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Vale lifted on QPR’s risky recruit – Signing
Tuesday, 4th Feb 2025 02:10 by Clive Whittingham and Greg Spires

QPR have pressed ahead with the signing of 21-year-old utility forward Harvey Vale from Chelsea despite him being injured for the rest of this season.

Facts

Up and coming Home Counties commuter town Harvey Vale is a 21-year-old utility player from Chelsea.

This Paul Warhurst tribute act has played as a forward, attacking midfielder, winger and full back, on both sides of the field.

Born in Haywards Heath, he started his junior football at Crowborough before being picked up by Fulham. He was only there until the age of 13 and, as much of any of this matters at that age, he played every position in their junior sides, including covering in goal.

He was then swept up into the Chelsea puppy farm during one of their industrial trawls of the ocean floor for any half decent teenager they’ve no intention of ever using themselves but don’t want playing against them or costing them £80m down the line.

Vale signed professional terms with The Scum in 2020 and was named the club’s academy player of the year in 2021/22. After unused sub appearances on the bench for the first team in the League Cup against Southampton and Champions League trip to Malmo, Vale made his first team debut in December 2021, starting a League Cup quarter final 2-0 win at Brentford and playing for 65 minutes. A further four substitute appearances followed that season across both domestic cup competitions for Thomas Tuchel.

Having signed a new three-year Chelsea contract, a season-long loan at Hull City in this division for 2022/23 didn’t work out – two starts, one sub appearance, and a bad injury cutting short the spell on Humberside in January. The following season he was tried a division lower, at League One Bristol Rovers. There he made 38 starts and nine sub appearances in all comps. He scored three goals while there, opening his professional account with a consolation strike in a 2-1 loss to Wycombe in late August. He spent the majority of this season playing in an unfamiliar left back position.

Upon his return to “The Bridge” (vom), new manager Enzo Maresca included Vale in a cohort of 13 players ostracised from the first team training and told to find a new club. At the end of the transfer window he was linked with a move to Al-Ettifaq in the Kingdom of Let’s Execute All The Gays. That move fell through and he went on to get 45 minutes off the bench at home to Shamrock Rovers in the UEFA Freight Rover Plate.

Vale has been capped at England at every level from U15 to U20 and was named in the team of the tournament at the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in 2022. He captained England to victory in that tournament, playing alongside his new team mate Handsome Ronnie Edwards.

He now joins QPR on a free transfer with certain bonuses and sell on clauses owed to Chelsea pending performance targets down the line. He’s reportedly signed a three-and-a-half year contract, which of course idiot scum like us aren’t allowed to know but there it is. He’s also injured for the rest of this season. You R's.

Analysis @Greg_Spires

Wanted by lots of clubs in the EFL pyramid and the Saudi Pro League, Vale is the latest addition in QPR’s approach of signing 17–22-year-olds to develop and provide opportunities to, in the hope of prospering and eventually profiting.

Wand of a Left Foot

Vale’s left footed deliveries into the box are a thing of beauty, whether it’s a flashed ball into a dangerous area or a whipped effort. When deployed on the right for Chelsea’s U21’s he has been quite predictable in cutting back in-field on his left foot to whip the ball in, yet he’s still been clever and shifty enough to get a yard and deliver. Not blessed with blistering pace, he isn’t a direct player; he isn’t going to try step-overs and tricks to tie defenders up in knots – but he’ll get a yard and hit a good area with his left foot.

He showed excellent first touches and quality ball manipulation on his left foot, able to evade pressure and get out of tight spots with shifts of the ball and slinking his way between defenders. Whilst his left is his strong foot, there’s certainly quality in his right foot too – it’s not just for standing.

Breaking the Defensive Line

One of Vale’s most eye-catching qualities is his consistent desire to slide players through and break defensive lines with through balls. He shows persistence and positivity in his passing, and when it does come off his teammates are off the back of defenders and in prime position in the box. Of course who is going to be getting off the back of defenders in QPR’s current system is a different matter. His weight of pass and detail in his penetrative passes can be inconsistent and he’s occasionally guilty of rushing his passes but he continues to show boldness and forward-thinking tendencies when in-possession.

It’s not just on the ball that Vale shows the ability to get his team beyond the defensive line, but his movements are incredibly smooth and intelligent. He can sense space as it’s about to open up, often starting his runs from deep and striding into gaps in the defensive line. Whilst he isn’t an explosive athlete, he is athletic enough to get away from midfielders trying to track him and gets into dangerous spaces with corner box runs.

His understanding of attacking shapes and patterns, in terms of movement, is superb – allowing him to adjust his movement to create passing angles or draw defenders away from dangerous spaces around the box. For me, Vale looks at his best marauding around between the defensive line and midfield, where he’s able to pick up pockets of space with ease and receive well in a variety of ways that enable his next action to be a positive one. Offering between the lines could be considered somewhat of a lifeline for the alleged ‘least progressive defensive midfield pairing in the league’ in Field & Varane. His intelligence in his movement and spatial understanding have won me over in believing that his ability would be best served in the attacking midfield role of QPR’s midfield three. His best position, however, is very much a matter of opinion, so I am happy to be proven wrong by another Martí masterstroke (I look forward to him playing inverted left-back circa April).

Physicality & Out of Possession

It’s always interesting to evaluate players that have mostly played youth football and haven’t been tested much against some of the defensive monsters that roam League 1 and 2. From my perspective, Vale handles contact relatively well when in-possession – using his body and arms to protect the ball with relative success. However, when the ball is played into him, he’s susceptible to being moved with ease and the ball turned over. Any defenders with a bit of guile and two arms will give him a nudge or move him under the ball and then we’re back to pressing and sitting in a mid-block. Perhaps this is doing Vale a disservice but being physical and duelling isn’t a strength of his and therefore, he is best optimised in-between the lines to progress play in my opinion.

When we consider what Vale can do off the ball, things get a bit more interesting. His season at left-back at Bristol Rovers highlighted his weaknesses in defending 1v1 and lack of short-area quickness to turn and move sharply to movements by his opposite man. With that said, his efforts in recovery are admirable – tracking back and disrupting ball carriers in midfield to create turnovers. He is able to step up and apply pressure on defenders, engaging on the ball and regaining high up the pitch – ringing similarities to the Kieran Morgan Duracell bunny role in our current pressing structure.

Versatility – Blessing or a Curse?

Coming through an academy such as Chelsea’s, it’s no surprise that he has a high baseline of technical quality that has enabled him to play all over the pitch. He has played minutes this season at left-back, left wing-back, central midfield, attacking midfield, left wing and right wing. He spent most of his loan to Bristol Rovers playing at left-back, spent a fair bit of time at Chelsea U21’s playing on the right-wing and then he's been able to fill in wherever needed in midfield too. This versatility will be an extra safety net for this QPR squad that has been stretched to its limits at times due to injuries. His position may not matter massively as I have no doubts that his excellent technical quality on the ball will bring some x-factor and more excitement to an increasingly likeable, and youthful, QPR side.

Reaction

“I feel like I need a home, I need a place to settle, I need a place to grow. That’s why I thought it was the right time. If I kept going on loan, you get into that cycle and you don’t really settle and find a home. Now hopefully here I have found that home. I have played everywhere but I see myself at the front end of the pitch, helping the team score, create, assisting goals. On a personal level, I need to get playing games, that’s the goal for me – and to prove to the fans why the club trusted to bring me here.” - Harvey Vale

"We are delighted that Harvey has chosen to make the next step in his career at Queens Park Rangers. His engine, high technical quality and vision, as well as his leadership qualities, make him an exciting signing for the football club." - ChatGP Nourry

Context

Social media noise is almost entirely best off ignored, but you do only need to look at the reaction to this latest QPR signing to know what the main talking point is. The news that Vale arrives here injured – and injured for the rest of the season at that – has caught many by surprise at the end of a month in which this deal has felt done from the start. That it was only announced right on the deadline perhaps betrays QPR's own misgivings about the situation.

As ever, the Loftus Road faithful have been here before. Fans of a certain vintage will always shudder at this sort of deal after watching Mark Hateley get introduced on the pitch at Loftus Road leaning on a pair of crutches. Les Ferdinand has scored 20, 16 and 24 Premier League goals in midtable Rangers sides despite not taking penalties. Off to Newcastle in a blockbuster £6m move, here QPR were replacing him with a Michael Bolton tribute act who qualified for a blue badge to park his car outside the ground.

Vale has already had one spell in this division, at Hull City, wrecked by injury. Rangers are still being frustrated in their efforts to get another Chelsea academy graduate, Jake Clarke-Salter, onto the pitch for any length of time. His best run of form and fitness was well timed for the team at the end of last season - JCS a key figure in the Championship survival bid - but having rewarded him for that with a new contract he’s barely been seen since. Sometimes if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck it’s a duck, and QPR have been poor at separating feast from fowl in their recent recruitment – cough, Taylor Richards.

There are happier tales from history, though. QPR knew for sometime they wanted to sign Martin Rowlands from Brentford. Chief scout Mel Johnson was a huge fan and somewhat surprised to hear from then Bees manager Wally Downes that cash was so strapped at Griffin Park they weren’t able to offer Rowlands acceptable terms. When Johnson relayed that back to Ian Holloway and Kenny Jackett they snapped Rowly up immediately, this despite him having a badly broken leg. All of these old wives tales – cough, Dean Sturridge - have led to many a tired joke about who exactly would fail the QPR medical. I’m starting to think Diana Princess of Wales might squeak through. Rowlands, though, showed the value in these gambles if you get them right. He was an outstanding player for this football club over a decade and likely wouldn't have been attainable for a club still wrestling with the aftermath of administration if he'd been fully fit.

As we often say, if you’re signing for QPR then there is something wrong with you, otherwise you’d be going somewhere bigger, better, for more money. Under Mark Warburton the club earned praise for its knack of picking up players whose questionable injury records made them affordable and attainable for Rangers, and then working hard to get them fit to play. Sam Field’s injury record prior to joining the R’s was shocking, which is why West Brom were happy to cut him loose and his demands were within our wheelhouse. He’s basically played every minute of every game since for four years (touch wood) bar the enforced absences caused by his love of a soft yellow card.

I can feel myself sitting here, as I have done with Clarke-Salter and Richards, coating off our due diligence if this turns out wrong. But Vale was academy player of the year at the Scum and captained England to European Championship success only a couple of years ago so he wouldn’t be available to QPR on QPR’s budget without something wrong with him. Rangers have decided to take the chance and have a punt. As they must, to a certain extent.

The question before this latest injury problem came to light was where exactly we see Vale playing. When first linked a couple of weeks back there were many assumptions this was the long term replacement for Kenneth Paal at left back. Paal, who spent most of last summer being ushered towards Watford, remains out of contract four months from now. That’s based on Vale playing left back for a period of his loan spell at Bristol Rovers when – to be fair to him – he played 47 times across a season. It was Twitter’s own Joey Barton, in between trials for booting his wife in the head, who picked him there, comparing him to Ashley Cole on the way. It’s stated editorial policy that we don’t pay any attention to anything that scumbag’s got to say about anything though, up to the point I’d jump into a volcano for a splash about if he advised against it, and Vale’s adventures at left back have not been a thing before or since.

This is, it seems, another attacker. Perhaps adding to the stockpiles of academy grads who love to play off the striker. Or, more valuably, that third midfielder who actually wants to get forward and score goals, rather than just knock it straight back to Paul Nardi every time it arrives with him.

Profile and age wise, this is an eye-catching pick up. I like that he didn't just want to sit in said Puppy Farm collecting loan deals for the next five years and has taken a leap out into the real world to play some actual football. The rest of it – fitness, position in the team – we’ll only start learning in the summer.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect



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Benny_the_Ball added 02:24 - Feb 4
I will never forget the disappointment I felt when Mark Hateley was paraded to the crowd on crutches. In the lead up to the game supporters had been teased with the line that QPR had signed an England international only to see Atilla hobble out on to hallowed turf. It seemed inevitable that he, and we, would fail and so it proved. Fingers and toes crossed for better fortune for Haywards Heath's finest, Harvey Vale.
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062259 added 02:27 - Feb 4
Undone
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LazyFan added 17:12 - Feb 4
He looks physical and pacy enough for me.
I suspect the idea is to play him at LB, and then he does the overlap with Chair a lot.

I would like to see how he defends against tricky dribble-type wingers like Willock or passers like Bannon. It looks tall enough, and as we know, Marti likes giants to stop us from conceding from corners.

The only real thing I could tell from the showreel was how bad Bristol Rovers forwards are. Maybe I should get my boots and go pro, looking at that montage of missed efforts.

Now we know where Dykes will be heading after Brum.
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