‘No offence, I was surprised the Cowley’s decided this was the job they’d take’ - QPR Preview
Brady Frost, Feature Writer
Twitter: @brady0894
Source for image above: HTAFC
Ahead of QPR’s visit to the John Smith’s Stadium, we spoke to Clive Whittingham from LoftforWords about his team’s form and why he’s surprised the Cowley’s took the job.
Fresh from their visit to the capital, Huddersfield Town are back in action at home this Saturday, as West London club QPR visit the John Smith’s Stadium. The Rs, who sit 16th in the table have had a mixed season, recently losing former Town player Nakhi Wells, who was recalled from Burnley and then sold on to Bristol City.
These teams last met in August, where they played out a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road. Karlan Grant scored Huddersfield’s goal before the team were pegged back by a late equaliser from defender Grant Hall. Then manager Jan Siewert, also gave Lewis O’Brien his first competitive start for the club, a player that has gone on to be a regular for the side ever since.
QPR are the third highest scoring team in the league, but can Huddersfield get the win to push themselves away from the relegation zone? And He Takes That Chance spoke to Clive Whittingham, from QPR fan website LoftforWords to find out more.
QPR players celebrating in their win against Cardiff earlier this month. Photo source: QPR
How would you rate QPR’s season so far?
I’ve quite enjoyed it, which is a bit odd given how low down the league table we are. You have to set everything that’s going on at QPR presently in the correct context. We blew our big chance, twice, gaining promotion to the Premier League twice but spending hundreds of millions on footballers to do it and try and stay there.
We invested nothing in infrastructure, we didn’t save any of the money from three seasons up there, we essentially have nothing to show for it. The hope is we’ll be FFP compliant and in a good position to spring forward in the next few years while other clubs that have overreached get caught up in it.
So in that context, and on the positive side, we’ve been exciting to watch this season. Only West Brom have scored more goals than us, we have some very talented young attacking players like Ebere Eze, Ilias Chair and Bright Osayi-Samuel who are great to watch, we’ve been involved in some great games and had some big wins (six v Cardiff, five v Swansea, four v Blackburn). The football is attractive, you look forward to going to see them.
On the negative, we cannot defend. Only Luton have conceded more goals than us and some of them have been properly shambolic – we do a nice line in horrendous goalkeeping errors, giving away silly penalties and allowing free headers from crosses in open play and at the back post from corners. To go with the big wins have been things like a 4-0 home loss to Forest and 5-3 farce up at Barnsley.
Nakhi Wells was recalled by Burnley from QPR and has since been sold to Bristol City. Photo source: QPR
How disappointing is it to lose Nakhi Wells in the middle of the season?
There was an enormous disappointment to Wells leaving. He seemed very happy at QPR, openly said he wanted to stay, fitted well in the team and we loved having him. It’s the right decision not to break the financial model to sign a player approaching 30 with no sell on value on a contract that breaks our wage structure, but it still hurts seeing your top scorer leaving the club.
There’s been a lot of anger on social media to all of this. Accusing the club of lacking ambition, saying our rich owners should have pushed the boat out for Wells, but it’s simple mathematics. The rest of the support just seems a bit resigned and down about it. The atmosphere against Bristol City on Saturday was non-existent.
What’s your prediction for the rest of your season?
Rangers since seem to have taken the pragmatic approach that we’re not going up and very unlikely to go down, so what’s the point spending money now trying to replace Wells and move us from say sixteenth to twelfth. They’ve allowed a couple of other first-team players to leave and terminated a couple of other loan deals as well, just to cut costs for the rest of the season. We basically seem to have given up on doing much this season and are hoping to save as much money for the summer.
Best case scenario is this gamble doesn’t drag us into a relegation fight and we end up bumbling through playing the decent, attractive football we’ve seen so far and finish mid-table. Difficult to get excited about that, especially with a lot of expensive, long-distance away trips still to come.
What’s been the reaction from QPR fans to their January transfer business?
One of the problems the cash restrictions has caused us is in the striker market. A half-decent forward at this level, Jordan Hugill say, goes for £8m these days. Gary Madine cost that going to Cardiff for goodness sake.
We’re trying to shuffle through with loans but the problems with that are multiple. They’re not free, and the money it costs you is dead money because you don’t get to keep the player.
Whenever you get a loan it’s just human nature to spend the second half of the season eyeing up your next deal, hope they don’t get injured or their form drops. Sometimes you get one who does absolutely brilliantly, as Wells did this year, but as they’re not your player and you can’t afford to buy them they can get recalled late in January and then you’re in trouble.
We need to find a way to be able to buy a striker of our own in this market and with our restrictions – we’re looking at a lad in the Scottish Championship for instance.
Ebere Eze has had many admirers in his breakout season for QPR. Photo source: QPR
Which players have performed well but gone under the radar to other clubs in the league?
Everybody is talking about Ebere Eze and it looks like he’ll be off for big money in the summer, but Bright Osayi-Samuel has had an amazing winter so far and given a few full backs proper nightmares. Ilias Chair is the next in line behind those and we’ve just started picking a young Irish centre half we have called Connor Masterson and he’s impressing.
What did you think of Huddersfield in their previous encounter with QPR this season?
Huddersfield were one of the teams we had real trouble calling in our pre-season previews so it was interesting to get a look at them early on in August. I thought Karlan Grant was good and Schindler played well at the back but other than that you were pretty poor and I was disappointed we only took a point from the game – a late point at that. It wasn’t a great surprise to see you start the season slowly and change manager on the evidence of that day.
Is there anything Huddersfield need to be on the lookout for in this game?
That front three of Eze, Chair and Osayi-Samuel playing behind Hugill. If we’re going to win the game they’ll be doing the winning.
QPR winger Bright Osayi-Samuel has impressed this season. Photo source: QPR
What do you think of Huddersfield so far this season?
No offence, I was surprised the Cowley’s decided this was the job they’d take, given how high their stock was and the jobs they were getting linked with. Looked like a tough ask. Parachute payments and a superb striker yes, but essentially about half a dozen wins in a year and a half, team bereft of confidence, lots of key figures (Wagner, Webber, Hoyle) who’d been behind the original meteoric rise no longer there… Given all of that, they seem to have done about as well as could have been expected.
What’s the fan consensus about this game? Is it seen as a winnable fixture?
There isn’t a great deal of optimism about anything at the moment, which is a real shame given we started January with a 6-1, 5-1 and then a third win against Leeds. The whole place just seems to have flattened out after losing Wells and not bringing anybody in, however much of the right decision that was.
A nice away win here would be a real lift, and with the amount of goals we score and the attacking players we have, we’ll always be a danger to teams. We’ve already won as many away games this season as we did in the whole of last when it often felt like we were beaten before we set off.
What’s your score prediction for the game?
I’ll go for a high scoring draw. Our matches are usually a good bet for both teams to score on the coupon.
How do you think Huddersfield will get on against QPR? Let us know in the comments!
