 Wednesday, 3rd Jul 2013 23:23 by Clive Whittingham The QPR players returned to pre-season training on Monday, and they’ll be enjoying sessions with former England manager Steve McClaren after he joined the club as a coach. NewsIt seems odd, given that McClaren has managed in the Premier League with Middlesbrough, the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg, won the Dutch league with Twente and been in charge of England that he’s chosen to take a coaching job with a Championship team but Rangers confirmed his arrival earlier this week. Harry Redknapp told the club’s official website: “Everyone in the game knows what a top coach he is and he’ll add something different to the group, regardless of how long he is with us for. This is a very important season for us and I wanted to look at freshening up the whole place, not just the playing side. I want new ideas, different opinions and another experienced head to speak to. That’s what Steve brings. Along with Kevin and Joe I’ve got a brilliant backroom team and their input is going to be so important for me this season. Steve adds to the excellent staff I already have here. “I met Steve a couple of weeks ago and we were sat down talking about football. I was asking him about his time in Holland when he won the Championship there and then he went to Germany. We talked about coaching methods and how we have to start to look to improve the way we play in this country. He is out of work and it is a waste really so I asked him to come in.” McClaren added: “Whilst it still remains my ambition to manage again this gives me an ideal opportunity to stay involved and work on the field with one of the top managers in this country and a very ambitious club. Rest assured, I'll be doing all I can for Harry, the club and the fans to help QPR return to the Premier League.” McClaren’s reputation as a manager has taken a bit of a battering of late. The league win with Twente came after a disastrous spell as England boss and prior to short lived and unsuccessful spells with Wolfsburg, Nottingham Forest and then back at Twente, where he was sacked before Christmas after a poor run of results. But his reputation as a coach is first rate, having worked to great effect under Jim Smith at Derby and Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. How long he stays at QPR, given his ambition to return to management, remains to be seen and he’s short odds for the vacant England Under 21 position already. However the appointment turns out, it has brought about a welcome departure of Steve Cotterill who was coaching at Rangers last season. Redknapp told Talksport that the former Burnley and Portsmouth boss wanted to focus on finding another manager’s position elsewhere, adding further weight to the theory that he only came to QPR in the first place because he didn’t think Redknapp would stay beyond the end of the season and he wanted to be first in line when he left. A bullet dodged there. And with Chris Samba it seems, who Redknapp confirmed is heading back to his former club Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia for pretty much the same outlandish £12.5m fee QPR paid for him six months ago. It’s all rather Mr Burns selling the power plant to the Germans but it’s worked out well for Rangers according to the QPR boss. Redknapp told TalkSport: “Chris Samba did leave on Tuesday. We’ve got our money back and I thought it was a good deal for the club. It didn’t really work out for him here for whatever reason. That gives us some ammunition though to go out and get four or five players with that money and help improve the team as a whole.” Worth reminding ourselves, perhaps, of Samba’s words upon signing for QPR in the first place. He said: "All the money in the world cannot make you happy if you don't have your family with you. I came back to be with my family. Life needs to have both sides – enjoy your football and have your loved ones close to you. I have no plans to go back to Russia." Redknapp won’t be able to spend that money on Peterborough forward Dwight Gayle however, as he’s heading to Premier League new boys Crystal Palace in a multi-million pound deal. Redknapp told The Sun: “He’s a young lad, a striker and the deal I’m told could end up rising to around £8.5million. I watched him play for Peterborough last season — ironically at Palace — and all my scouting reports about him were great. My chief scout Ian Broomfield’s reports were all glowing. We were looking at him but then, suddenly, the price shot up and QPR got relegated.” Joey Barton remains, but only managed to drag himself in for training today, two days after everybody else. Barton, as ever, took to Twitter to claim the club hadn’t told him when to report back – although given that thousands of QPR fans knew when the players were back that excuse looks about as strong as his completed pass ratio. Redknapp told TalkSport: "He wants to go to Marseille and he did very well there last year, but he's got two years left of his deal here. I think he's looking for the club to give him a payday here and then he'll go. I don't know how it's all going to end." Barton has repeatedly used his Twitter account to express his regret over moving to QPR for financial rather than football reasons, and said he would never let money dictate his decisions again. Which presumably means that Rednapp’s comments, and Neil Ashton’s story in The Mail saying he’s stuck at QPR because Marseille can’t afford his wage demands and QPR aren’t willing to pay him a £3m severance package, are both false. Samba, and Barton, may have been absent but one of the first faces back out on the Harlington training ground was Ale Faurlin, fresh back from a frustrating six month loan in Italy with Palermo and desperate to win his place back at QPR where he is now, remarkably, the third longest serving player at the club. Faurlin told the club’s official website: “It’s good to come to somewhere that feels like home. It is amazing how much has changed over these four years. I feel part of this club because I have been here for such a long time now and I always talk about this with Adel. I feel good here. My home is in west London, my son is happy here, I feel comfortable here. But it is my challenge now to prove to the manager what I can do because I want to continue my career here. I knew that I had to work hard, for my knee and because I wanted to come into a full pre-season ready and without any problems. So I have been doing my homework.” Having moved to Palermo in search of first team football he found a club almost as farcical as the one he’d left, and one of their frequent changes in management immediately followed his arrival. Faurlin said: “It was a tough situation, things didn’t really change for me. I moved from here where things were difficult to a place where the situation was the same. In terms of mentally, I think it was a really positive move because training was very, very hard so it gave me confidence with my knee. I take the plusses from it. It has taken time to mentally get over the injury. That’s why I think it was good for me to move away from here because I was a little bit broke both mentally and physically. But I am ready now, I am here and ready for the challenge.” In other news QPR have had three matches moved for television coverage in the opening months of the season. The games at Bolton on Saturday August 24, Leeds a week later and Reading on Saturday November 9 will all kick off at 12.15pm and be screened by Sky Sports. Sky is scheduling its Championship games on Saturday lunchtimes this season to try and split the audience with fierce rival BT Sport which took the rights to the prestigious early Saturday Premier League kick offs in the last round of bidding. For once this has worked out well for QPR fans – two of the most expensive and three of the lousiest away days on the calendar and now there’s no need to go. Word of warning, although the Reading game is in November Sky haven’t yet announced their games for October so don’t go booking trains for Burnley just yet. Meanwhile Glynn Hodges, who was apparently head of coaching at QPR last season (stop chuckling at the back) has left the club to re-join Mark Hughes’ Taffia up at Stoke. And finally 20-year-old forward Tom Hitchcock, who scored three times in seven starts and ten sub appearances on loan at Bristol Rovers last season, has extended his contract through to summer 2014. Former R’sRangers are probably rather relieved that Jamie Cureton has left Exeter City before they can get down to St James’ Park for the first round of the League Cup and suffer the now traditional fate at the hands of one of their old charges. Cureton is about to celebrate his 38th birthday but bagged 21 goals in 42 appearances for the Grecians last year prompting a move to beaten play off semi-finalists and League Two rivals Cheltenham on a free transfer this summer. Ian Holloway has rewarded ex-QPR duo Danny Gabbidon and Peter Ramage with new contracts after they contributed to Crystal Palace’s promotion to the Premier League via the play offs. Gabbidon got a one year deal while Ramage was rewarded with two. The Geordie told the Croydon Guardian: “I have loved every minute of my time here since last season. The family is happy down in London and our child is in school. So I am just over the moon to get it done. The club approached me as well which was nice. The gaffer said he wanted to get it done which meant a lot to me and it’s nice to feel wanted. I think I have played my part this season and it was nice of them to reward me personally for it.” Palace are also in talks with former R’s loanee Jerome Thomas about a permanent move to Selhurst Park from West Brom. Millwall and Wolves have engaged in a bout of former-QPR managerial merry-go-round with Kenny Jackett and Joe Gallen moving from the Den to Molineux to be replaced by St Johnstone’s Steve Lomas who will be assisted by Mick Harford who has left MK Dons after a season working with Karl Robinson. Former youth goalkeeper Elvijs Putnins, whose biggest claim to fame at QPR was being used as an excuse by the FA to deny Rangers an emergency loan signing when they lost both Paddy Kenny and Brian Murphy to injury in November 2011, is a target for new Hayes and Yeading boss Phil Babb according to the Uxbridge Gazette. And Martin Allen has promised Antonio German the hardest pre-season of his life after he picked him up on a free transfer from Brentford at newly promoted Gillingham. He said: “It’s my job to help him, support him and guide him in the right direction and help him score goals. He doesn’t know it yet but he will be pushed and pressured into the toughest pre-season, both mentally and physically, to maximise his undoubted ability.” Championship shorts- Huddersfield have signed striker James Vaughan from Norwich City for an undisclosed fee following a successful loan spell. The former Everton trainee scored 14 goals in 37 appearances for the Terriers last season. - New Wigan manager Owen Coyle has continued to reshape his relegated team with the signing of Newcastle’s utility man James Perch on a four year contract for an undisclosed fee. Chris McCann on a free from Burnley, Blackpool’s Stephen Crainey and Thomas Rogne from Celtic have all already joined the Latics. - Leeds have added Reading striker Noel Hunt to their squad as new manager Brian McDermott continues to shape his side for the new season. Hunt has signed a two year deal and follows Crewe midfielder Luke Murphy into Elland Road – he cost £1m. - Birmingham are in full on scattergun approach to their summer recruitment with nine additions so far. Dan Burn on a season long loan from Fulham, following a similar spell with Yeovil last year, and Swansea’s Kyle Bartley have both arrived along with Matt Green who was top scorer in the Conference for Mansfield last season. Tom Adeyemi from Norwich Cit, Motherwell keeper Darren Randolph, defender Neal Eardley from Blackpool, and striker Lee Novak from Huddersfield are among the other arrivals to Lee Clark’s squad. - Former Aston Villa trainer Harry Forrester has left Brentford and signed for Doncaster, who were promoted at the Bees’ expense last season, at the end of his Griffin Park contract. Forrester is 22, so a tribunal will set his fee after 11 goals in 48 games for the London club last season. - Watford have signed goal scoring midfielder Lewis McGugan on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest, while Wolves goalkeeper Dorus De Vries has moved to the City Ground on a free transfer. - Middlesbrough have signed midfielder Dean Whitehead on a free transfer from Stoke. Tweet @loftforwords Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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