Stephane Mbia became Queens Park Rangers twelfth summer signing on deadline day. It is a time for change under Mark Hughes, who faces his first full season in charge at Loftus Road. Mark Hughes has also dispensed with the services of eleven players this summer, so it seemed he was a man with a plan, out with the old in with the new. Sparky is doing his upmost to re-affirm his statement he made when he left Fulham "As a young, ambitious manager I wish to move on to further my experiences". These were surely the actions of a young ambitious manager. QPR’s campaign started off pretty miserably with an opening day thrashing at the hands of Swansea at home. They then went onto draw with Norwich away and lose to Manchester City away.
Signings such as Junior Hoilett will seem like a coup, but one shudders to think of his wages when he turned down a whole host of Premier League clubs to join QPR. Hoilett’s reasons were he wanted to work under Mark Hughes again, but given he spent most of his time on loan in Germany under Hughes’ tenure at Blackburn, makes this statement seem unlikely.
Julio Cesar could be considered another coup. Given he left Inter Milan because they would not match his wage demands, you can only imagine the money he receives each week. This has given Mark Hughes’ summer recruitment somewhat of a mercenary look. First and foremost they’re in it for the money.
QPR have registered their squad for the new season and some notable omissions Rob Hulse, DJ Campbell, Radek Černý and Luke Young, all over the age of thirty and were relatively unimpressive last season. However, out of a squad of twenty five QPR still have twelve players over the age of thirty and considering Mark Hughes brought in eight of these recruits, what is Hughes real vision for the club. Is it to push on this season with the investment from Tony Fernandes or is it just to do enough. You just need to look at the fiasco surrounding Robert Green. Mark Hughes had a decent keeper in Paddy Kenny, he then recruits Robert Green and sells Kenny to Leeds. Green then has a poor debut against Norwich so he buys Julio Cesar and then goes onto say that Green can leave in January if he wants. There doesn’t seem to be a plan for the club.
It is hard to see where Mark Hughes is taking QPR being able to make a coherent starting eleven out of the players is a massive challenge, never mind making the team gel. This is a team that has gone through two overhauls, one in January and another in the summer. So where does it end, the older players will have to be replaced sooner rather than later so expect another overhaul in January and again in the summer. There appears to be little plan, reacting to an individual result causes a backlash of three or four new signings. If Hughes has little faith or patience in his players he should be wary that Fernandes may have a similar opinion of him.
The current state of QPR is a lot like Mark Hughes time at Manchester City. Hughes brought seventeen players to the club to the tune of £250 million. Individually the signings were very good - most of them great players with proven track records. However Hughes never struck me as he knew what to do with these great players, there didn’t seem to be a plan in place. The plan was just buy them first then decide how they can fit together later. Hughes will tell you he was unfairly treated by Manchester City after he was sacked in December of 2009. However given that Manchester City were lying in sixth place and the amount of money he had spent, to me you wander if he could have any complaints.
I think Hughes will struggle this season with the team he has assembled and I don’t think it will be long before his job is called into question, Hughes is currently 4/1 that he is the first manager to go. Tony Fernandes is on a steep learning curve at QPR and it will peak at a massive decision around January whether to stick with Hughes or bring in another man to take the club forward. Either way QPR are set for more transfers and come the summer they will probably be looking to sign another twelve players. The revolving door continues apace.
~John Lavery
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