Everyone remembers the summer of 2012 when QPR won the Championship and in that transfer window, bought every man and his dog that had ever seen a football under Mark Hughes. When they found themselves bottom of the league a few months later, they proceeded to buy another shed-load of players, and when they went down in the summer 2013, everyone predicted a mass clear-out and a totally now squad. However, if you take a look at the QPR squad for this season, you will still see a bizarre array of talent that quite frankly should not be playing in the 2nd tier of English football.
Júlio César
What Júlio César is doing in the QPR reserves is one of the biggest mysteries in football at
football. I don't know what him and his agent have been doing over the summer, but if it is the case that he's happy to get paid every week as his chance to represent his country in a home world cup diminishes, he sums up everything that is wrong with modern football.
Joey Barton
On the 9th April 2013, Joey Barton tweeted
"Some strange people think that i'll be playing in the Championship next season. Good one! QPR might, I wont! #fact"
On the 4th August 2013, Barton was named in the starting lineup in the opening day fixture at home to Sheffield Wednesday and has been in the first team setup ever since.
Love or loathe (and I certainly loathe) Barton, he is still a good player and should be playing in the Premier League. Why he isn't, or why he didn't stay in France, I don't know.
Niko Kranjcar
Thats right, Niko Kranjcar is playing the Championship. This is obviously down to Harry Redknapp, having bought him at Portsmouth, Spurs and now QPR, but it is shocking to hear this kind of name with a Championship club.
Other names in the QPR squad include Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Gary O'Neil, Danny Simpson, Richard Dunne, Andy Johnson (Yes, THE Andy Johnson from years ago), Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jermaine Jenas, Junior Hoilett, Alejandro Faurlin and Bobby Zamora. All these players have had fairly long or successful spells in Englands top division.
QPR have also brought in some of the Championships top talent including ex-Blackpools Matt Phillips, ex-Wolves captain Karl Henry and Championship leading goalscorer last season Charlie Austin (who I do not rate by the way).
As many may expect with that squad, after 9 games QPR are 3 points clear at the Championship and remain unbeaten with 7 wins and 2 draws. That said, they have hardly set the division alight with Premiership quality football. QPR have only scored 10 goals so far in those 9 games, and scraped victories against lowly Yeovil, under-achieving Bolton and only managing 1-1 away to Huddersfield ;).
They are yet to be really tested against the big-hitters of the division and I will be interested to see how they fair at places like Nottingham Forest and Watford.
Would I like to see QPR back in the Premiership?
"Some strange people think that i'll be playing in the Championship next season. Good one! QPR might, I wont! #fact"
On the 4th August 2013, Barton was named in the starting lineup in the opening day fixture at home to Sheffield Wednesday and has been in the first team setup ever since.
Love or loathe (and I certainly loathe) Barton, he is still a good player and should be playing in the Premier League. Why he isn't, or why he didn't stay in France, I don't know.
Niko Kranjcar
Thats right, Niko Kranjcar is playing the Championship. This is obviously down to Harry Redknapp, having bought him at Portsmouth, Spurs and now QPR, but it is shocking to hear this kind of name with a Championship club.
Other names in the QPR squad include Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Gary O'Neil, Danny Simpson, Richard Dunne, Andy Johnson (Yes, THE Andy Johnson from years ago), Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jermaine Jenas, Junior Hoilett, Alejandro Faurlin and Bobby Zamora. All these players have had fairly long or successful spells in Englands top division.
QPR have also brought in some of the Championships top talent including ex-Blackpools Matt Phillips, ex-Wolves captain Karl Henry and Championship leading goalscorer last season Charlie Austin (who I do not rate by the way).
As many may expect with that squad, after 9 games QPR are 3 points clear at the Championship and remain unbeaten with 7 wins and 2 draws. That said, they have hardly set the division alight with Premiership quality football. QPR have only scored 10 goals so far in those 9 games, and scraped victories against lowly Yeovil, under-achieving Bolton and only managing 1-1 away to Huddersfield ;).
They are yet to be really tested against the big-hitters of the division and I will be interested to see how they fair at places like Nottingham Forest and Watford.
Would I like to see QPR back in the Premiership?
No comments:
Post a Comment