Photograph: Getty
they rolled the dice on the likes of Tal Ben Haim, Loic Remy, Yun SukYoung, Jermaine Jenas, Samba and Andros Townsend.
Alas, apart from the latter, who is on loan, all those guys will be stuck on QPR’s payroll now. A bit like Robert Green, Samba Diakite, Stephane Mbia (the man who, lest we forget, thought he was joining Glasgow Rangers), Esteban Granero, Julio Cesar, Junior Hoilett, Park Ji-Sung, Djibril Cisse, Bobby Zamora, Nedum Onuoha and the rest of the gang Mark Hughes brought on board during his 11 months in charge.
Owner Tony Fernandes has hinted that he might sell the club if they get relegated. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that QPR will be worth close to nothing if they do go down. In fact, like a large pile of rubbish, you may need to pay someone to haul it away.
Who’s going to stump up real cash for a club with a tiny, outdated ground, less than five miles from two other premier league sides (Chelsea and Fulham) and an enormous payroll thronging largely with players who have no resale value?
Because that’s the reality of QPR. Except for Jamie Mackie, the holdovers from the Warnock Era are ancient (Clint Hill and Shaun Derry are 34 and 35 respectively). Adel Taarabt is a gem, but his erratic ways have earned him the “nutjob” label. Most of the rest are older guys who have huge long-term deals making them very difficult to shift, even on free transfers. Or folks such as Jermaine Jenas, who has started two league games in the past 20 months but, somehow, got a contract at Loftus Road.
Relegation shouldn’t be a death sentence if a club is run properly.
QPR, however, have made such egregious mistakes that – if they go down – they’ll need to throw good money after bad and swallow huge losses.
That will be Fernandes’ dilemma. You’ll lose shedloads of money either way. Do you stay and fight, knowing it will cost you another small fortune? Or do you take it on the chin, suck up your losses and walk away?
APART from Lucas Moura – whose £35m transfer from Sao Paulo to Paris St Germain actually was finalised in the summer but only completed now – the transfer window’s biggest move was that of Willian from Shakhtar Donetsk to Anzhi Ma k h a c h k a l a for £ 3 0 . 4 m.
Some see it as heralding some kind of shift in the balance of power from west to east. We’ve heard it before and it’s a bit premature to draw such a conclusion. But it remains a fascinating move for so many reasons.
Willian is 24 and Shakhtar arguably played the best football seen in the group stage of the Champions League. He not only had the chance to achieve something important with Shakhtar this season ( they face Borussia Dortmund – a tough, but not impossible, draw), he also had access to the best possible shop windowof all. Instead, he’s moving to Anzhi where he’ll get s ome Europa League action and may or may not qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Would it not have made more sense to wait until the summer? 6 Who are the only two Frenchmen to manage clubs in the SPL? 7 Which countries have won the European Championship but failed to qualify for the World Cup two years later? 8 Since the millennium, which two men have captained Dunfermline Athletic in Scottish Cup finals? 9 For which three Scottish clubs has Dean Shiels played? 10 Who is the last man to manage a club to success in the European Cup/ Champions League on successive occasions?
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