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Wait a Zek, where’s that Ledesma T-shirt?
By davidmcintyre
Emmanuel Ledesma’s possible return is an interesting one, and is bound to divide opinion.
I thought Ledesma’s time at QPR summed the club up perfectly.
First, he was hyped beyond belief before he’d even kicked a ball. Then he was hyped even more after some promising early performances, with the club even issuing a T-shirt after his hat-trick against Carlisle.
This for a 20-year-old settling in a foreign country, and after the Nicky Ward debacle which should have taught them a lesson. Limited edition? Limited commonsense, more like.
Only QPR do that. Other clubs – the sane ones – try to play things down. Only at Rangers, where the first priority seems to be to hitting back at their critics, has there been a constant desire to shout everything from the rooftops and win approval, even if it means piling pressure on talented young players like Ledesma and Ward.
If points were handed out for self-hype, Rangers would be in the Champions League by now.
Anyway, once Ledesma became the man (or boy, really) of the moment, you could have safely bet your arms and legs on him having his inevitable dip in form and then being cast aside prematurely. And he was.
I liked him as player. Talented. Really talented. But like so much in QPR Land, he wasn’t as good as he was made out to be, and then not as bad as he was made out to be. It’ll be interesting to see what Neil Warnock makes of him.
Ledesma has always been liked by Gianni Paladini and his return has been mooted a number of times before now. This will of course be taken as a sign that Paladini is involved ‘again’.
He’s always been involved. Less so than other times, but the level of his involvement has frequently fluctuated during his time at the club, usually depending on who the manager is. There’s nothing new there.
The idea that Paladini went away was as misguided as the idea that Briatore went away, or that these mythical “Mittals” people rave about took over, and loads of other nonsense taken as fact in QPR Land.
As well as Ledesma, Rangers are having another look at Craig Hammond, a prolific non-League striker who was with them on trial last February, shortly before Warnock took over.
Hammond is 23, scored loads of goals for Royston and is now with Cambridge City. He’s scored 22 times for them this season and is training with Rangers again.
Talking of non-League forwards, I was interested to read that Harrow Borough reckon their striker Troy Hewitt is likely to join Rangers on trial. Now him I like.
Rangers have indeed been looking at Hewitt, and so have quite a few other clubs. I’ve seen him a couple of times and definitely think he’s worth considering. Hewitt’s only 20, is very similar indeed to DJ Campbell, and could well be worth taking on and then loaning out to see how he gets on.
Another player Rangers are looking at is Darko Zec. He’s a Slovenian defender who turns 22 next month. There were reports he had joined Dinamo Bucharest of Romania, but I’m not sure what happened there.
He’s been invited for a trial at QPR, and as far as I know his contract at Slovenian club NK Domzale expires in the summer.
Wait a Zek, where’s that Ledesma T-shirt?
By davidmcintyre
Emmanuel Ledesma’s possible return is an interesting one, and is bound to divide opinion.
I thought Ledesma’s time at QPR summed the club up perfectly.
First, he was hyped beyond belief before he’d even kicked a ball. Then he was hyped even more after some promising early performances, with the club even issuing a T-shirt after his hat-trick against Carlisle.
This for a 20-year-old settling in a foreign country, and after the Nicky Ward debacle which should have taught them a lesson. Limited edition? Limited commonsense, more like.
Only QPR do that. Other clubs – the sane ones – try to play things down. Only at Rangers, where the first priority seems to be to hitting back at their critics, has there been a constant desire to shout everything from the rooftops and win approval, even if it means piling pressure on talented young players like Ledesma and Ward.
If points were handed out for self-hype, Rangers would be in the Champions League by now.
Anyway, once Ledesma became the man (or boy, really) of the moment, you could have safely bet your arms and legs on him having his inevitable dip in form and then being cast aside prematurely. And he was.
I liked him as player. Talented. Really talented. But like so much in QPR Land, he wasn’t as good as he was made out to be, and then not as bad as he was made out to be. It’ll be interesting to see what Neil Warnock makes of him.
Ledesma has always been liked by Gianni Paladini and his return has been mooted a number of times before now. This will of course be taken as a sign that Paladini is involved ‘again’.
He’s always been involved. Less so than other times, but the level of his involvement has frequently fluctuated during his time at the club, usually depending on who the manager is. There’s nothing new there.
The idea that Paladini went away was as misguided as the idea that Briatore went away, or that these mythical “Mittals” people rave about took over, and loads of other nonsense taken as fact in QPR Land.
As well as Ledesma, Rangers are having another look at Craig Hammond, a prolific non-League striker who was with them on trial last February, shortly before Warnock took over.
Hammond is 23, scored loads of goals for Royston and is now with Cambridge City. He’s scored 22 times for them this season and is training with Rangers again.
Talking of non-League forwards, I was interested to read that Harrow Borough reckon their striker Troy Hewitt is likely to join Rangers on trial. Now him I like.
Rangers have indeed been looking at Hewitt, and so have quite a few other clubs. I’ve seen him a couple of times and definitely think he’s worth considering. Hewitt’s only 20, is very similar indeed to DJ Campbell, and could well be worth taking on and then loaning out to see how he gets on.
Another player Rangers are looking at is Darko Zec. He’s a Slovenian defender who turns 22 next month. There were reports he had joined Dinamo Bucharest of Romania, but I’m not sure what happened there.
He’s been invited for a trial at QPR, and as far as I know his contract at Slovenian club NK Domzale expires in the summer.
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