Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

If you use first impressions to judge a footballer, Hogan Ephraim would be unlikely to get a very fair trial. I could be in a minority of one here, but Ephraim has a similarity to Skeletor (of Masters of the Universe) fame and a pallor which makes Dimitar Berbatov look positively glowing. I thought I was just imagining things until I found an old interview in which he discusses how much he loves Football Manager and the pieces fell into place: http://ultimatefootballmanagercompanion.blogspot.com/2009/03/hogan-ephraim-interview.html). See that's the problem with modern footballers; computer games are now so good that they spend more time indoors than your average supporter (to be fair to him he does admit to never having bought himself on the game because his stats are way too low).

All this could be a very roundabout way of saying I don't have much to say about his season. That isn't entirely true, but he would probably admit himself that he didn't make a great impact on the team in 2008/9. Despite an impressive first campaign with the Hoops in which he made 30 appearances for the club, his second season didn't get started until November. This was clearly down to a change in management with Ephraim featuring far more greatly in Paulo Sousa's plans than in Iain Dowie's.

In fact, Sousa seemed to see a different future for the winger and began to employ him far more centrally. This led to hit-and-miss results with the player clearly finding his feet in a new position and perhaps lacking the physical strength needed to truly impose himself on the opposition. His control and dribbling skills are his most potent weapons but it remains to be seen if the new manager will still place him out on the wing. That QPR have this option is an asset to the squad.

The departure of Sousa may not have helped his progress with the two clearly forming a close relationship, Ephraim going so far as to describe Sousa as like a 'father figure' in an interview. In the end, he made less starts than in his first season, with a great proportion of those coming from the bench and managed only one goal, but if he can lay off his 'seven hour a day' Football Manager habit, he will surely feature more prominently for QPR this season.

It was a case of the club he was coming from being far more exciting than the player himself for Danny Parejo. Signed on a year-long loan from Real Madrid last summer, supporters and neutrals alike couldn't help but wonder if Flavio Briatore's contacts had unearthed access to the type of player QPR would formerly have struggled greatly to attract. Whilst still not being the type of 'marquee' signing that most were expecting, the pedigree of Parejo's previous club and his upbringing within it suggested that QPR were onto a real find.

I got quite easily caught up in the hype surrounding him and fellow loan signing Emmanuel Ledesma. In one early home game, a 2-0 win over Doncaster Rovers, I thought both players were the best things about QPR's attacking play and envisaged a season where they pulled the strings as stalwarts of the side.

The reality was quite different. Parejo was an undoubtedly skilful player with wonderful control but his passing was often wayward or misjudged. His ability to read a game looked decidely poor though this could be attributed to his freshness to the English game. Real Madrid saw fit to recall the player in December to cover injuries to Rubén de la Red and Mahamadou Diarra though he went on to make only 3 appearances and has now moved to Getafe, where he will surely experience more first-team football.

Had he stayed he might have settled in to Championship football and pushed QPR closer to the play-off spots, but I feel the rot had already started to set in and that his heart was never truly at QPR. I don't want to harp on about the Crystal Palace game as I know QPR had worse away performances last seaon (which I luckily didn't witness) but Parejo was woeful that day, disinterested and perhaps even out of his depth in the type of game he should have dominated. He was taken off at half-time in what proved to be his last game for the Hoops. It seemed like a fitting end.

Damiano Tommasi, 7 appearances (7 league), 0 goals.

Who is in charge of transfers at QPR? Do we really have to ask? To say that some of QPR's signings were and remain bizarre is an understatement but that's happens when decisions over player acquisitions fall to a man who has spent his life in Formula One and fashion. The signing of Damiano Tommasi on a one-year deal bore all the hallmarks of a Briatore signing and did leave the impression that he probably conducts these transfers based on who he bumps into at parties.

In truth, I was really impressed by Tommasi on his arrival at the club and his CV suggested he could more than amply cope with the Championship. He had played 262 times for Roma, was an integral part of their Scudetto winning side in 2001 and after suffering a serious knee injury in 2004, he suggested he be put on youth team wages for the good of the club. When you added his wild-man image and advancing years, it was hard not to instantly warm to him and I thought he had the makings of a real cult hero at QPR.

But the problem with the Briatore transfer policy is that players seem to be signed with little thought into how or where they will be deployed. As a result, Tommasi suffered the fate of most QPR midfielders in being switched around, even finding himself on the wing. Despite my reservations about Gavin Mahon, the defensive midfield position is one where QPR have adequate coverage. At 34, Tommasi was the most short-termist of signings and QPR promptly terminated his contract by mutual consent (not quite in the same way they did for Paulo Sousa) after just 7 appearances. He has now moved to Chinese side Tianjin Teda so he is definitely winding up his playing days, if he wasn't already at Loftus Road.

What the signings of Parejo, Tommasi and Ledesma all point to is that you won't get promoted by purely shopping around for short-term loan deals of either untested youth players or ageing veterans. But that's really a subject for another day...

Another loan signing, more initial promise and then eventual disappointment and a quiet exit out the back door. Its certainly a strange way to do business.

If anything, Emmanuel Ledesma was the most promising loan signing to arrive at QPR last season. He arrived in the summer of 2008 from Serie A side Genoa with then manager Iain Dowie trumpeting his technique and his potential to make an instant impact on the side.

This wasn't far from the truth. He grabbed his debut goal for the Hoops in only his second home game and at that point, I thought that he and Parejo would form a promising partnership in midfield. In his next game, a Carling Cup tie against Carlisle United, he produced a hat-trick; in the game after that, at Bristol City, he got sent off. Those three games in succession demonstrated quite a lot about Ledesma; genuine ability despite a tendency to showboat at times; a decent shot and awareness in front of goal and worrying inconsistency and a definite immaturity.

He remained a near-regular in the side until his departure in early January without ever again finding the net or truly hitting the promise of those early weeks. It was another departure by the back door; the loanees at QPR arrive and leave with indecent abruptness, but his loss would not be greatly mourned by QPR's fans. He saw out the rest of last season at Serie B side Salernitana but will drop another division for 09/10 to play with Novara Calcio, which suggests his career has hit something of a road-block in recent months.

The one who nearly got away. Adel Taarabt has now signed on at Loftus Road for another year (as a loan signing of course. You can't expect Briatore and co to actually lay out for transfers, right?) after his seven appearances at the tail-end of last season.

That was far from a foregone conclusion though, despite being one of the few bright points as QPR played out the season with promotion impossible. With most of the team making it very hard to judge if attendance at Loftus Road was still necessary after March, Taarabt could at least be called on to entertain following his loan move from Spurs (where he made 14 appearances from the bench but no starts). Sometimes that entertainment derived from his pace and ability on the ball; on other occaisions, from some of his pitiful dives which bordered on the embarrasing.

He's already shown what he can do in pre-season with a fantastic solo effort in the 3-0 win over Southampton so his presence in the squad for the next 12 months (well, so they say) is a definite plus. With Lee Cook and Wayne Routledge and now the signing of Alejandro Faurlin, he is one of a number of attacking midfield options for QPR which can only help in pushing the team's goals tally higher. That could be the key in a potential promotion campaign.

The one that did get away. The sense behind sacking Paulo Sousa could be debated for a long time but it is clear to me that four to five months is nowhere near ample time for a manager to impose their vision on a club. What will be interesting is how Sousa shapes up this season at Swansea City, a side which finished seven points ahead of QPR last season and who may challenge for the play-off spots again.

What could aid his cause is having Jordi Lopez to call on, another departure from Loftus Road. In ten games at the tail-end of last season, Lopez didn't set the world alight and the club showed that they were more than willing to let him depart by failing to offering him the contract he was looking for, but Lopez still did enough to show that he could bring more to the defensive midfield role than Gavin Mahon. He was composed on the ball and we were beginning to see the elements of his attacking game as well, with some deft passing and incisive through balls. Of all the loan signings (Lopez, though not at a club at the time, has to be considered a loan signing as he only arrived on a short-term deal), this is the one the club should have made greater efforts to retain (excluding perhaps Adel Taarabt who thankfully they have brought back for another season).

Why then did he go? As a free agent, it was obviously at Lopez's discretion as to where he went. Perhaps he had a look at the set-up at Loftus Road and thought he didn't fancy a season of managerial changes and boardroom interference. Apparently QPR didn't offer him the money he was looking for, though surely they would be better equipped to offer a sizeable contract than Swansea City. In short, the club weren't too sure on him and coupled with that, the player had a genuine desire to be reunited with his fellow countryman at the Liberty Stadium. In this respect, Paulo Sousa has something that Jim Magilton does not; a name which has resonance around Europe and which can attract players normally out of QPR's reach. Magilton may well make up for this in other departments and supporters will hope that he shows more tactical consistency than Sousa, but they will also hope that they are not lamenting the two that got away come next May.

I've spent a fair bit of time criticising the transfer set-up at QPR, whereby the owners, despite a stated desire to be in the Premier League, look unwilling to dip into their pockets on a regular basis for permanent buys and prefer instead to get by with a smattering of loan signings. The benefit of such short-term deals is that if the player cannot hack it, the club can easily get rid of him and this was thankfully the case with Liam Miller.

Miller arrived on a short-term deal at Loftus Road in January, with Paulo Sousa complimenting the player on his 'box-to-box' abilites. There was little evidence of this in his 13 games with the club, as he tended to be firmly rooted in the middle, offering little in the way of attacking options. For a player brought up at Celtic and then Man United, I was definitely expecting a greater degree of composure and touch from Miller. All too often, he would get caught out on the ball in the middle of the park (a frequent problem for QPR, with Gavin Mahon suffering from the same tentativeness when in possession).

In this instance, the short-term nature of QPR's acquisitions played to their advantage. They would have gained little from having Miller at the club for two or three years in my opinion, especially when there are areas of the team in greater need of improvement. Perhaps tellingly, the player, despite still being called up for the Republic of Ireland squad, has not yet found a club for the upcoming season.