. Mbengue, Dunne and Edwards at CB gives you a nice mix of pace, aggression and passing. We need to bring in two new fullbacks anyway, so we could prioritise more attacking players within that. Hell, even Esquerdinha might come good in a role with fewer defensive responsibilities.
Might be losing my mind, but it feels like some variation of 352 could potentially solve a lot of issues?
(That said, I completely agree with Clive that the most likely outcome here is that we try something clever and progressive, get absolutely hammered in the first few games trying to be Barcelona, then go very direct / defensive to stem the bleeding. For all the "game model" chat it's very apparent that we seem incapable, under multiple different managers, of doing the attacking and defending bits of the game at the same time.) [Post edited 13 May 16:47]
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Reply | Summer transfer rumours 2026
at 13:33 12 May 2026
Zero chance of this unfortunately. I wouldn't be surprised if Palace did have a clause like that, but it would relate solely to their agreement with Arsenal. Any clauses agreed between us and them will have ceased to apply once Eze left Palace. [Post edited 12 May 13:35]
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Reply | Kolli Off
at 14:49 5 May 2026
Agree with all of this. I've not heard any specific rumours, but even just based on LFW and WLS coverage something's clearly been amiss for a while.
In the club's defence, if a player's decided that their future lies elsewhere or checks out of training then it can be really hard to turn that mindset around.
Of course we'll never know the details, but it reminds me a bit of stuff with Bright Osayi-Samuel and Ryan Manning from a few years ago. We mess up a player's development (Kolli desperately needed a loan but never got one, Manning was on loan when he should have been here, Bright was left on the bench rather than starting) which gradually breeds mistrust, players eventually start acting out, then we're forced to get rid.
For a "development club" this sort of thing happens far too often in my view, with players who could and should have played much bigger roles for us if they'd been treated more productively. |
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Reply | QPR Squad 2026/27
at 14:32 5 May 2026
Disagree with pretty much all of this, sorry.
Mbengue's a loose cannon but he's also our only defender with any pace, and can play across the back four. Going into next season with him as our first-choice RB would be terrifying, but I'd be perfectly happy with him as backup.
Left back's even more of a mess. Esquerdinha's clearly not up to Championship standard yet, but has shown flashes of potential, and who else do we have? Surely we wouldn't be stupid enough to go into next season with him and Larkeche as our first-choice options, in which case I feel like getting him a League One loan and revisiting things in 12 months would be a smarter move than just letting him go.
Saito, Varane and Dembele were all bought for decent money, absolutely no way the club tears up their contracts. All we can do is hope that whatever magic they worked on Madsen rubs off on them, that they get decent pre-seasons, and come back in far better form.
Really don't get the hate for Field and Morrison at all. They wanted first-team football, we couldn't give it to them last season, we've structured the loans so they could come back in the summer now that Hayden and Cook have gone. Both good solid pros, both have shown they can do it at this level, both perfectly solid squad options. |
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Reply | Sent to Coventry (hopefully not again) QPR vs Coventry Match Thread
at 11:50 31 Jan 2026
I think Coventry's slump in form has been a little overstated (they looked good against Norwich despite losing) and ours a little understated (I know we've had loads of injuries but we've been playing really poorly for a while now).
Really hope I'm wrong, but I'm struggling to see anything other than a Cov win today, and would absolutely settle for a point against the league leaders if offered it. JS and the squad are clearly working hard, but it feels like we're still some way off our best.
For me, the main things to look out for are going to be consistency and fitness levels. If we play well for 90 minutes and lose to a better team, then that's still an improvement on recent weeks. Another 45 minutes of dross, and half the team running on fumes after an hour, would be more worrying. |
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Reply | Would a newby be a booby ? Match thread
at 17:58 24 Jan 2026
All of this is perfectly reasonable on one level and I don’t doubt that everyone involved is doing their best but come on. We could have played like 1970-era Brazil in the first half, it doesn’t matter if you end up getting done 3-2 at home because you’ve given away two goals and a red card in stoppage time.
I agree that we ran out of steam, but that in itself isn’t an excuse, and begs the question of *why* fitness levels have been so poor across the squad throughout the season. Every team in the league has to deal with three game weeks, and if we want to compete then we need to do the same. It’s not enough to say “fair enough, we played away on Tuesday” - we should be expecting a team in the top half of the table to do that, and still put in a 90 minute (plus stoppage time) performance on Saturday [Post edited 24 Jan 18:19]
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Reply | Would a newby be a booby ? Match thread
at 17:09 24 Jan 2026
Absolutely gutting. Mbengue’s an idiot but this was a collective failure. We sat way too deep second half, didn’t close down, looked absolutely gassed.
Players clearly lost their heads after the red card but there surely have to be serious questions asked about coaching and fitness: not just the number of injuries but our inability to sustain any kind of tempo for more than 45 minutes at a time.
I know we were good first half but inconsistency over 90 minutes and a lack of match fitness have been persistent issues all season. Whatever we’re doing to correct those problems clearly isn’t working. [Post edited 24 Jan 17:14]
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Reply | January transfer rumours
at 12:35 27 Dec 2025
Feel like we only need one or two, to be honest:
Left back: cover for RND given that Esquerdinha’s gone back to the dev squad, and a first-team replacement if he gets recalled to Sheff Utd
Centre forward: Kone and Burrell are doing well but they need more backup than just Frey and Kolli, particularly now we’re playing two up top
Centre back: replacement for JCS who clearly can’t get fit
Not sure we need another keeper: the situation’s been handled poorly but between Nardi / Walsh / Hamer we’ve got enough to see us through the season.
If there are bargains to be had then great, but I’d rather we use loans to patch up the gaps in the squad and give ourselves more room to manoeuvre in the summer. Handsome Ronnie would be lovely but doubt Saints would let him go cheap, and we’re surely going to be in a stronger negotiating position at the end of the season. |
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Reply | Could we go up.
at 10:57 21 Dec 2025
Anyone thinking it’s an evenly matched league this year should rewatch the “highlights” from Cov and Boro. We’re miles off the standard being set for the automatic promotion places.
Playoffs is a much more reasonable shout - Preston in third and parachute payment clubs hovering around the relegation zone does suggests that it’s a mixed bag this year, and that anyone putting a run of results together will have a decent chance.
At the same time: those parachute clubs are surely going to spend in January, well beyond what we can match, and we’ve got question marks across the squad. No team with a half-fit RND as their only senior left-back has any place talking about promotion I fear.
My hopes for this season are a top-half finish, consistently good football being played, and players developing to a point where we can start thinking about a big money sale or two in the summer, which so far we seem to be broadly on track with. Anything more would be lovely, but I think focusing on it too much would be a bad idea. |
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Reply | ELO theres a big blue nose approaching-birmingham match thread
at 22:13 9 Dec 2025
No disagreement there, definitely big mistake - if it had been Nardi doing it, we’d have been fuming! Just think when the keeper sees it that late it becomes trickier, even if on balance he should still have got a hand to it. |
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Reply | Ashes thread
at 09:59 22 Nov 2025
Saddened but not particularly surprised to wake up and see it all done and dusted. Absolutely braindead stuff from England sadly.
I completely get that Bazball is about freeing players to be positive, and overall I still think it’s a good thing, but there are situations where it surely needs tempering a bit, in favour of some balance and restraint. However talented our batters are, it feels like the mentality to dig in and slowly grind out a total when required isn’t there. We just constantly default to slogging, which either goes brilliantly or falls apart.
Huge missed opportunity here, feels like the match and possibly the entire series have just been thrown away. |
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Reply | Ashes thread
at 16:28 21 Nov 2025
I know it's obvious, but it's really all about whether our batting lineup can step up now and match the bowlers. Huge opportunity for them to set a competitive total on a flattening pitch against a weakened Aussie attack. Do that, and you'd surely back us to take 10 wickets in the two and a half days (or more) we'd have left. Fall short of 200 / 250ish again and it's a very different proposition.
In a weird way, even though our batting was worse than theirs in the first innings I'd rather be in our position. Cut out the cheap wickets and you can see opportunities - Boland in particular looks gettable. Australia didn't even bat particularly badly, we've just absolutely steamrollered them. It's all there for us, we've just got to sort the batting out. [Post edited 21 Nov 2025 17:49]
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Reply | Scotland
at 12:16 20 Nov 2025
They'll have a decent chance of getting out of the group no matter who they're drawn against: it's a 48 team competition so 8 out of 12 third-placed teams still go through. Winning one of their group stage games should be enough to get them into the knockouts. |
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Reply | Another Prick in the Wall - kitty litter edition QPR vs Millwall match thread.
at 13:27 18 Oct 2025
Embarrassing. So many QPR players in the box, and not one of them with the commitment or strength to put in a block or a header.
I don’t think we’ve been terrible overall, but two moments of lazy defending have cost us massively. Cook in particular looks lost. Millwall with a 2 goal lead are going to make this second half an absolute slog, [Post edited 18 Oct 2025 13:28]
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Reply | Madsen
at 17:31 4 Oct 2025
He's been a completely different player this season, and looking far more like the player we all thought we were getting when we first signed him. I think he's shown just how hard it can be to adjust immediately to the Championship, and how important it is not to completely write players off. Very glad he's turned it around, and hope he continues to be a key player for us. |
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Reply | Dembele
at 17:25 4 Oct 2025
I get why people are frustrated, and he clearly hasn't been playing brilliantly, but come on.
He's 22, he's only recently come back from injury, we've paid a fee for him, and he's shown both here and elsewhere that he's got the raw ability and potential to be a really good player, even if he's not been showing enough of that recently.
The only thing we as a club should be doing is continuing to work with him, coaching him, and giving him plenty of opportunities to develop. All of our players are going to have ups and downs: if they were consistently brilliant they wouldn't be playing here.
Maybe taking him out of the starting lineup for a bit might be smart, given his form's dipped, but there's no way we should be giving up on him. Supporting QPR surely means supporting the players too, even when they're clearly not playing well, rather than deciding they're never going to make it and writing them off. |
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