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Thursday, November 29, 2007

QPR January Departures

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Ealing Gazette/David McIntyre - January clearout for Rangers
Several fringe players told they have no future at Loftus Road

Zesh Rehman, Nick Ward and summer signing John Curtis have been told they have no future at QPR.
The trio, plus defenders Marcus Bignot and Danny Cullip, were recently informed that the club wanted rid of them when the January transfer window opens.
Bignot has been loaned to Millwall, while Cullip has alread departed after reaching a financial settlement with Rangers and the others have been in talks with a view to doing the same.
It brings an end to Bignot's second spell at Loftus Road, during
which he served the club well during a dark period in which Rangers were relegated to Division Two and spent time in administration, and when he later returned to help them clinch promotion and stay in the Championship.
Cullip, 31, was credited with playing a significant role in Rangers'
survival in the division after being signed by former manager John
Gregory last January but has been out of the reckoning since Gregory was sacked earlier this season.
Curtis, 29, was a surprise acquisition by Gregory in the summer having looked out of his depth in League One with Nottingham Forest, and he has predictably failed to impress.
Australian midfield prospect Ward was just 21 when he signed from Perth Glory in the summer of 2006. He arrived when an increasingly unpopular board at the club were reeling from a series of damaging bad-news stories. They needed a major signing to placate their critics, and Ward was unfairly heralded as one.
He never looked comfortable with that burden or the demands of Championship football, and the writing has been on the wall for him for some time.
Rehman will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the worst players to wear the hoops. He struggled in Fulham's first-team before being inexplicably bought by Rangers as a replacement for Dan Shittu after an attempt to sign Dean Leacock from the Cottagers ran into trouble.
Youngsters Shabazz Baidoo and Dominic Shimmin have reached the end of the line as well.
They have been loaned to Gillingham and Bournemouth respectively after also learning that they are not wanted at Rangers.
Striker Baidoo has failed to establish himself at senior level despite
some promising early displays.
Shimmin is a hugely talented defender but has been almost permanently sidelined with a series of niggling injuries, and has played a paltry number of games since signing from Arsenal in March 2005. Ealing Gazette