Depending on who you believe we’re in the market for anywhere between three and seven more signings this summer – but how many do we really need?

Is this all really necessary?
Well we’re all just about fit to burst now aren’t we? Promises of busy weeks and 2pm press conferences have come to nothing once too often and the next person who dares to start a sentence with “I’ve heard from a decent source…” may find themselves having their last breath choked out of them by the many hands of an angry mob. It’s the same every year of course, but time dulls the memory and each time June comes around and nothing happens despite those ‘in the know’ promising it will we get frustrated and angry and start talking about which three celebrities we’d take to a desert island – Les Ferdinand, Martin O’Neill and Dawn from Eastenders in case you were wondering.

June is a lethal month for the committed football fan. You’re £600 lighter because you’ve had to shell out for your season ticket but there’s no sign of that money actually going anywhere because contracts don’t expire until June 30, the transfer window technically isn’t open yet and chances are everybody at your club and everybody your club wants to sign is currently juggling the breasts of nubile teenage girls on the beaches of the world’s more downmarket holiday destinations. Being surrounded by football you watch but really couldn’t give a toss about doesn’t help either – I made the effort to get out of bed at ten to six in the morning for Costa Rica v China in 2002, but it did little to ease the pain. Hurry up and get my Rangers back out there for God’s sake.

Every little nugget of information in June must be feasted upon as if it were your last meal and suddenly you find yourself texting half of your address book to tell them that the away game at Cardiff scheduled for February 14 will now actually take place on February 15. Sorry about that guys, I know most of you don’t care.

But fear not, June is coming to an end, and from pretty much now onwards we should start to see some serious activity in the lead up to the big kick off. The surprising news that Bristol City have sold their Australian midfielder Nick Carle, their best player on the five occasions I saw them after Christmas, to Crystal Palace for relative peanuts just six months after buying him in the first place is merely the h’orderve served before a feast of mediocre players swapping and changing clubs for silly money and no real positive or negative impact. If you’re worried Palace have got a head start on us with a good deal for Carle, console yourself with Burnley spending £1.3m on Martin Paterson from Scunthorpe. Makes me wonder how much I might command on the transfer market when you see ridiculous money like that being thrown around – turn your TV off and listen for a moment, that laughter is coming from Glanford Park. It’s been going on for days.

Actually Carle’s surprising move to Selhurst Park may have more to do with QPR than merely signalling the end of silly season and the start of some serious spending. Carle is a hard working, creative central midfield player and Crystal Palace already have one of those in Ben Watson. Watson is fairly close to the top of Iain Dowie’s wanted list this summer and after telling Palace he wouldn’t be signing an extension to his contract that expires next summer then heading off on holiday it seems his days at Selhurst Park are numbered. Watson would be a tremendous signing for QPR this summer if we can keep the vultures in Middlesborough and Reading shirts away from his agent and he may well be the next one in through the newly painted silver entrance door at Loftus Road. Here’s hoping – a central midfield of Watson and Rowlands is a mouth watering, game winning proposition.

Iain Dowie said at the start of the month that he hoped to have most of his transfer business done by the time the players return to training six days from now. He also said he was only looking for perhaps three additions to his side. Both ideas are looking less and less likely with each passing hour because while the days to Dowie’s deadline tick by without new faces arriving, the rumour mill is churning out a new name every day and some are today suggesting that as many as seven new faces could be arriving before the start of the season – on top of Ramage, Cerny and Alberti who have already arrived.

Watson we’ve spoken about but in addition to him QPR are close (still) to bringing Kaspars Gorkss to the club from Blackpool who have promptly thrown their toys out of the pram over the Latvian’s desire to move to London. Their report to the FA over an illegal move for the player looks set only to delay the inevitable. Apart from him we have Zamora, although Fulham looks a more likely destination, Ched Evans, who would be a superb signing in my opinion, and Lee Cook, although again Fulham playing silly buggers over the price could scupper that deal. Wayne Routledge may also be back on the scene shortly - Rangers failed to nab him in January but he's hardly played for Aston Villa and knows Dowie well.

On top of that it seems we’re about to nail the season long loan signings of Samuel Di Carmine and Matthias Lepiller from Fiorentina allegedly on the recommendation of the now departed Luigi De Canio. Promising, skilful young players no doubt but it will be interesting to see how they fit into Iain Dowie’s plans and the rough and tumble of the Championship – the much talked about ‘cold Tuesday night in Blackpool’ actually exists on our fixture list this year and will forever be the mark by which young foreign players are judged in this country, or the stick they’re beaten with.

That’s not all either – Rangers have been linked with at least 30 players this summer, and a good 20 of those have had the word ‘done deal’ slapped next to their name at one point or another. I was quite relieved to hear Iain Dowie say he was only looking for three or four new recruits because that mirrors my thinking but that figure has now increased to seven still to come and three already here according to some. I find myself wondering, are we really seven players short of a competitive team in this league?

I posted the following starting eleven on the message board a few days ago to see how it went down with the punters – baring in mind it’s probably close to what we’d start with if there was a game tomorrow and everybody was fit.

Camp/Cerny
Ramage Hall Connolly Delaney
Buzsaky Rowlands Mahon/Leigertwood Vine
Agyemang Blackstock

Now for me that team isn’t too bad, certainly enough to avoid defeat more often than not and improve on last season’s position. It has three weaknesses for me – right down the spine.

Up front we are struggling. During a rare week off from the day job I spent some time updating this site’s player profiles and while adding to each player’s individual stats it really hit home to me how short of genuine goalscorers we are. Not one of the strikers currently on our books has ever had a 15 goal season at any level. Patrick Agyemang, who smashed in eight goals in his first six league games for QPR last season, finished up with nine goals for the R’s on top of four he scored for Preston earlier in the season. That 13 goal haul is a career high for him, and Blackstock and Vine can only offer up 14 goal campaigns as their highlights.

I think that makes a pretty compelling case for moving heaven and earth to get Ched Evans in here and possibly another striker besides but some disagree and point to our impressive goal scoring form at the end of last season. I’d suggest that De Canio’s style of football and our sudden penchant for 30 yard master blasters meant most of our goals came either from midfield or Patrick Agyemang’s once in a lifetime, and I really believe that’s what it was, purple patch. Will Dowie’s style of football see midfielders breaking into the penalty area on the end of flowing moves as Buzsaky and Leigertwood did to great effect last season? I’m not convinced. After Christmas last season we scored three goals or more on eight occasions – 25 goals in total and 18 of those were scored by somebody playing in midfield or defence. Will that continue next season? And even if it does why is that a reason not to add a 25 goal hit man to your attack?

I’d prefer a better quality partner for Rowlands in the middle of midfield as well and Ben Watson would be ideal, possibly a left winger although I liked Vine cutting in from their last season and another centre half, probably Gorkss, although at the moment I’d replace Hall rather than Connolly at the heart of that defence. Again though people disagree, that’s football I suppose. When faced with the prospect of signing Watson, one of the division’s outstanding footballers last year, people have said to me “well what about Mahon/Leigertwood/Bolder/Walton”. Yes we have a lot of options there but if we can get Watson then we should get him – he’s better than all of our options there currently. Add one of the many wingers we're after, Cook or Routledge for instance, and that's about all we need in my opinion.

So for me three, possibly four, more players are needed – and some don’t even seem to agree on that many. So all this talk of seven more to come making ten in total, and talk is all it is at the moment remember, has me a little puzzled. Do we really need that many additions? Are we really more than three players away from a top six side? I’d be interested to hear your views on the message board or at the usual address.

Paul Ince is a…
So finally the self styled Guv’nor gets his shot at the big time. I say finally, I’m not sure I buy into this “he’s done it the hard way” and “he’s worked his way up” stuff that’s being trotted out at the moment. He hasn’t done all his coaching badges and he’s managed two League Two clubs in 18 months and now he’s in the Premiership – hardly the hard way. There are managers who have been knocking around down there for years without ever being given a similar opportunity - Dave Penney achieved far more than Ince at Doncaster Rovers and was rewarded handsomely in his next appointment at, errr, Darlington for instance.

Nevertheless he's certainly had it harder than many of his Man Utd team mates who have all walked into jobs in the top two divisions solely on the basis of them being good players and working with Alex Ferguson. Mark Hughes started with Wales and then Blackburn, Steve Bruce went through four First Division (now Championship) jobs before ending up in the Prem with Birmingham, Roy Keane went straight in at Sunderland and then there's my old friend Bryan Robson.

Now even though there are currently only two black managers in the Football League I'm not entirely sure I buy into the claims about racism and discrimination that have been made in many of the papers this week. I mean the argument is hardly helped by the media trotting out John Barnes as an example of a terrific black manager who can't get a job - Barnes you might remember was given his break as manager of Celtic which is just about the cushiest job in world football but was sacked after half a season when his revolutionary 4-2-2-2 formation proved somewhat less successful than he'd hoped and culminated in a cup humbling at home by Inverness.

However it's hard to argue there isn't some discrimination when you compare the managerial careers of Robson and Ince. Both played in midfield for Man Utd under Ferguson and captained their country. Robson got his managerial break at Middlesborough and was given a blank cheque by Steve Gibson. He relegated them from the Premiership, some achievement with the league's outstanding player in midfield and the top goal scorer in the country up front, and then after bringing them back again he almost did it again and had to be helped out in humiliating fashion by Terry Venables. He relegated Bradford in his next job, and West Brom the job after that, and yet still got another chance at a great club - Sheff Utd. He made a right mess of that as well.

Meanwhile Ince had to go to the very bottom of the Football League with Macclesfield and save them from a seemingly insurmountable pile of the brown stuff before anybody took any notice at all - and even then the only club that moved for him was another League Two outfit. Ince won the league and the Paint Trophy with MK last season although on the three occasions I saw them it was the spending power and ability to attract League One quality players like Lloyd Dyer and Keith Andrews to the club, rather than any tactical genius from Ince, that was doing the damage against less well off clubs like Grimsby and Chesterfield. However having seen that Macclesfield side he took over first hand he'll always have my respect as a manager - half that team didn't even seem to know the rules of the game they were playing and yet he kept them up from a long, long way back in his first job.

I hated him as a player - the arrogance, the silly perm hair, the stupid goal celebration dance with Ryan Giggs, the way he left West Ham, the way he stood in the centre circle at Euro 96 while a stand in centre half stepped up to take the seventh penalty in a shoot out against Germany ahead of him (some Guv'nor) and all the rest of it. I still think it’s hilarious that we managed to keep that chant going for so long at Old Trafford. However in my opinion he's going to be an outstanding manager and I can't shake the feeling that maybe we should have made a real move for him earlier this summer even though he's already shown he won't think twice about walking out on a club if a better offer comes along. As ever, I'd be interested to know if you agree.

Things we’ve learnt from the European Championships
– When in charge of a group of moody but talented French millionaires the best results can be achieved by selecting players based on their star signs.

– In the unlikely event of that not working returning home and using a television interview designed to give you a chance to explain the failure and apologise for it to propose to your girlfriend will win many friends.

– When commentating on a match the chances of a last second goal that changes the whole direction of the match increase ten fold if you declare the previous goal as either “the winner” or “the goal that takes them to the next round”.

– Extra time is thirty minutes long, not twenty eight. Consequently if you score in the twenty eighth minute the game is not over and it is advisable to return to your previous positions and continue to play for a further two minutes rather than lie in a celebration huddle under your manager.

– The pain of inevitable failure can be overcome by simply not qualifying. Stay at home and listen to the clueless idiot that cost your country its place at the championships tell you all about what’s happening to those that did make it. At your expense.

- If you’re not up for that appoint Guus Hiddink when the chance presents itself.

– Turkey are such a fantastic team they can progress to the semi finals despite only taking part in matches for a total of fourteen minutes – and leading for just two and a half of those. Imagine how good they could be if they played for 90 minutes.

– No trophies are handed out for winning your group. If you feel the need to destroy the other three teams you get stuck with and score a goal every ten minutes then go right ahead, but be ready for the knockout.

– All the world class players you can fit onto the team bus won’t help you if you can’t defend a set piece.

– You may have an ego the size of the host nation and a selection of ladies waiting back at your house for the after match pool party but shooting every time you get within 35 yards of the goal is not as effective as playing consistently high quality balls into the penalty area.

– England and Italy are the only countries who think they’re meant to send their best referees to international tournaments. Everybody else sends their equivalent of Rob Styles to handicap the other nations. Looking ahead to the World Cup I'd advise Uriah Rennie, Mike Riley, Andy Hall and Trevor Kettle to have a valid passport in case our authorities catch on to this idea.

– Instead of playing for a penalty shoot out – save yourself the trouble and toss a coin. Your chances after 120 minutes are no better than 50/50, even if you do have Buffon in goal.

– Never back against the Germans.

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- If whilst a team gets into a dangerous counter attacking position and one of your players goes down clearly feigning injury or even just for a breather ...all stop playing stand around and point at the attacking team to kick the ball out!

It's something I feel the hoops should work on for next season when teams are counter attacking at pace against us ...Buz should fall over clutching his dodgy ankle ...Connelly and Hall should then stand still stop playing and point for the attacking team to kick the ball out! ...therefore putting an end to a dangerous counter attack! - EghamR

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