 Thursday, 20th Mar 2008 09:27 Silly season has arrived, with summer transfer window rumours gathering pace with each passing day. Luis Figo is signing… or perhaps not Or is it ridiculous? It's getting more and more unlikely with each passing day with club sources talking about wage demands and hunger for the Championship and Figo giving a straight bat to all questions about it - but the story certainly holds more water than the Express’ Madeleine McCann coverage. Watch this space as they say. Even more unbelievable is that nine months after we were within minutes of going to the wall we’re actually debating whether we’d want Luis Figo (former World Player of the Year Luis Figo, not an Ali Dia George Weah’s cousin style Graham Sounnes con) at Loftus Road or not. By the way, don't type his name into Google images at work if you're likely to be sacked for looking at pictures of his wife's naked arse. The arguments against him, or another ageing superstar, coming are surprisingly plentiful. Firstly his age – he’ll be 36 later this year and understandably he’s not the player he was in his Spanish days. Should we use a place in our team that could be filled by somebody like Hogan Ephraim, somebody with hopefully a long future at the club, for a guy who with the best will in the world isn’t going to play for us for much more than a year? Secondly the wages he’ll command and the impact it may have on team spirit to have one player on so much more than everybody else. Thirdly his hunger and desire – the old ‘Blackpool on a Tuesday night’ argument has been trotted out several times over the past few days. QPR have seen similar things to this in the past go both ways. Ray Wilkins, Tony Currie and Frank McLintock are just three examples of players who were approaching the end of their careers, and said by some to be past it, who came in and led three of the finest sides to have ever played for our club. We’ve also seen Mark Hateley looking for a final pay day – the man who was introduced to the crowd before a Monday night match with Tottenham and came onto the pitch on crutches. The age argument is a good one, but you can’t have a team full of youngsters. Alan Hanson was widely ridiculed for saying “you win nothing with kids” after Man Utd lost their opening game of the 1995/96 season 3-1 at Aston Villa. They went on to win the double. Strange as it may seem I’d still say he was right despite that – for every Beckham, Scholes or Neville in that United team there was a Pallister, Bruce and Schmeichel to provide the experience and backbone to the side. You need a healthy mixture of both – kids and leaders. Old heads and enthusiasm. With the likes of Rowlands, Ephraim, Vine and others providing the pace and work rate, imagine the damage Figo could do to the Scunthorpe United's of this world with the ball at his feet. Ray Wilkins was old and couldn't run about so we stuck Holloway next to him - and look at the beautiful partnership that created. Figo could be a talisman for our side, somebody to lead our team and draw opponents to him creating space for the likes of Ephraim elsewhere. Think of what the boys at our club could learn from a man like that in training. For everything he gave us on the pitch he’d give twice as much off it – you can’t touch the experience he’s got. You could argue that he may not give very much on the pitch, and I saw Jay Jay Okocha’s minimal contribution to Hull City this season mentioned on a message board earlier this week as an example of how a big signing at the end of his career can quickly turn into a right pain in the arse. Okocha is certainly no Figo, and this isn’t a man who has been topping his bank account up in the Dubai league as the Nigerian had been – this is a former World Player of the Year, a man who has commanded 19 appearances in the best team in Italy this season. I was lucky enough to see him play for Inter, at Roma two years ago and while he clearly wasn’t the same player that had tormented full backs in Spain for years the magic was still there and he was a in a whole different league to anything I’ve seen in the Championship this season. He played, and played well, for Inter Milan on Sunday. To suggest he’d struggle in our league after playing in the Champions League for Inter this season, to bring up the cold Tuesday night in Blackpool analogy, is a bit far fetched for me and shows an overly inflated opinion of our distinctly mediocre league. Bristol City are topping the table with Michael McIndoe on the wing for goodness sake. The team spirit and high wages argument may hold more water than worrying about what Keith Southern may do to him on a dark an cold night on the North West coast. It could be damaging to have 22 players on less than £10k a week and one on more than £40k. But then that’s down to the players with the problem, not Figo. I’d like to think the players we have now would see Figo’s arrival as a fantastic opportunity for both the club and themselves, rather than an excuse for jealousy or to rush into the Chairman’s office with a wage demand. For Vine, Ephraim, Agyemang, Blackstock or anybody else to get upset that they’re not earning as much as Luis Figo would be arrogant on their part. Come back and see me when you’ve achieved what he has. As long as Figo can motivate himself to play for us in this league there shouldn't be a problem. We’re all in this together remember, however much we're earning. Portsmouth and Middlesborough went out of this league with Paul Merson at the heart of their teams earning twice as much as everybody else - Merse was the best player on the pitch every week, so it didn't matter. Sooner or later, if the club is going to go the way Briatore and Ecclestone intend to take it, then we’re going to have to pay some players some serious money, and somebody has got to go first. He could bring so much to the club off the pitch as well. Revenue from merchandise, shirt sales and thousands coming through the turnstiles to see him would really set the ball rolling on Briatore’s vision of turning QPR into a successful, and profitable, brand. Briatore will be well aware of the pulling power that a signing like Figo could provide to Rangers. At the end of the day this is Luis Figo we’re talking about. In my opinion to have him in our team for whatever length of time would be magnificent – good for the players that play around him, good for the fans who watch and want the team to win, good for the league and good for ticket and shirt sales. It would be a magnificent signing and I can’t believe we’re even debating otherwise. I’d still stick my house on it not happening at this stage, but like I say I hear it’s slightly more than just paper talk. To be honest I’d keep a closer eye on the movements of Danny Shittu and Lee Cook this summer, rumours of them returning to the club continue to gather pace and the latter looks more and more a done deal with each passing day – if he can get himself fit again. Don’t right off Figo just yet though. Perhaps a slightly more down to earth and realistic summer transfer target is Kieran Lee. Luigi De Canio has spoken to the media back in Italy this week and mentioned that he is keen to bring the Manchester United youngster in on a permanent basis in the summer. You have to wonder why. Since arriving at Loftus Road on loan in January Lee has started just one of 14 matches, and he only lasted 45 minutes in that. He has mostly been used from he bench, mainly in the closing stages of games to close out wins or waste time. When he’s been on the pitch he’s looked tidy, if a little lightweight, and has looked worthy of more of a role in our team – particularly away from home where our ball retention has left a lot to be desired at times in recent games. He can play full back on either side or in midfield, has captained Man Utd’s reserve side and is highly spoken of by everybody in the game and yet he’s barely clocked up 90 minutes of game time in three months with us. The reasons for that are known only to De Canio and it’s his decision who plays of course, although I can’t imagine Alex Ferguson is too enamoured to see a player he loaned out to experience first team football sitting on the bench. But a permanent move? If we’re not using him now why would we want him permanently? Why would Lee want to leave Man Utd, and move to London, and drop a division to sit on the bench? It doesn’t seem to make sense to me – perhaps we’ll see more of Kieran between now and the end of the season. I hope so, I think he could really help cure some of the problems we’ve had in recent away games – starting with the tricky trip to Wolves on Saturday. Buzsaky to Portsmouth… or perhaps not Now the original story appeared because Harry Redknapp was at our Blackpool game last week and watched Buzsaky score an outlandish opener as Rangers won 3-2 and it was repeated in the News of the World at the weekend. There is talk of Buz having a £2m release clause in his contract should a Premiership team come along, and talk of Portsmouth paying £2.5m. Hmmm, it’s looking like your standard News of the World fair so far I have to say. In fairness to that rag it’s just a relief to see that they’ve stopped running their copy and paste “QPR will sign Barry Hayles this week” nib that featured for some eleven consecutive weeks at one stage a couple of seasons back. It’s worth pointing out that the rules of the game do not allow Buzsaky to join Portsmouth at the moment – just ask Daniel Cousin at Rangers, denied a move to Fulham because of the obscure ‘three clubs in a season’ rule. Nevertheless the summer is almost upon us and with Rangers only spending £500k to get Buzsaky three months ago it would need a strong mind to turn down £2m or more should it be offered. Briatore has used the words “business” and “professional” more than any other since buying our club and bearing that in mind it’s hard to see him turning down such a large profit made over such a short space of time. Particularly when the career of the asset in question is so fragile – it only needs, heaven forbid, some club-footed Championship full back to take exception to being made to look stupid by Buzsaky once too often and suddenly he’s worth nothing to either us or Portsmouth in the transfer market. Why would £2m be offered though, especially by Portsmouth? Not only is he 25 with no Premiership experience but he’s also under six feet tall and until the signing of Jermaine Defoe this January it had been a long while since Harry signed a somebody as small as Buz is – since they were “bullied” out of a game by Arsenal 18 months ago in fact. Before Defoe arrived it wasn’t unusual to see Portsmouth field a team entirely over six feet tall, and you don’t need to have watched many of their impressive away wins this year to know they’re far more physical than Buzsaky has shown the capability to be so far. With Muntari, Kranjcar, Diarra, Davis and Mendes all competing for places in Portsmouth’s midfield it’s hard to see quite where the Magical Magyar would fit in. Good. He’s the most enjoyable player to watch we’ve had at Rangers in quite some time. It would be a shame to lose him so soon after signing him and with a contract stretching across the next two seasons there’s no reason for us to sell him. Besides, Redknapp has had more than his fair share of quality players at bargain bucket prices from us over the years. Crouch, Sinclair and Impey incredibly fetched only £3m between them, oh and two of West Ham’s worst ever players in exchange. Yeh, cheers Harry. Buzsaky’s goal against Blackpool last week was his ninth so far for QPR – equalling the total he managed in 104 appearances for Plymouth in just 26 outings in Hoops. Incredible, and a product of a happy player which you never quite got the impression he was marooned out in the West Country. That’s backed up by his heartening comments to the press this week on the possibility of moving to Pompey. "I've read the article about my 'move' on the internet, but I think it's no more than gossip. One shouldn't misunderstand my words, my dream is to play in the Premier League - but as a player of QPR. I don't know how much I am worth on the football market, but this (£2.5m) is a huge amount. But fortunately our team doesn't have financial problems. "My contract expires in 2010 and, yes, I do want to stay here. I feel excellent here and the conditions here are suitable for my improvement. What's more, I am sure that my team is going to get promoted to the Premier League in the near future. I have to be patient and I am patient. "QPR officials stated that they want me to fight for promotion with the team in the future and I'm their partner in this. I want to play in the Premiership with my present team - and not as a player of Portsmouth.” Brings a smile to the face to hear such a quality player talking in such positive and glowing terms about QPR doesn’t it? So he doesn’t want to go, Portsmouth have no use for him and the whole story comes from newspapers you wouldn’t trust to hold your fish and chips. So he’s not going then. Or is he? We’re filthy As I say with Watford and Stoke in the league you may think they’d be away at the top but with 440 and 496 fouls between them they’re trailing in our filthy wake. We’re not quite at the top for cards received – four teams have picked up more than us and bearing in mind Coventry and Plymouth have already been mentioned and are two of those four you may not be too shocked to know the other two are Sheff Utd and Leicester City. West Brom have fouled the least, Colchester have collected the fewest cards. As for players, well Adam Bolder, Martin Rowlands, Damion Stewart and Mikele Leigertwood all feature in the top 15 players for cards in this league – and that’s with the league strangely not recognising Leigertwood’s red card after the final whistle at Plymouth for telling referee Steve Bratt what we were all thinking. They certainly suspended him for it, four games in total, and he hasn’t been the same player since. With eight yellows and two reds Legs is second only to Norwich’s Darrel Russell on the bad boys list. As if that wasn’t gripping enough, bare with me we’re going deeper into this one yet, we’ve been keeping a running log of all the cards we’ve received this season in the ‘on the pitch’ section of this website. The Arthur Gnohere Card Count details every booking and sending off with the referee named (and possibly shamed) and a brief summary of what went on given as well. From this we can see that apart from the sending off at Plymouth all but one of Leigertwood’s cards have been collected for fouls, which is understandable for a central midfielder – particularly one playing in a team as poor as ours was at the start of the season. There’s only so many times you can watch Ben Watson running past you before you’ve got to kick him I suppose, especially with little or no support coming from our beleaguered team mates. Things have improved for Legs lately - his eighth yellow card of the season picked up at the weekend for throwing the ball away was his first since January. It’s probably easier to forgive Leigertwood his eight bookings when seven of them are for fouls, and Bolder his seven six of which came from bad tackles, than it is Rowan Vine. Vine has six bookings this season which includes one for diving, one for time wasting and two for dissent. Those are unforgivable sins and Vine has missed a game suspended as a result. Both Vine and Ephraim (one red, one yellow) have shown indiscipline towards officials since joining QPR, Vine much less so recently in fairness, and that will need to be worked on. What does all this mean? Not very much, but I’ve discovered a new statistics database and I thought I’d share a few with you. How about this one, we’ve used 37 different players this year in our league matches – and that’s still not the most in the league. Leicester City have used 38, and nearly that many managers to go with them. If you’re not a stats fan then I apologise – next week I’ll tell you a story about lions wondering round Grimsby town centre. Until then, Happy Easter to all readers. See you at Wolves. Click here and be the first user to comment on this article. Would Figo be a good signing? Should we sell Buzsaky is Portsmouth offer £2m? Discuss it on the Message Board
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