"Have we learnt nothing?"

[AH08]

Not much of a poster on here but I do read through the forum a lot, to be honest I think you all put good points forward but whenever someone names a player who's about 28+ it seems to be an automatic response to say "Have we learnt nothing?" when a number of the players would actually be quality signings, sorry if this gets anyone's back up and I don't mean to offend, just an opinion is all.

[Shania]

A mix of old and younger players would be a perfect blend. The "older" ones have to have their speed or at least timing intact.

[Kirill]

Not much of a poster on here but I do read through the forum a lot, to be honest I think you all put good points forward but whenever someone names a player who's about 28+ it seems to be an automatic response to say "Have we learnt nothing?" when a number of the players would actually be quality signings, sorry if this gets anyone's back up and I don't mean to offend, just an opinion is all.

And a very good response that is unless we are now keen to repeat the PL fiasco of two seasons ago.

[Ginger Ninja]

Personally think for this season Premier League experience is more important than youth and energy. We need to mix both but the experience is what counts. So if we are linked to players aged 30+ I dont necessarily think its a bad thing, its just when for example Rio Ferdinand is linked (who I think can offer us something) on 80k in wages, people will automatically think hes an old man on a big wage looking for one more payday.

[AH08]

For players such as Joe Cole, yes, but Ferdinand? Lescott? Richards? No. Ferdinand was a vital player in a Title winning squad little over a year ago!

[Norths]

Is becoming a bit of a cliché

[Kirill]

Where will it all end?

[klonk]

surely one of the lessons we need to learn is that we can't keep going on spending sprees with a high turnover of players. if we constantly buy players who are approaching the twilights of their careers, then we will inevitably need to keep replacing players. we do need some players who realistically could ply for us for the next 5 or 6 years - austin and phillips were a good start on his front last season, i can't help thinking lampard, ferdinand, lescott etc would be retrograde steps. big disparities in salaries seemed to divide the dressing room 2 years back (and last season it sometimes seemed that we had a dip in form around the time when a couple of supposedly high earning additions were made in december - may have been coincidence, but...)

fwiw, i don't put much faith in the wage figures being thrown around. we don't seem to have decided on which existing players should get new contract offers and which should be releasedyet, so the idea that we're straight on the phone to rio ferdinand offering him £80k a week seems a bit unlikely. with f*ank, he hasn't even signed for new york city yet and if he does, i'd guess their preference would be that he's loaned to one of the other clubs in their franchise (either melbourne like david villa or even man city themselves) rather than to us.

[Webb1977]

Can't add much to what's already been said other than the fact it's also the amount of players we get in. Hughes brought in 11(?) odd new players in at once.

I imagine a good % of those (that get slated) would've actually looked and played a lot better had they been introduced to a more settled side.

Summary - not just who (age etc), but the AMOUNT of new faces we bring in.

[maidstone_hoop]

surely one of the lessons we need to learn is that we can't keep going on spending sprees with a high turnover of players. if we constantly buy players who are approaching the twilights of their careers, then we will inevitably need to keep replacing players. we do need some players who realistically could ply for us for the next 5 or 6 years - austin and phillips were a good start on his front last season, i can't help thinking lampard, ferdinand, lescott etc would be retrograde steps. big disparities in salaries seemed to divide the dressing room 2 years back (and last season it sometimes seemed that we had a dip in form around the time when a couple of supposedly high earning additions were made in december - may have been coincidence, but...)

fwiw, i don't put much faith in the wage figures being thrown around. we don't seem to have decided on which existing players should get new contract offers and which should be releasedyet, so the idea that we're straight on the phone to rio ferdinand offering him £80k a week seems a bit unlikely. with f*ank, he hasn't even signed for new york city yet and if he does, i'd guess their preference would be that he's loaned to one of the other clubs in their franchise (either melbourne like david villa or even man city themselves) rather than to us.

Your spot on klonk - we need to add to players like simpson, phillips, ned and austin who could be with us for the next few years. Would be nice next summer to have 10 or 11 players that we know will be with us for the foreseeable future.
Adding the odd bit of experience on 1 or 2 year deaks depending on age is absolutely fine as long as our main focus is building a team that compete together for the next 2,3 4 years.

[Lunar Jetman]

For players such as Joe Cole, yes, but Ferdinand? Lescott? Richards? No. Ferdinand was a vital player in a Title winning squad little over a year ago!

Bosingwa won the Champions League in his last game for Chelsea before joining us. How did that work out?

[CroydonCaptainJack]

Time will tell.

[Busheyboy]

Seems plenty of R's fans throw a wobbly every time a player that's in the latter stages of their career.

I'm more bothered about the attitude of players coming in. Nobody ever brings up Dunne or Hill or last year Ryan Nelsen because they're the right type with the right attitude, so the age wasn't an issue. I'd rather have these people than people in their early 20's who are cr ap and don't care.

obviously, we have to build for the future but a few proven, experience heads are very important to stabilise our position in the pl

[West Acton]

Agree 100% aith AH08 hes spot on.

We got so many people on the forum that just follow the majority and fail to think for themselves so if the flavour of the month is to say anyone over 30 is a no no and shows we have not learnt then they just keep drumming that drum as that is what others are preaching Same with the arguement about French Africans which is also a load of BS

[Robsondinho]

Premiership players who are around 30-33 are probably fitter then most players championship & below who are under 25. These are world class athletes now who can play until their late 30s. The only thing you need to question is their hunger for the game especially if they have won everything.

If a player is willing to give their all to QPR, not on a crazy wage (100k a week), and good enough, then for me it doesn't matter if he is 35.

One other thing that gets on my nerves is when people post 40k or above is to much money and we shouldn't sign them. That is the going rate these days for decent players at this level. If you want to sign a team of championship players on 20k a week, that is where we will end up when this season ends, the championship.