Reviewing QPR's Summer...Previewing QPR's Signings

-
Dave McIntyre - BBC 606 Championship QPR
by David M - BBC Sport (U1628513) 17 July 2008

So, the wait is nearly over.

Whether you’re a Gold, Silver or Bronze QPR fan you’ll know that this weekend Rangers play Stevenage in their first pre-season friendly of the summer.

I’m sure even the Platinum lot will be telephoning their butlers from their yachts at 5pm on Saturday to find out what the score was.

You’ve no doubt spent the summer scouring the various QPR websites, where you can feast on loads of excellent articles as well as the constant transfer rumours and just about everything else to do with Rangers.

You’ve followed the Kaspars Gorkss saga, waited to see the new kit and possibly pawned your valuables in order to buy a season ticket.

You may even have read about QPR in Marketing Weekly and Gulf Weekly. A sign of the times.

Rangers are big news these days and the club is changing, but not changing enough for lifelong fan Paul Gooch to pass away without being given a decent send off.

Paul, who was a longstanding member of the QPR Loyal Supporters Association, left no next of kin when he died in May.

Rather than let the local council organise a burial, his fellow QPR fans stepped in and raised enough money to give him a proper funeral, which R’s legend Stan Bowles attended.

That for me was more significant than any waffle about being the “richest club in the world” and I hope it’s an aspect of the club that’s never lost no matter what the future holds.

And the future is bright if you believe the bookies and the club’s PR.

These are certainly interesting times and the Stevenage game may give us a small glimpse of what lies ahead.

I’m not big on pre-season optimism and this year is certainly no different, but more on that another time. At least I’ll be going to Stevenage with a relatively open mind.

The reason is the probable inclusion of players I know nothing about, plus one or two more I’m sure will do a decent job this season.

Peter Ramage is a grafter and a capable defender whose signing from Newcastle will prove to be a good acquisition if he stays fit while Gorkss, who seems unlikely to feature on Saturday, is an improvement on Rangers' current options at centre-back.

But Samuel Di Carmine, Matteo Alberti and Emmanuel Ledesma could be potentially world class or Hugo Ukah-class for all I know, which is why the Stevenage game could be interesting.

In recent years I’ve had the misfortune to have seen most of Rangers’ summer signings play enough times to form a firm opinion about them before they've even pulled on the hooped shirt.

That left no room for any pre-season optimism whatsoever, I can tell you.

Not for me the high hopes that surrounded the likes of Karl Connolly, Christer Warren, Ian Evatt, Zesh Rehman, Stefan Moore and Tommy Doherty – all players I was disappointed the club signed, to put it mildly.

Others I was far happier to see arrive, but it’s sometimes better to know nothing about a player and feel some hope and optimism that they just might be special.

I haven’t felt this way about seeing a player in action since, well, since Nicky Ward.

Now, it’s easy to laugh at that because “world class” Nicky has gone back to Australia, but when I first saw him play I was not disappointed.

He was pretty much what I expected; talented but very raw and nowhere near ready for Championship football having never sampled anything comparable to it.

If any of the new players show the ability Ward did early on, I’ll be more than happy.


Anyone who saw Steve Slade play in a friendly at Brentford some years ago would have been forgiven for thinking he was destined for the top. He looked absolutely brilliant.
Ward was signed at a time when a troubled regime at Rangers badly needed a major signing, and he was unfairly trumpeted as one.

This time the new lads have had a much more solid grounding and, more importantly, there is an understanding that it may take them time to adjust and there are other players who can be expected to take a leading role in the meantime.

Ledesma, signed on a season-long loan from Genoa with a view to a permanent move, is especially seen as a star of the future.

Based on recent years, that’s not a good sign at all. I’ve lost count of the number of overseas youngsters the club have been recommended or had training with them who were supposedly brilliant but turned out to be anything but.

It’s also impossible to read too much into pre-season performances. Doherty’s style was perfect for friendlies, for example.

And anyone who saw Steve Slade play in a friendly at Brentford some years ago would have been forgiven for thinking he was destined for the top. He looked absolutely brilliant.

Talking of Brentford, personally I don’t think a pre-season campaign is quite the same without a game against them.

Memories of summer matches at Griffin Park include losing 1-0 one year and Massimo Mauro, an Italian trialist, featuring for Rangers on another visit there. If you were there you’ll remember the name. And you’ll remember the song too.

I also remember a young Leon Jeanne tearing Brentford apart and another year when Mark Graham woefully sliced a cross to the utter disgust of the Rangers fans behind the goal.

It was the first and only time I’ve seen a player seriously barracked by fans at a pre-season friendly, perhaps summing up the growing negativity around the club at the time.

Ledesma will be much more composed on the ball with a good range of passing. That’s for sure.

Alberti, a right winger, and Di Carmine, a nippy striker, will hopefully also have something to offer.

It would be nice to think at least one of them can make an impact this season and the prospect of seeing them in action is reason enough to look forward to the Stevenage game.

We'd like your views on Saturday's match and throughout the season on 606. It could be quite a year. BBC