Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, or as Scots poet Robert Burns originally said, feck fae bleurgh, something incomprehensible in Scottish. From having hoped to regularly update this site throughout June as I had so miserably failed to do in May, I've actually been even more lapse in my dedication to writing about Rangers. All I can do is blame the World Cup, which unlike Neil Warnock, I have actually been enjoying.

It also provided a much-needed opportunity to do some in-depth scouting for QPR. My own high-level analysis of each and every game in the tournament has revealed that the QPR board should be looking in the direction of David Villa, Diego Forlan, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mesut Ozil and they need to withdraw any bids for Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney immediately. If that fails, anyone from the squads of Ghana, Japan or Uruguay should be able to cut it in the Championship while the footballing feast in South Africa showed that it is wrong to overly rely on English players, as Fabio Capello learned the hard way.

While the England squad was finding imaginative new ways to embarrass themselves in the southern hemisphere, here is what QPR were up to...

New Faces

In the cut-throat world of football transfers, there is no point in being a shrinking violet and no-one could accuse Warnock of tip-toeing around the market this summer. He has been true to his word at the end of last season in making numerous additions to the squad, with the number of new arrivals jumping from two in May to a further three in June and also a further promise that more could be on the way. Prior to the players' return to pre-season training at the start of this month, their manager spoke of his happiness with his summer dealings so far, but also of a desire to add further 'icing to the cake' with two or three attackers possibly to follow.

So, after bringing Leon Clarke and Jamie Mackie in during May, QPR's transfer activity over the last month could best be summarised as 'better the devil you know'. Warnock has been dogged in his pursuit of three players who were formerly under his command while also coming very close, but failing, for now, in adding a fourth. He's also shown that he isn't scared to ruffle a few feathers to get his man.

Goalkeeper Paddy Kenny's arrival from Sheffield United on June 7 in a £750,000, three-year deal enraged supporters in the Steel City. They had given Kenny a standing ovation on his return to their team for the final two games of last season, after sitting out nine months following a positive test for banned substance ephedrine. His overtures of loyalty to United at the time now sound fairly hollow, but to look at it from a fairly cynical Rangers perspective, it's a deal that makes a lot of sense and should foster a healthy degree of competition between Kenny and Radek Cerny, who was much-improved at the end of the last campaign.

Alongside Kenny, the month saw Rangers linked with a multitude of names, wildly varying in ability and likelihood of actually signing, from Lee Hendrie, Roman Bednar and Tamika Mkandawire to continuous flirtations with Crystal Palace's Darren Ambrose. Two Palace players did make the switch though to join their former coach.

Midfielder Shaun Derry signed a two-year deal with Rangers on June 22 and joined up with his new team-mates once his Palace contract expired on July 1. The 32-year old who can point to spells at Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and of course Palace on his football CV is better-known for his ability to break up attacks and doggedly tackle the opposition over his attacking contributions and pace. It's not a transfer which had supporters rushing to Loftus Road to celebrate, but it could mean Rangers are a tougher team to beat next season, particularly on their travels.

Alongside him, another Palace escapee, Clint Hill, was brought in and again, it's hard not to commend Warnock for the reasoning behind his current deals. The clamour for big-name signings at QPR has surely now dissipated as supporters wake up to the reality of the type of players Rangers can attract. Even with money behind them and a well-known and respected manager on board, this is still a team which seriously flirted with demotion to the third tier of English football last season, which became a by-word for 'shambles' throughout the country and which played in a stadium which was close to half-full for much of that time.

In that respect, it's little wonder that the manager has to use his own cache with former players to finalise deals, because there are few other selling points around QPR at the moment. The attraction of promotion to the Premiership can hold little value with potential candidates until Rangers mount anything close to a serious promotion bid. So Hill is the type of player QPR can attract right now and though preferring to play at centre-back, he will provide the only does provide the club's only real option at left-back right now. The only real questions hanging over his and Derry's transfers, to my mind, would be firstly, why did the club let left-back Dusko Tosic depart following his loan deal and secondly, how great a wage bill will the club rack up if they choose to try and tempt players on free transfers? The suspicion being that often in transfers of that type, the savings made from the absence of a transfer fee are passed on to the players' monthly wage packages.

Another player unlikely to step onto the pitch for peanuts is Adel Taarabt and Warnock avoided spending all of the last few weeks in his garden or in front of the TV by heading to Morocco to try and secure a permanent move for the player to QPR. This one can be filed under 'works in progress' for now.

Goodbye... for now?

Another Warnock promise is that players will be heading through the exit door before the start of the season as well, with a number of candidates suggested in local and national press alike, including Rowan Vine, Gavin Mahon and even Lee Cook. One player who failed to feature in the manager's plans at the end of last season was Angelo Balanta and it was announced in June that he would be heading to MK Dons for a season-long loan. It isn't the best piece of news for his QPR career but it will be interesting to see how he fares because he has shown an ability to find the goals in the past.

The other 'departures' include players who were on loan at Rangers last season so who are no longer officially at the club. One such player is Jay Simpson, the R's top scorer last season and Arsene Wenger indicated that though he rates him highly, he won't stand in his way if he wants to leave for first-team football. If Warnock is serious in trying to find a consistent goal-threat for QPR, he could do a lot worse than bringing Simpson back to Loftus Road in my opinion, but he may not fit the manager's preference for a commanding, physically imposing centre-forward.

Any Other Business?

Just the announcement of the fixture list, no less, which always feels slightly weird in a World Cup year because you've not yet had the full symptoms of football 'cold-turkey'. Looking through it to plan QPR's season could be a good antidote to the no-football blues over this month and the first pre-season friendlies are just around the corner as well. Rangers start with a winnable home fixture against Barnsley but travel to Sheffield United just a week later - a fixture which could kick-start the R's season with a bang (..or a whimper). They also discovered the identity of their first-round Carling Cup opponent - Port Vale - and I can't be the only person who would like to see Rangers acquit themselves better in cup competitions next season, particularly the FA Cup in which their record has gone past embarrassing and now defies logic.

And pre-season training started again. And the manager still wants to bring in more players. And I hope, hope, hope, as always, to be writing on this site far more often from now on...