Hughes transfer activities this summer

[zeberdee]

problem is zeb that with Hughes it is very difficult to figure out who is really buying.... him or his agent? ;) Who of course represents Tevez and Julio Cesar among others.

There were constant summer rumours that Kia was pulling the sttings signings wise.

It is possible I suppose. Whoever was doing it the QPR list doesn't display nearly as much football understanding as the City list imo. Even with the budget differences it is so different - hard to believe the same person made the calls both times.

I know hindsight is wonderful but these people are paid big bucks to have foresight to at least a decent standard

At least now with Harry's talent spotting and transfer skills there is a chance of staying up - but it wont be done with just what Hughes left him - not by a long chalk.

[QPRSCLART]

definitely overdid midfielders. also went for cheap/free older players on high wages rather than hungry players on less

[Captain Planet]

Whoever was in charge of transfers must had been playing the 2008 version of Football Manager!

[MattyRangers]

Whoever was in charge of transfers must had been playing the 2008 version of Football Manager!

kia_joorabchian.jpg

[Captain Planet]

How do we know all these players were Hughes' signings? It's not uncommon for managers at clubs to have little influence on who gets signed, it's often is down to the board.

It's all well and good speculating who made the signings, but ultimately we don't know who exactly brought in these players.

However if you look at the trend of signings since Fernandes took over, there is a common trend of the type of players we brought in.

• Bench warmers at big clubs who command big wages with little game time over the last couple of years (SWP, Park, Anton, Onouha)
• Free transfers who nobody else wants but we are willing to offer big contracts (Bosingwa, Green, AJ)
• Players reaching the twilight of career after one more big contract (Zamora, Cisse, maybe Barton)

There are a few that have paid off (Nelson being a good example) and others like Hoilett and Granero should be great signings but haven't lived up to hype.

The trend is very similar even before Hughes was brought in. It's easy to heap all the transfer activity blame on Hughes, but I'd imagine things are more complicated than that.

Either way Hughes should have got more out of these players and Tony was right to get rid.

[hh9]

Down to the players again

Sold team
Kenny
Ramage - Hall - Connolly - Borrowdale
Cook - Buzacky - Smith
Agyemang - Helguson

Bought team

Cesar
Bozingva - Magri - Nelsen - Fabio
Park - Diakite - Granero - M'Bia - Hoilett
Johnson

I would have thought that the bought team should be winning more matches than the sold team.
Big difference in quality - but something has been very very wrong

[zeberdee]

Quite a few injury prone older players on big wages in the squad - if you are going down that route then Phil Neville, Jonathan Woodgate, and Berbatov were probably all available in the summer - none of them are at their peak them 3 would add more to the squad than all the summer signings put together.

For the future I imagine Harry thinks QPR can possibly stay up with a bit of January work to plug the obvious gaps - CD and strikers - with some better quality players on loan. So the club is only paying wages for six months on the new players and it don't add to the already big wage bill if relegated. But looking at the squad I bet Harry thinks as I do that one or two loans means probably more like 4 or 5 to really have a go at it in the second half of the season.

[QPR1234]

he didnt address the defence at all.

ryan nelson is 35 and we shouldn't be relying on him to hold us together.

second of all.. remember before warnock we had a few decent championship names.. jay simpson, rowan vine(at the time), taarabt, buzsaky, routledge, helguson, watson, rowlands(at the time) etc.

Now under magilton we had a string of games.. decent results then it turned bad for us over new year and that was it. down the league we went.

Warnock comes in. keeps us up and in all honesty add's some steel and determination in an already talented side. I mean off the top of my head i dont remember warnock bringing in a player who had more quality than work ethic if you like maybe kyle walker aside.

Hughes stripped the spine out of the team and to an extent rightly so.. but problem is he never replaced it properly.. he alienated all players who wasnt in favour for one reason or another and we never had a foundation to build upon with the clearly talented players we have.

Harry has come in and stopped us losing games(so far) allbeit with a stroke of luck(wigan) we're not getting beat. that is something to build on. Hughes tried to make us run before we could walk. I dont think he ever had an idea who to build his team around. he should've addressed the centre halfs first. he didnt he went straight for strikers/midfielders.

[ClemQPR]

problem is zeb that with Hughes it is very difficult to figure out who is really buying.... him or his agent? ;) Who of course represents Tevez and Julio Cesar among others.

There were constant summer rumours that Kia was pulling the sttings signings wise.

There also might have been a very good reason why we were the third highest in the Prem for paying agents............but it's probably just coincidence!!!!

:angry1:

[Sminky]

How on earth can you blame Tony!?

He gave a manager who he trusted and believed in to buy players worthy of getting us at least mid table. Tony did what we all wanted, gave us fans new players and hope!

NOT all our players we signed are ****, some are playing poorly but are not ****.

I was expecting this sort of reply, there does seem to be a rather blinkered view on critiquing Tony's running of QPR. As I said in the original post, that Clint Hill agrees with me is endorsement enough for me. That we are bottom of the league has largely to do with Tony picking the wrong manager, then picking a swathe of the wrong players - don't be mistaken in thinking Hughes chose all of the players, Fernandes had advisors suggesting players and he bought them. Hughes had no idea that Julio Cesar, Jose Bosingwa and Esteban Granero would be signing until Tony told him these players were available and whether he had any objections, Hughes being quite obsequious and reticent of conflict didn't decline his chairman's offer.

I think there is a misnomer being peddled that because Tony is such a nice guy that it makes him impervious to criticism. If we're not prepared to be honest and appraise the situation when we're bottom of the league then we may as well pretend everything is ok.

I don't think Tony gave us hope, I think he sold the fans a dream and fairplay its what all fans at any club want, the problem is it wasn't tempered with any common sense and was exacerbated by Hughes. I can't be the only fan here a bit embarrassed how we've conducted ourselves as a club in the last 18 months, fans on other forums openly mock and laugh at our club, its not that we can't laugh ourselves at QPR and be self deprecating about it, I think some of our fans began to believe the hype and hyperbole after we supplanted the spine of our team with players who've little interest in playing for QPR. The harsh reality is that Fernandes is as culpable as anyone at QPR, I've no issue with anyone disagreeing but to simply disagree because we shouldn't criticize Tony is counter intuitive.

[stainrodisalegend]

I was expecting this sort of reply, there does seem to be a rather blinkered view on critiquing Tony's running of QPR. As I said in the original post, that Clint Hill agrees with me is endorsement enough for me. That we are bottom of the league has largely to do with Tony picking the wrong manager, then picking a swathe of the wrong players - don't be mistaken in thinking Hughes chose all of the players, Fernandes had advisors suggesting players and he bought them. Hughes had no idea that Julio Cesar, Jose Bosingwa and Esteban Granero would be signing until Tony told him these players were available and whether he had any objections, Hughes being quite obsequious and reticent of conflict didn't decline his chairman's offer.

I think there is a misnomer being peddled that because Tony is such a nice guy that it makes him impervious to criticism. If we're not prepared to be honest and appraise the situation when we're bottom of the league then we may as well pretend everything is ok.

I don't think Tony gave us hope, I think he sold the fans a dream and fairplay its what all fans at any club want, the problem is it wasn't tempered with any common sense and was exacerbated by Hughes. I can't be the only fan here a bit embarrassed how we've conducted ourselves as a club in the last 18 months, fans on other forums openly mock and laugh at our club, its not that we can't laugh ourselves at QPR and be self deprecating about it, I think some of our fans began to believe the hype and hyperbole after we supplanted the spine of our team with players who've little interest in playing for QPR. The harsh reality is that Fernandes is as culpable as anyone at QPR, I've no issue with anyone disagreeing but to simply disagree because we shouldn't criticize Tony is counter intuitive.

I realise some fans massively over-rate Clint Hill (nice bloke, v decent attitude, average, ageing defender) but not sure why you also regard him as the ultimate footballing judge. He has a massive self-interest in this as new arrivals pushed him out of the team once and the arrival of a centre half in Jan wd probably do so again.

By all means attack away if you want to lay into Fernandes. Lots of fans did the same to Chris Wright and drove him away. But hey, we eventually ended up with Paladini last time, so guess we cd do so again. Perhaps you will be happier then, in the third tier "with your Rangers back"?

You seem to know a huge amount about the dynamics/ negotiations behind the scenes. Have you a source for any of this or is it pure speculation?

You blame Fernandes for appointing Hughes. As it turned out Hughes wasn't a success (though he did keep us up last season which wasn't looking too likely under Warnock). But pretty well every pundit and around 95% of fans were over-joyed with the appointment. Martin O'Neil had already gone to Sunderland. Who would you have preferred him to appoint who was available and willing to come to our club? If it was anyone with a better CV than Hughes at the time I wd love to hear where they were hiding.

Even if Fernandes did suggest one or two transfers (Park seems a likely one) many of the other signings have the Hughes stamp all over them (Zamora, Johnson, Onouha, Nelsen, etc). Seems Fernandes can't win with you - if he backs his manager's judgement, he should have second guessed it and said those players weren't good enough, or in cases where (you claim) he backed his own judgement he is also to blame.

As it has turned out things haven't worked out for Tony but he has invested more money and enthusiasm into our club than any owner since Jim Gregory, and arguably more even than Jim. If you want to criticise and maybe drive Tony away, you just crack on, but most fans are incredibly grateful for what he has tried to achieve. To me he has been a model owner. Sport isn't an exact science and so not every apparently sensible decision results in success. Shame that isn't good enough for some who always want to find a scapegoat.

[Shania]

Down to the players again

Sold team
Kenny
Ramage - Hall - Connolly - Borrowdale
Cook - Buzacky - Smith
Agyemang - Helguson

Bought team

Cesar
Bozingva - Magri - Nelsen - Fabio
Park - Diakite - Granero - M'Bia - Hoilett
Johnson

I would have thought that the bought team should be winning more matches than the sold team.
Big difference in quality - but something has been very very wrong

Indeed, it has. A "disaster" of a season.

[Sminky]

I realise some fans massively over-rate Clint Hill (nice bloke, v decent attitude, average, ageing defender) but not sure why you also regard him as the ultimate footballing judge. He has a massive self-interest in this as new arrivals pushed him out of the team once and the arrival of a centre half in Jan wd probably do so again.

By all means attack away if you want to lay into Fernandes. Lots of fans did the same to Chris Wright and drove him away. But hey, we eventually ended up with Paladini last time, so guess we cd do so again. Perhaps you will be happier then, in the third tier "with your Rangers back"?

You seem to know a huge amount about the dynamics/ negotiations behind the scenes. Have you a source for any of this or is it pure speculation?

You blame Fernandes for appointing Hughes. As it turned out Hughes wasn't a success (though he did keep us up last season which wasn't looking too likely under Warnock). But pretty well every pundit and around 95% of fans were over-joyed with the appointment. Martin O'Neil had already gone to Sunderland. Who would you have preferred him to appoint who was available and willing to come to our club? If it was anyone with a better CV than Hughes at the time I wd love to hear where they were hiding.

Even if Fernandes did suggest one or two transfers (Park seems a likely one) many of the other signings have the Hughes stamp all over them (Zamora, Johnson, Onouha, Nelsen, etc). Seems Fernandes can't win with you - if he backs his manager's judgement, he should have second guessed it and said those players weren't good enough, or in cases where (you claim) he backed his own judgement he is also to blame.

As it has turned out things haven't worked out for Tony but he has invested more money and enthusiasm into our club than any owner since Jim Gregory, and arguably more even than Jim. If you want to criticise and maybe drive Tony away, you just crack on, but most fans are incredibly grateful for what he has tried to achieve. To me he has been a model owner. Sport isn't an exact science and so not every apparently sensible decision results in success. Shame that isn't good enough for some who always want to find a scapegoat.

You've only served to prove my point further.

At no point did I cite Hill as the ultimate footballing judge but I disagree with your assertion, I believe Clint is honest enough to call a situation as he sees it regardless of the consequences. Footballers who criticize their owners do not tend to fair well. Clint is a decent pro and its somewhat disingenuous to suggest he made remarks simply because you think it will affect his place in the team.

To suggest I've attacked Tony is an emotive choice of words. I've merely voiced an opinion that is in the minority but I'm not the only person who has this opinion, yet by posting it on here I'm subjected to nonsense suggesting I'm openly advocating previous regimes, a little irrational and subversive.

You think he is a model owner, yet I ponder whether your point of view is coloured because he has so openly ingratiated himself to the fans. Do I want Tony to leave? Of course not. Do I think he is a decent bloke, unquestionably. Do I think he has been naive and is open to criticism, yes.

If this opinion is somehow unpalatable for you it is going to prove a problem for you to debate this with me with any sense of objectivity. All I've read so far is an attempt to discredit my opinion with unfounded rhetoric.

I welcome your response.

[hal9thou]

To be fair I do think TF did get some things quite badly wrong - and again this is not hindsight. I can't blame him because his football experience prior us was pretty much zero. I think he was sold a massive pup (Hughes) and I think I know who got stuck in during the last days of Warnock to ensure that would happen. TF listened to someone whose over riding interests had little to do with shrewdly advancing QPR and everyting to do with his own business interests. Man City supporters warned anyone who was listening about KJ's hold on Hughes transfer dealings, and let's not forget this man (KJ) had previous before City. He is the one guy your really don't want whispering in your ear should you just happen to have purchased a serious football club. Like I said, I'm afraid he bent TF over the negotiating table. Having bought into Team Hughes, Tony was reluctant to admit that he'd just taken a massive step backwards when the wheels started falling off, putting your hands up is never straightforward. That's why he kept Hughes on, doubtless prompted by thoughts of the massive pay off that would come into play when Hughes was finally ousted. But that sum was paltry compared to the cost of relegation, and that was Tony's second mistake IMO. He waited too long.

Regarding HH9s comparison - the sold v the bought. The truth is that neither of those sides is fit for EPL purpose these days, but the I know which of those teams would have wanted it more.

Finally regarding the signings themselves. Again, it is not hindsight to say that plenty of people were deeply concerned (at the time) about the business that was done, specifically regarding defenders (or lack of them). Ultimately football is pretty simple, you don't have to be a genius to see where things are going to come unstuck, which made the whole scenario so painful to witness. It really couldn't have been much worse, since everything was placed in the wrong hands and come the summer we'll have to start all over again, even if by some miracle we survive.

But we'll still beat Fulham.