The QPR Transfer News/Rumours Thread

31-year-old former West Ham, Charlton, and Ch**sea left back Scott Minto is in training with the R's. I understand we're still after a loan for Tommy Williams, but given that Gino has signed a two-year deal, I expect we'll only end up with one of Minto or Williams. From the story at the link at the bottom, it's hard to tell if we're showcasing Minto or seriously considering him for ourselves.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/q/qpr/3081919.stm

Michael Kathopoulis hasn't played in a pre-season game yet due to a minor foot injury. The stories below says he'll go to Italy if he doesn't get a contract offer from the R's.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/q/qpr/3087253.stm

http://www.queensparkrangersfc.com/papers2307.htm (more on Minto in this one, too)

 

Oops. He didn't play in the first two, but did play in the third (replacing a slightly injured Bircham).

http://queensparkrangers.rivals.net//default.asp?sid=925&p=2&stid=8314890 (story)
http://queensparkrangers.rivals.net//default.asp?sid=925&p=2&stid=8314893 (photos)

 

Martin Rowlands has finally passed all of his medical testing and has joined the club.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~404642,00.html

That's likely it for pre-season transfers and additions, since the Thorne bid is temporarily (at least) off and the club has no more cash. Last I've read, we've still got a few trialists at the club, but Davies' most recent remarks indicated that Olly won't be able to add to the club until we get an infusion of cash (first-team acquisitions are "ruled out" in the "short term").

Interestingly, however, Davies said (on the full QPRWorld interview, although it didn't end up in the article on the site) that even now we're set to have the largest wage bill in the division. With Wednesday joining the Second, I wonder if that's accurate.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~404600,00.html

 

Just as it looks like we won't be adding to the first-team squad, we've got two new trialists in for a few days.

John Bailey is on the books at PNE and is a 19-year-old left winger. Looks like he's a candidate to be one of this year's models replacing all the left-sided loan help we had last year (Williams, McLeod, Cook).

Also in is Christopher Kanu, who plays at either fullback position or in central midfield. He's the 24-year-old brother of Arsenal's Nwankwo Kanu. According to the QPR site, Peterborough United wants to sign him, but he wanted to come on trial to QPR for a few days first.

Both will travel with the team for tomorrow's match against Dagenham & Redbridge.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~405264,00.html
http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/News/Story_Page/0,7760,653050,00.html

 

Tom Williams has come back to the R's on a one-month loan. No indication on the official site whether it's likely to turn into a full-season loan -- here's hoping it does.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~406292,00.html

 

Depth is hurt somewhat, because squad size is down. However, the additions of Ainsworth and Rowlands, from what I've read, give us a better and faster midfield (and good midfield depth). We're strong at the back, but not deep -- bringing Williams back will help there.

 

In addition to the Williams news, the BBC reports that PNE's John Bailey is set for "an initial three-month loan deal."

With Williams and Bailey, it looks like we'll have solved our left-sided depth problem for now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/q/qpr/3124069.stm

 

So much for yesterday's news. The official site now says that John Bailey has been returned to Preston after "failing to persuade the Rangers coaching staff to pursue their interest in the 19 year old."

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~406652,00.html

 

Spurs' 18-year-old striker Mark Yates is coming to the R's on a one-month loan. Looks like he'll be in the squad for this weekend.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~407122,00.html

 

Millwall's manager was at Loftus Road looking over Richard Langley. Let's hope we can hang onto Langers and Carlisle this season (and then can afford to keep them when we go up!).

Also more news on the Tommy Williams loan.

http://www.queensparkrangersfc.com/papers0608.htm

The BBC story below indicates that Christopher Kanu has returned to Peterborough and will sign with them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/p/peterborough_united/3132965.stm

 

OK, so now we don't have cover up front. Tottenham's young Mark Yates got himself injured in a final tuneup game for Spurs last night, getting some stitches in the process. His loan won't go through, as he'll be out for a couple of weeks. Holloway says we may take him on later. He also confirmed that Kanu won't be signing with the R's.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~407974,00.html

I hate that the vultures are circling so early for Langley and Carlisle. I thought we'd at least see how we started, and if we were in an auto-promotion race through the holidays, I thought we'd keep 'em.

Our club really, really needs to go back up and those two are major reasons that many are picking us to do so.

I hadn't heard about the Bircham-to-Spurs rumor. He really seems like he wants to stick around QPR this year, and he could be playing in the First Division if he wanted to, but I guess Premiership clubs don't call that often. Hope that doesn't happen (maybe this Convey-to-Spurs thing will slake their thirst for stealing players from my teams!).

 

Disappointing news. Ainsworth, Bircham, and Palmer give us 3/4 of a solid midfield, but Langley brings that extra magic and class that will be hard to replace. Losing Langley would leave us hoping a) Ainsworth can be productive and healthy all year and b) either Rowlands or some loan signee can bring some real menace from the left side of midfield.

It was going to be tough to hold onto Langley and Carlisle this year, but I really thought we'd try to hang onto both through the first half of the season and see from there.

 

Crap. It's official. Richard Langley is set to leave QPR for Cardiff City. May's loss to the Bluebirds gets that much harder to take.

"In a move set to temper any disappointment at the 23-year-old's departure, manager Ian Holloway has this morning confirmed that negotiations are underway to bring in two players on a permanent basis to boost the Rangers squad."

OK, well, I can't say that's tempering "any" disappointment I might have, but that's good news. With the market the way it is, we could definitely get some quality on the cheap. The problem is, Cardiff City just got some class for what is, I'm sure, on the relative cheap too.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~411021,00.html

How long until we lose Carlisle?

 

http://www.queensparkrangersfc.com/newsnow/news1508.htm

Dave's excellent unofficial site says the fee is rumoured to be 200,000 pounds which could rise to 450,000 pounds based on appearances. The story also passes on some speculation about the possible signings, and notes they could be done as early as this weekend.

Here's the QPRnet story from before it became official:
http://queensparkrangers.rivals.net//default.asp?sid=925&p=2&stid=8318399

 

I'm trying to be upbeat and, in reality, this might not be all bad. We had in Langley a player whose natural position is inside, but whose game (i.e. lack of defense) didn't make him ideal to play there in the Second Division. Bircham's scrappy nature meant Langley was going to play outside. Langers played well on the right last year, but Ainsworth seems an excellent signing to start on that side. While Langley seemed to be adapting well to the left side thus far, I can see that he might not like it, making it possibly even less likely we'd be able to keep him after the season.

It appears now that we're close to permanently signing 22-year-old Kevin McLeod from Everton. He's a true left sided midfielder and played very well for us during out hottest streak of the year last year. Signing him permanently would be a good move.

Here's a link to the official site's confirmation of those talks:
http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~412047,00.html

It sounds like that one's all but done.

Earlier, they noted that we've asked about five different players for two spots (a left sided player and a centre-forward), and confirmed that Portsmouth's Mark Burchill is one of the five.

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~411873,00.html

According to Soccerbase.com, Burchill is a Scottish forward with six international caps (1 start, 5 subs, most recently in 4/00) who has scored 8 times in just 9 starts & 15 sub appearances for Portsmouth in the last two years. Last season, he was loaned out to Dundee for the second half of the year and scored twice in seven starts and four times off the bench. Portsmouth bought him for 900,000 pounds from Celtic, where he scored 20 times in 17 starts and 33 times off the bench (best year was 99/00 when he scored 11 times in just 12 starts & 16 subs) before being loaned out for spells at Birmingham City and Ipswich (a combined 5 goals in limited action). He'll turn 23 in three days. It looks like he hasn't been able to regularly crack the First XI in the upper divisions, but has a good strike rate given his limited time.