"QPR are buying pedigree and there’s a sense in that"

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03Aug

“QPR are buying pedigree and there’s some sense in that”

You can call Mark Hughes a lot of things, but ageist is not one of them. After Queens Park Rangers secured Premier League survival by the skin of their teeth last season, Hughes has set about building a squad with more experience than you can shake a walking stick at. Of the new arrivals at Loftus Road, Ryan Nelsen, Robert Green, Andrew Johnson and Park Ji-Sung are all the wrong side of 30. The Life’s a Pitch panel runs the rule over the Welshman’s buys and wonders whether his strategy of bringing in golden oldies may be a little short-term.

“They’re buying pedigree and there’s some sense in that,” says the Guardian’s Dominic Fifield. “It’s not going to work in the long term, apart from people like Junior Hoilett, but for the moment, if they can establish themselves in mid-table, they can build on that.”

As Dominic points out, not all of Hughes’s new boys are getting on a bit; forward Hoilett is a mere pup at just 22 years old. The panel agrees that the speedy youngster, signed from Blackburn Rovers on a four-year deal, will strengthen the QPR squad.

“Junior Hoilett’s a good, young signing, but they have signed a lot of experience,” says the People’s Dave Kidd. “That’s understandable in a lot of ways. They’re starting off from a very low base. They were very lucky to escape relegation and if Bolton had got a result at Stoke they’d have gone down. These are decent signings that are going to make sure they’re not battling relegation on the last day of the season.”

With the arrival of Johnson, Hoilett and Park, and the likes of Djibril Cissé, Bobby Zamora and Adel Taarabt already on the books, Mark Hughes should have plenty of strength in depth when it comes to going forwards. But does he need to pay a little more attention to other areas of his squad?

“Park is a good signing, Hoilett’s a good signing, but they’re signing attacking players – [Bobby] Zamora, Johnson, etc,” says journalist and author Ian Ridley. “I’m not sure they’ve got enough in midfield, particularly if Joey Barton goes – and I’m sure he will go at some point, if anyone will take him. And at the back, are they really any stronger than they were? Strikers win you games, but defenders keep you up.”

Watch the full video discussion by clicking on the play button in the image above.

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Follow Life’s a Pitch on Twitter @BTLifesaPitch

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http://www.facebook.com/pete.mccullagh Pete McCullagh

We signed Zamora last year so don’t use that to build an argument. Out of 7 signing 1 has been a goal keeper and 2 defenders, 3 midfielders (including a holding midfielder) and 1 striker.

Some good points and the defence needs strengthening but lets not act like it’s been ignored. Since fernandes took over less than a year ago we’ve signed a goalkeeper and 7 defenders (two loans.)
Nelly the Ranger

We are signing players with premier league experience, something we really lacked last seaon. But we also have Onouha, Faurlin, Diakite, Hoilett and Taraabt so there is a core of younger players to build a team for the future.

QPR fans in particular are very much looking forward to seeing Faurlin & Diakite in the middle of the pitch. Last season Neil Warnock’s sacking came just after Faurlin did his cruciate and attracted all the headlines. I don’t think the wider footballing wold appreciated what a massive loss that was to our team, everything comes through Faurlin, he sits in the middle and dictates play. He is class and I can’t wait to have him back.
JW

Ian Ridley’s comment is odd. Here’s a list of our midfield (minus Barton) for 2012/13

Ali Faurlin
Samba Diakite
Adel Taraabt
Shaun Wright-Phillips
Junior Hoilett
Shaun Derry
Ji Sung Park
Jamie Mackie
Hogan Ephraim
Armand Traore

How many more do we need?

Agree the defence is still too weak, though.
http://www.facebook.com/paul.finney.315 Paul Finney

We also have signed Samba Diakité a class act of a player who is under 24 also have Faurlin 25 to came back into the squad and with Fabio 22 coming in on loan and also with the re signing of Adel Taarabt 23 i think your point of an golden oldie team is some what flawed.Our midfield will be one of the best in the league and one that will put us back on the premier football map.People forget we did stay up and just about but that was done to a few things and that is most of the players did not have a pre season a change of manager and Mark Hughes had to hit the ground running and the home wins were amazing after many hacks wrote us off.As a QPR fan i am over the moon with your so called over the hill players forgive the pun on our Clint.
Martin Percival

Some
fair comments here about the defence and midfield but it’s stronger than some of the pundits think. Rangers have signed quality and their contracts are typically 2 years, so Rangers are not stacking up problems for themselves with older player on 4 year long contracts etc. There have been some
negative comments about the ages of some of the recent signings but in
the mid 1970s Dave Webb and Frank McLintock formed the backbone of a
side that were runners up in Div 1 and UEFA Cup quarter finalists – and
they were far from young! Their experience for the younger players around them, like Gerry Francis, Stan Bowles and Dave Thomas. All in all I think there’s been some great
work done over the summer and I am really looking forward to the new
season. I think Rangers will finish at least mid table. Tony Fernandes may be inexperienced in football – but Mark Hughes most certainly is not.
http://www.facebook.com/jjaycock John Alexander Jaycock

Why exactly do you keeping getting Dave Kidd on here, and asking him his opinion on Rangers? No QPR fan wants to hear, or even cares, what a ludicrously biased Fulham fan has to say about our club. Try asking someone slightly more impartial next time please.

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