John Gregory's Thinking about Players Leaving (Ben Kosky/Kilburn Times)

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[Interestingly, nothing in the Kilburn Times about the reported departure of Chief Operating Officer, Graham Mackrell.]

Ben Kosky/Kilburn Times - November 15, 2006 - Ten face the axe
'....."By the time we've played Cardiff, I'll have been here for 10 games and that's a good time to reflect and make an overall, accurate assessment of our squad," Gregory told the Times. "I fell in love with one or two in the first couple of games, fell out of love with them in the next few, quite liked one or two others, disliked one or two others - so it's a little up and down in those first few weeks.
"First impressions are lasting and I don't think you're ever too far wrong, but now I'll know exactly - if I don't already - which players are doing it for me and which aren't doing it for me and never will.
"We've got about 35 professionals, which is an astronomical amount for a club this size - probably at least 10 too many. It's far too expensive and I've got to whittle it down when the opportunity arises.
"Have a look at the matchday programme. There's an enormous list on the back and people say to me 'My God, you've got a lot of players, how come you're near the bottom of the league?' It has got to be streamlined."...
"[Gregory] is keen to ensure that his most recent addition, on-loan defender Michael Mancienne, remains at the club a little longer...[The Cardiff game is his] last before his month's loan from Chelsea runs out.
"We've thrown him in at the deep end, because Michael's played most of his career as a central defender, but we've asked him to go to right-back and he's done a great job for us," said Gregory. "He's probably played more games than he thought he might and he's learning every week - he's made mistakes, but there's a great product to work with. "Michael's fit, he's young, he's intelligent and he'll continue to improve, so I'd love to keep him here a bit longer and I'll be asking Chelsea if we can extend his loan."
... future of Ian Evatt .... Gregory allowed Blackpool to include Evatt for last Saturday's FA Cup victory at Huddersfield and says the onus is on the Seasiders to decide whether the central defender returns to QPR or not....
"I've not crossed that bridge at the moment," Gregory added. "It'll be determined by what Blackpool want to do. Ian's doing very well for them at the moment and I gave them permission to use him in the FA Cup. "I'm looking at it on a monthly basis - if Blackpool decide to send him back, Ian can come and join up with our squad. Whether or not he takes part with the first team remains to be seen. "If they were to come and offer him a long-term contract, that's something I'd talk over with Ian because it'd have to be beneficial to himself and QPR. So we'll wait and see what happens."
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