The QPR Transfer News/Rumours Thread III: 05/06

The 05/06 news has started to come in -- bring on the new season!

The BBC says QPR would be interested in reacquiring Richard Langley... for the right price. Ian Holloway is quoted as saying "Cardiff are paying him double what we were and I can't meet those wages."

QPR Chief Executive Mark Devlin says QPR contacted Scunthorpe about defender Andy Butler, but have not made an offer. He denied reports of a £300,000 offer, saying no fee was discussed or offered, but that Scunthorpe gave an opinion of their view of his value.

Ian Holloway says a report on the Bristol City website that QPR are joining them in bidding for Sunderland striker Marcus Stewart is "utter nonsense." Olly says that so far as he knows, the player is going to Bristol City. "We are looking at a number of players but he isn't one of them."

 

Simon Royce will sign a two-year deal with QPR upon expiration of his Charlton contract at the end of June. The same story confirms that Generoso Rossi has left Loftus Road.

Royce appears to be first choice for next season, but we new have no keeper on the roster to back him up except for young Jake Cole.

A further report indicates that the R's are in talks with 38-year-old Dennis Wise about coming to Loftus Road. Wise was player-manager at Millwall for the last two seasons. The report indicates that Wise was a boyhood R's fan and would thus like to play for QPR.

 

According to the official site, the R's are close to signing Chesterfield central defender Ian Evatt. Evatt, who can also play in midfield, was Chesterfield's player of the year in 2004. Just 23 years old, Evatt started his career with Derby County, making his debut in the Premiership. He made 37 appearances for the Rams before moving to Chesterfield. While at Derby, he made 13 appearances with Northampton on loan. He's been with Chesterfield since July '03 and has scored 9 goals in 84 league starts. He also scored one goal in six cup appearances.

The report says we put forth a "six-figure bid" that triggered a clause in his contract allowing us to begin discussions with him.

 

The first new signing of the summer is complete!

Ian Evett has signed with QPR through 2008.

Bill Power and Giani Paladini flew out to Majorca where Evett was on holiday to get his signature. We've paid Chesterfield "an undisclosed fee" and now have a new 23-year-old central defender/midfielder on the squad!

 

I wouldn't think so. I like Georges (I'm predisposed to, since I sponsored his kit last year!), but I think at his age and up-and-down level of play last year, his value is that he's an experienced and extremely versatile backup.

 

The BBC reports that Dan Shittu is close to agreeing to a new three-year deal with QPR. His current deal was to end in 2006, so this would add two additional years.

The same report indicates that the R's are close to signing Aston Villa's Stefan Moore for an undisclosed fee. Moore is 21 years old and, according to the story, "has struggled with injuries since breaking into Villa's first team."

The forward has 9 career Premiership starts and 13 Premiership sub appearances for Villa, scoring two goals, plus another 8 various cup appearances. He's also gone on loan to Millwall, Leicester, and Chesterfield.

Last season, he made 7 appearances for Millwall (4 starts), including a start in the home leg of their UEFA Cup tie against Ferencvaros, then appeared once as a sub for Villa in the Premiership, before finishing out the season on loan at Leicester where he made 7 appearances (2 starts). He scored no goals last season.

 

Stefan Moore has signed a three-year deal with QPR.

Official Site: Moore Signs

Official Site: Great Ability (quotes from Holloway)

Official Site: Big Ambition (quotes from Moore)

BBC.co.uk: Villa Striker Makes Switch to QPR

 

QPR Mad notes that the Daily Mail (on 17 June) reported that Richard Langley may be returning to QPR. It's an oft-repeated story this summer. Let's see if it pans out. I, for one, would like to have him back.

The same story notes that the Sun reported that we're after Greek center-back Geogious Kryriazis. The story says he's 25 and playing for Seria B side Arezzo. The article notes that we've just signed Evatt, so it doesn't seem likely. That being said, our only cover for Shittu and Evatt at the moment are Rose and Santos. Given the new transfer window rules, I doubt we'll want just four at that position.

 

Dan Shittu, who had one year left on his current deal, has signed a new three-year deal that will keep him at Loftus Road through June 2008. That's a major piece of the puzzle settled. Very happy he's decided to stick with the R's.

 

As QPRReport already mentioned, the R's have signed midfielder Tommy Doherty from Bristol City for an undisclosed fee. Doherty has signed a three-year deal with the club. Long mentioned as a Holloway target, Olly finally has added his man to what is getting to be a pretty well-stocked midfield.

(note: as I try to keep these "Transfer News/Rumours" threads fairly complete, I'll put a news item here even when it gets its own thread).

 

No worries. If anyone thinks an item deserves its own thread, they should post it as such. I'm always happy when new people participate on the QPR board here -- welcome! There's no "right way" to do things here -- hope I didn't make it seem that way. We're a fairly small community, but there are just enough QPR fans among regular Big Soccer users to make it interesting (and I think we also try to keep it active so that Big Soccer users who might come to support QPR will find QPR supporters to discuss things with).

I just like to include all transfer-related items on the Transfer News/Rumours thread as well, because that thread will regularly be "bumped" up to the top all season, while individual news threads won't.

FYI, I don't read the .org board frequently (although I check it sometimes), but do read the LSA board fairly often during the season and sometimes the QPRnet or official site boards too.

 

The club has confirmed that it met on Wednesday with former Chelsea and Rangers striker Tore Andre Flo about the possibility of him coming to Loftus Road. Holloway says it's a "100-1 shot" and "we are shooting for the stars," so it sounds like it's going to be down to whether he wants to come back to London despite QPR's relatively limited wage offer.

Flo moved to Chelsea for £ 300,000 in August '97 and scored 34 league goals in 59 starts and 53 sub appearances. After that performance he was sold on to Rangers for a whopping £ 14,000,000, according to Soccerbase. He scored 29 league goals in 44 starts and 9 sub appearances for Rangers from 11/00 to 8/02 before a £ 6,750,000 sale to Sunderland. His year at Sunderland -- 29 league appearances (23 starts) and 4 league goals -- from 8/02 to 8/03 was his last time in England. Since, he has been at Siena.

 

As expected, Simon Royce has now signed a two-year deal with the R's.

Also on the keeper front, young Jake Cole has signed a three-year deal. We were wondering whether Olly was going to bring in another keeper or go with Cole as the reserve -- the article seems to provide the answer, saying Cole is "likely to be Royce's number two at Loftus Road this season."

 

The veteran Flo came close to signing with the R's, but has instead decided to move back to his native Denmark.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10373~681004,00.html