Beating off competition from Birmingham, Swansea, Massive Rangers and apparently 23 other clubs besides, QPR have signed Peterborough winger Kwame Poku for a compensation fee.

Facts

Kwame Poku is a 23-year-old winger from sunny Croydon. With his Peterborough contract expired, but still of an age to command compensation at tribunal, QPR have been able to agree a fee with Barry Fry and the Posh to bring him to Loftus Road ahead of a host of other interested parties – Birmingham City, Glasgow Rangers, Swansea were all keen and Fry says they’d had inquiries from 26 different clubs around the world for the player’s services.

His route into football, early years and style will ring all sorts of Bright Osayi-Samuel bells for you. No academy education here, picked up instead as a teenager by Cray Wanderers and then Isthmian League outfit Worthing where he bagged two goals in 12 outings.

He trialled at Colchester United at the end of 2018/19 and was subsequently signed by the U’s, making a debut in the EFL Trophy at Gillingham that September. A first senior goal quickly followed on September 19 against Leyton Orient in League Two. He scored the game after against Stevenage too and finished with five for the season. By December the Essex club had tied him down to a two-and-a-half-year deal. In his first season of professional football he made 30 starts and seven sub appearances. Colchester were beaten across two-legs in the play-off semi-final by Exeter.

Much more of a struggle all round in 2020/21. Colchester finished 20th, and Poku scored just one goal all year – that in the EFL Trophy. Still, another 31 starts and six sub appearances on the clock and enough within those performances to see Peterborough pick him up for an undisclosed fee in the summer of 2020.

That represented a two division step up for the youngster, with Peterborough battling to stay in the Championship that year – and infamously beating QPR three times along the way in the process. Poku started the 2-0 cup victory at London Road, and was a late substitute in their 3-1 win at Loftus Road in the league. He made 11 starts and nine sub apps in the Championship, with a further three starts in cup competitions.

In March 2021, Poku was called up for Ghana for the first time for AFCON qualifier games against South Africa and São Tomé. He made his full international debut as a 79th-minute substitute in a 3–1 victory over São Tomé.

Back in League One for 2022/23 he scored a first club goal in a 3-2 win at MK Dons in early October and finished with six for the season from 37 starts and seven sub apps. One of those goals came in the 4-0 play-off semi-final victory at home to Sheff Wed, though Peterborough infamously lost the second leg of that 5-1 and went out on penalties – QPR in Europe levels of catastrophe right there.

Although beaten at the same stage again, this time by Oxford, in 2023/24, it’s over the last two seasons Poku has really seemed to hit his stride. He bagged 12 times that year in 42 starts and seven sub apps, including a hot streak of six in seven through October and November – divisional Player of the Month both months. Another 12 goals last year, including a first senior hat trick in a 6-1 rout of near neighbours Cambridge, from 28 starts and three sub appearances. Chuck 19 assists on top of that through those two campaigns. This guy is available, and productive.

Peterborough won the EFL Trophy in both of the last two years with Poku in the team. He was voted the club’s Players Player of the Season in 2024/25 and made last year’s EFL divisional team of the season.

Analysis @greg_spires

Poku is a player that stood head and shoulders above most League One players and to have him through the doors at Loftus Road is a superb piece of business. A player I’ve admired for a while who showed how devastating he can be last season with 20 goal contributions in 27 league appearances – this is what R’s fans can expect from our latest addition from League One.

Playmaker, Chance Creator, Smooth Operator

Poku is a left footed right winger, which has become commonplace in the modern-day game, although there aren’t many better than him in this role in the EFL. A player that’s comfortable hugging the touchline and holding width, creating opportunities for him to threaten in two ways; receiving to feet and driving at his defender or sprinting in-behind, attacking space behind his full-back. Poku’s burst is a key weapon of his and his movements to get in-behind are often well-timed – meaning he can receive in space or finish first-time at the back post from anything flashed across goal.

When receiving to feet, Poku comes to life. Nimble, tricky and direct – he carries on his left and looks to arch his runs inside, opening up space to pass or shoot from more central locations. When he breaks into those inside channels and drives parallel to the edge of the box – he finishes superbly into either corner with quality ball-striking technique to combine precision and power. His ability to hit corners with a variety of finishes makes him a real threat and keeps goalkeepers honest in their positioning. He’s a goalscoring winger and a player that causes persistent problems for defensive full-backs and centre-backs due to his directness and quality finishing.

While he is predominantly left-footed, he can use his right and has found success in faking to cut inside on his left but then driving outside on to his right foot to cross or shoot. For me, he doesn’t use this trick enough and I think if he can look to implement a bit more unpredictability to his game – he’ll skyrocket in terms of output and quality.

When he’s on the ball, he’s a player that you trust to make things happen. The directness is great, constantly trying to engage a defender to beat them, however it’s his intelligence that stands out for me. His ability to slow down when on the ball and use a change of pace or feint to beat his man is excellent, timing it to perfection quite often. His ability to bait defenders into pressing or tackling him keeps the crowd on the edge of their seat and leads to him winning fouls regularly. Despite having quite a slight frame, he’s got strong contact balance and is able to handle physicality well – which should translate nicely to the Championship too.

The major benefit of Poku’s left footedness is that when driving infield into the opposition defensive shape, it opens up more passing angles and options based off his teammates’ runs. At Peterborough, Poku was blessed with athletic, energetic runners like Ricky-Jade Jones & Malik Mothersille (another QPR linkee) which gave him the option of a reverse pass in-behind or opened up the space perfectly for him to bend shots to the far corner. The last-line runners that QPR have like Kelman and Celar would suit this role as a foil, although Stéphan is unlikely to select winger x striker combinations for a particular move alone. While Poku can threaten with his slide or reverse passes, his final ball needs more consistency if he’s to continue to be as threatening next season. His decision making is often good, taking selfless options when necessary, but the execution of some crosses and passes into the box is a weakness of his.

Out of Possession

The athleticism and pace of Poku are an asset when pressing and he can close space quickly to defenders, although he risks getting played around when jumping larger distances. He was guilty of this at times and the increased tempo and precision of build-up in the Championship could expose this weakness. Unfortunately, wingers and wide players in general are the players that get exploited most in the press, being baited into pressing in wide channels only to see two passes in quick succession to render all your effort useless. Poku lacked the willingness to recover and track runners occasionally and I hope to see him take the step up to the Championship seriously and ensure he isn’t seen as a defensive liability if he is to nail down the starting spot.

Personal Thoughts
The addition of Kwame Poku is an exciting one and a player that can easily progress to play in the Premier League based off his fundamental qualities. He brings a different profile of winger to the incumbents and think that his threats could complement the movement of Dembele, Madsen and Chair who like to move into half-spaces and receive to feet. He has the intelligence to drift into central spaces too and can provide some tactical flexibility that might please Stéphan and allow QPR to continue on our dynamic/flexible era. A goalscoring winger with flair, pace and an abundance of potential – this is a signing that’ll excite the fans and I look forward to seeing how he progresses in blue and white hoops.

Reaction

“I feel like the project they're building here excites me and I want to be part of taking QPR to that next level. There's good players here and I think it's exciting times for the club. When I was speaking to the head coach he was talking about where he sees me fitting in and where he thinks I can influence the game. That's what really attracted me. Being 23 turning 24, I'm not quite young anymore so I want to come in and make my mark from the jump.”

“I think it was a journey that needed to happen to get me to this stage right now. It was about being resilient and trying to be in a position where I can just showcase my talent every day and be the best version of myself. I think that's a big part of my journey, being so young and playing a lot of games. Going into this level, it's just about learning about this level, getting used to it and then expressing myself. Coming into this team where there's a lot of good attacking players and good all-rounded players as well, I think I'll create more chances, be at the end of a lot of chances and get more numbers.” - Kwame Poku

"Kwame is a player that the QPR recruitment department have been interested in for over four years. His decision to join the football club today in the face of interest from Europe-competing teams abroad and Championship teams with significantly bigger budgets than us is a fantastic validation of the direction we are moving in, including a specialised focus on individual player development. I wish Kwame all the very best success at QPR.” - Christian Nourry

Context

A couple of recurring themes already in the business QPR have done early in this transfer window.

The first is around lessons learned from last summer’s intake of mostly European-league players with little EFL experience.

For Poku you can lather, rinse and repeat much of what we said about Reading’s Adamou Mbengue. The ‘best of the league below’ scouting method which has served QPR so well historically has a better chance of success than last summer’s methods because these players are used to the grind and attritional nature of EFL seasons.

Poku has played an extraordinary amount of EFL football already for somebody who’s only 23 years old – 61 starts and 14 sub appearances for Colchester in League Two, 121 starts and 26 sub appearances for Peterborough in this division and the one below. Serious minutes, often in tough battles at both ends of all three of those leagues. I love lads like this – started at Cray Wanderers and Worthing, got plenty of men’s football into him early at a tough place to play like Colchester, moved up organically. No pissing about on pristine academy pitches here. Hard bloody yards. Bright Osayi-Samuel-style. Good on you mate.

It’s really positive to see us prioritising this three-game week experience, and durability, in our signings. QPR were riddled with injuries last year and are the worst side in the Championship when playing game three of a three game week – 10% worse than their already fairly crap average.

Like Mbengue, Poku also helps address the problems around physicality, athleticism and pace in last season’s team. We have been too slow, too weak, too easy to play against for too long. We cannot get the ball up the pitch consistently and pressure teams – it’s why our home form has been consistently dreadful for several seasons, when it comes to seizing the initiative we’ve nothing to seize it with. Teams are frightened by pace, we’ve had none, and we’re addressing that.

A new problem that we haven’t talked about yet is productivity and end product.

Paul Smyth gets in this team more often than not because he’s one of the only ones with pace and he works diligently up and down the wing, protecting his full back and pushing back opponents. We’ll defend the Northern Ireland international to the hilt against the over the top and needlessly cruel online stick he gets, but his critics are right that he doesn’t produce enough – two goals and four assists as a winger who played almost every game last year, one of those goals against League One basement dwellers Cambridge and another the flukey Bristol City effort, is not good enough by any means. He wasn’t alone: Koki Saito, though popular, only scored three times, not at all for his first 30 games, and three assists; Chair only scored twice last year, both at home to Derby; Lucas Andersen, two goals and no assists as a creative midfielder with 14 starts and 21 sub apps; Madsen, three goals and three assists from 22 and 12, as a creative midfielder who takes many of the set pieces. These are appalling figures really.

Poku, albeit in the division below, was an end product machine at London Road – 24 goals, 19 assists in 80 appearances since the start of 2023/24. That’s what your fucking winger’s numbers should look like. And with Julian Stephan’s reputation for developing players exactly like this into genuine international superstars, you can bet both club and player will have had that in their mind when doing this deal.

There’s going to be all sorts of conjecture about how this team will fit together under a manager who’s previously used every system under the sun. In last season’s team quite simply Poku replaces Paul Smyth, but with Ilias Chair and Karamoko Dembele to fit in that’ll be interesting if Stephan does want to play two up front here as he has before. Factor Charlie Kelman into this and it becomes more interesting still.

Peterborough has been fertile ground for shoppers for years under Darragh MacAnthony’s fantastic stewardship of that club. QPR, wanting a piece of the action, paid them £2.5m for Conor Washington once upon a time, which I think even Posh were surprised about, and naturally R’s fans feel burned by that experience. But according to Barry Fry, Poku was wanted by 26 different clubs home and abroad and up until last week he seemed set for Glasgow Rangers. Dave Mc reports that QPR’s long standing interest in the player helped swing the deal away from them, big spending Birmingham, Swansea and others in our favour. Having given the club a bit of a kicking for letting Ronnie Edwards mooch about at Barnet and Peterborough for years without us buying him, only to then have to beg a loan of him from Southampton, it’s only right that we praise them for picking up a similar prospect from the same club after a prolonged chase.

I’m excited by this one, feels like a QPR player of old.

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