QPR's Championship Prospects This Season - A Detailed Look

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From last week's Ealing Gazette (prior to the Bristol City and Orient games or the latest "developments" in the QPR takeover saga: A very detailed look at QPR's prospects this season:


Ealing Gazette, August 9, 2007 - Who will do what?

A BIG season awaits Dexter Blackstock, who must now step out of the shadows of Paul Furlong and Kevin Gallen and earn the tag of indispensable striker.

There were times last season when he showed he is more than ready to assume that key role and Rangers need the player to be injury-free and firing towards 20 goals if they are to avoid another flirtation with relegation and harbour more ambitious thoughts.

But the man who increasingly makes Rangers tick is Adam Bolder - who is an even better harrier and passer than Marc Bircham.

The untimely injury to another midfielder, Simon Walton, has upset John Gregory's best laid plans. The midfielder had settled in well and was a likely starter. Now Stefan Bailey and Stefan Moore could enjoy an unexpected new lease of life.

Rangers should be more solid at the back this season with Danny Cullip, Damion Stewart, Michael Mancienne, John Curtis, Dominic Shimmin and Pat Kanyuka sharing the central defensive duties and the full-backs look OK

Up front, Ben Sahar probably did enough against Fulham last week to earn a starting role alongside Dexter Black-stock, so Danny Nardiello may have to bide his time for a while.

Ray Jones and Marc Nygaard are useful alter-natives but neither can be classed as consistent.

It goes without saying that Rangers will miss a stack of goals which originated from Lee Cook's sweet left foot and nobody appears as equally adept at finding an extra yard of pace. Gareth Ainsworth can on his day, but we must assume he will have cameo roles, given an all-action style that invites injury.

Martin Rowlands needs to stay fit so he can provide the bullets from setpieces if nothing else.

In actual fact, he is rather more important than that and his form seems inextricably bound to Rangers' fortunes. If he plays well, Rangers are always that much more likely to win. Ealing Gazette


EALING GAZETTE - August 9, 2007 - {Gregory] I won't let us repeat last year's failing- QPR News by Yann Tear

JOHN Gregory has vowed to steer QPR to safer pastures this season and is convinced his team will show signs of vast improvement.

The Rs were too close to the relegation trapdoor for comfort last season and only a late burst of form took them clear of danger.

But Gregory has had time to shape the squad in his image now and says he has a totally different animal under his wing than he did last September when he took over from Gary Wad-dock.

"It can't be any worse than last year. It was an awful time for us and as long as I'm here, we'll never drop to those depths again," the Rangers boss said.

"It feels a little bit more like my team now. It's slowly coming and I've been able to pick up one or two bargains on the way.

"There's a really professional feel about the place in the way the boys go about their training.

"We've come a long way since last September. We've got a long, long way to go and there's a lot better teams than us in this division. But one thing you'll get off this bunch of lads is total commitment."

Outlining his reasons for thinking far better times are ahead this term, Gregory continued: "I think the players I inherited are better now than they were last September when I came in.

"Damion Stewart is a better player now, Zesh Rehman is a better player than he was when we came in. Marcus Bignot too.

"All the people who were here when we came in have improved. They've worked hard on their games and listened carefully to the coaching staff.

"On the medical side, our play-ers are exceptionally fit. We've got a fantastic medical set-up here with Joe Dunbar our performance manager and Mark Barry our fitness coach.

"Right the way through with physios and masseurs, remedial therapists, I feel I've got a really good back-up team. Mick Har-ford and Warren Neil on the coach staff.

"The fitness levels that they've got is probably the biggest single feature of how things have changed over the last nine months.

"Mick Harford's only been here a month and it's the one thing that's really hit him, how hard everybody works on the training ground Monday to Friday.

"If you work well Monday to Friday, you take it into the game on the Saturday. Hopefully we can get off to a reasonable start and do better than last year."

Rangers are among the teams expected to struggle this season, if the bookmakers are to be believed, but victory over Premier League neighbours Fulham last week added to the wave of optimism. Ealing Gazette


EALING GAZETTE -August 9, 2007 - Sahar adds to optimism -Gregory's View By Yann Tear

THERE is no pressure from Chelsea for QPR to play Ben Sahar, John Gregory has said - but if the loaned striker can fulfil the hints of promise shown in last week's friendly win over Fulham, it will be impossible to leave him out.

The teenager turns 18 today (Friday) but appears to have a far older head on his shoulders.

He showed the right mix of robust desire and calmness in bagging his second half goals in the 2-1 win over the Whites and already the hope must be that his three-month stay can be extended to the New Year at least.

"Ben could certainly play a big part for us this season," Gregory said. "He's quick and clever and makes lots of good runs which sometimes don't get picked out by us because we are not as good as he is sometimes.

"Hopefully we can give him a good education here over the next six months.

"We are looking to keep him until the January window when he might be recalled to Chelsea because of the African Nations Cup.

"We will do our very best to look after him and he will certainly improve us."

Gregory added: "If there is such a thing as trying too hard, probably Ben was doing that in the first half.

"It was his home debut and he wanted to just settle down, but the sign of a good goalscorer is when you're one on one against the goalkeeper when you've got time to think about it.

"So many people fluff it. He just set himself up and slotted it like a 32-year-old. Like a Shearer, like a Bergkamp, or an Henry. It was a great finish.

"He earned the first goal himself with his attitude to nick the ball and he thumped it home with tremendous authority for somebody so young."

Rangers have three Chelsea players on loan, with James Simmonds joining Sahar and Michael Mancienne at Loftus Road this month, but that does not mean the Blues will dictate the line-up, Gregory insists, even though he has made no secret of his will-ingness to become a quasi-feeder club for the Premier League neighbours.

"I didn't want to waste Ben Sahar's time by playing him in the reserves or he might as well have stayed at Chelsea," the Rangers boss said.

"But I'm under no pressure from Chelsea to start their players in every match, they are always very good about that, although they would obviously be concerned if either of them [Sahar or Mancienne] ended up not playing in the first team for a long period."We had Jimmy Smith and Michael Mancienne last year and at certain stages, both of them came out of the team and had a little breather because the intensity of the Championship was enormous pressure on the young boys."

Basing your hopes around a raw teenager who may not be around for long is not normally the sign of stable outfit, but Sahar's performance tapped into a well of optimis. The belief at the club is that it can't be as bad as last year and that Gregory is beginning to assemble a sturdier team.

But the foundations remain rocky. The club is looking for new investors and there is every indication that Gianni Paladini and the Monaco group will be happy to jump ship if the price is right.

There is no money to bail Rangers out of trouble, should the going get tough, hence a groundswell of opinion outside W12 that they will struggle to beat the drop.

The loans at the club are not just on the pitch but off it too and as long as debts are dragging the club down - especially alleged rulebending ones with chairmen of other clubs - the optimism can never come without an asterisk.

Recent years have been marked by a strange mix of high farce and thuggery which have done the club no favours - the gun-toting episode at Loftus Road, the brawl at Harlington with the Chinese Olympic team and the pre-season plastic-pitch farce in Italy last year.

They could do without such distracting controversies again.

Gregory is aware of the optimism but knows there is no mileage in milking it too much. An injury here or there, as happened last week to unlucky new signing Simon Walton, who fractured his left leg, shows how fragile this season's journey could be.

"I'm sure that after beating Fulham, all the QPR fans will be expecting me to win the league by 20 points, otherwise I'll get the sack," Gregory joked.

"A realistic target for us is to be above half way, I think.

"Losing Simon Walton is a big blow because we'd earmarked him to play in that central midfield role. He's a really solid, dependable player and person who's taken to this place like you wouldn't believe.

"We are going to have to make one or two adjustments and we might have to go out and bring one more in, although I don't think we've got any money left.

"It was a big fillip for us winning against Fulham. A lot of kudos goes with it. It doesn't count for anything, but it still sends us into good spirits next week."

Gregory added: "We want to get off to a good start. If we do, it's great, if we don't, then we have to put it right.

"We will all be going into that first match full of the joys of spring and all wanting to give it our best shot. But you have to retain that enthusiasm in November when you're playing at Turf Moor on a wet and windy Tuesday night."

And you need to avoid injuries, off-pitch controversies and the loss of your best loan players, he might have added -Ealing Gazette


EALING GAZETTE -Nardiello admits he may have to bide his time a littleAug 9 2007

SUMMER signing Danny Nardiello could only admire from the bench as Ben Sahar stole the headlines in last week's thrilling win for QPR over Fulham, writesYann Tear.

And when he finally came on as sub in the 70th minute, the applause that rang out from the stands was for the two-goal hero from Chelsea rather than for the 24-year-old Wales international.

Nardiello was expected to start the season as Dexter Blackstock's strike partner, but Nardiello concedes now that he may have to be patient.

"It's going to be hard to get in the team but it's always good to have a bit of competition," he told the Gazette.

"If anything I like it because it makes we work harder.

"I always want to start but whether I do or not is up to the manager, obviously. If not, then I'll just have to fight for my place. It's the same any club you are at. As soon as I came here, I knew there was a good set of strikers. The main thing is I'm really enjoying it down here and feel I've settled in well.

"I've played all my football up north even though I'm from Coventry, but I was happy coming down to London and starting a new life down here and hopefully I'll be successful.

"There's a great set of lads and a good manager and I'm enjoying the football. Hopefully we can take the Fulham performance into the season."

Nardiello left under a cloud at Barnsley, where he was poised to sign a new contract before changing his mind.

"I don't think the manager would be too happy with me there, and I'm not too sure what the reception will be like when I go back, but we'll see when that happens." he said. "I'm still mates with all of the lads and a few of the staff at Barnsley.

"All I'm thinking about now is QPR's progress, and we've got to look to push up towards the top of the table.

You don't want to say you just want to stay up this season.

"The gaffer's brought in a lot of new players to improve the squad and there's no reason why we can't push for the top half of the table.

"With any luck it will be better for me than last year when I broke my collarbone near the start of the season and only got nine goals.

"I've played in midfield for Barnsley and my other clubs but I prefer to play up front and hope to be among the goals." Ealing Gazette