With Harry Redknapp settling into his latest managerial chair at Queens Park Rangers and his trusted lieutenants Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond having joined the 65 year-old in his latest gargantuan challenge, the Loftus Road hierarchy can expect to quickly learn who their new appointment would like to recruit to bolster an already bloated playing staff.
Various sections of the media protest that they bear no favouritism towards Redknapp and deny having championed his cause when the England Manager’s job – or any other high profile position – became vacant. What they cannot argue is that by virtue of his diligence in the transfer market Redknapp provides oodles of copy – be it through rumour or genuine activity.
So it was that the man who left Tottenham Hotspur in June hadn’t even watched his new club in action before names were being widely circulated as potential QPR targets. At this early stage obvious candidates were put forth. Recurring names included; Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Scott Parker, players who have previously worked with Redknapp and with two notable factors in common. They are the wrong side of 30 and would command eye-watering wages.
Although having the advantage of being proven talent and known to the new QPR boss, the age and cost attached to those individuals draws similarities with the recruitment policy adopted by Redknapp’s predecessor, Mark Hughes.
It is widely accepted that there was little clear thinking adopted by the Welshman in his purchasing of a raft of players, with no obvious consideration afforded as to how they would form a coherent and, vitally, relatively successful unit. The Loftus Road midfield ranks have been overloaded with bodies. Admittedly stellar talent such as Esteban Granero and Samba Diakite are joined by Stephane M’Bia, Ji Sung-Park and the excellent Alejandro Faurlin. With Adel Taarabt, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jamie Mackie and Junior Hoilett all utilised wide or off a forward that area of the pitch is overflowing with similar options.
Defensively and up-front the story is different. It didn’t require impeccable foresight to suspect that Andy Johnson’s and Bobby Zamora’s brittle bodies wouldn’t be conducive to regular football, while Djibril Cisse, who defines the term enigmatic, has been far from an unqualified success.
Crucially, no settled back-four has been established and, in his first match in charge at Sunderland, Redknapp employed Ryan Nelsen and Clint Hill, 35 and 34 respectively, in the heart of the R’s defence. Hughes’ skewed thinking was of course evidenced by the purchase of Inter Milan’s Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar two months after securing England squad man Robert Green to be his Number 1.
Tony Fernandes, the chairman at Loftus Road, having so publicly backed his former manager who he appointed to establish QPR in the top-flight, will be seeking far greater clarity of thought from the new man in his player investments.
If long term prosperity is to be achieved, the Redknapp era must immediately halt the feckless, ‘pot-shot’ attitude towards QPR’s transfer business. The latest names to be linked with a January move to Shepherd’s Bush are Darren Bent and, even more worryingly on a loan basis, Joe Cole.
If Bent can be bought at a price considerably lower than the £24m he cost Aston Villa two years ago he could conceivably be a canny signing. Nevertheless, the risk remains prohibitively high. Bent did ensure Villa’s survival in the months following his switch from Sunderland and he comes with as close to a guarantee for goals as is possible. Against that, the forward has never laid down roots since leaving Ipswich Town in 2005, he would arrive with minimal – if any – recent first-team football and if, as remains quite likely, QPR are relegated they will have yet another player on their roster with a burdensome wage who would depart at a loss.
Taking the Bent example temporary purchases may at first sight look a sensible option for Redknapp. Cole is a player the manager knows well, having overseen his initial precocious development at West Ham United. For all his endeavour and desire, the 31 year old’s powers have waned since a serious knee injury sustained in 2008. Cole is another in current receipt of a monstrous wage and, regardless of the honest intentions of any player, if their own long-term future isn’t tied into that of their transient employer how much effort can they be guaranteed to exert for the cause?
The task for Redknapp must be to identify a limited number of individuals he believes can improve his team and, decisively, make a telling contribution not only in the existing fight for survival but towards the long-term ambitions of the forward thinking club. Players with a real hunger to play in the Premier League and a yearning to forge a career in what can potentially be an exciting period at Loftus Road must be the target.
The signing of mercenaries seeking a retirement bounty has been ruinous to on-field form and divisive and unsettling off the pitch. Even if Redknapp is able to offload any big earner he considers expendable – an exacting task itself – his employers, wearied by their cash outlay to date and aware of the impending possibility for Premier League replication of UEFA’s controversial Financial Fair Play rules, will want further recruits to offer value corresponding to cost.
So where should the ebullient manager be looking for personnel who fit the necessary criteria? His chief defensive target is reputedly Michael Dawson, another former Redknapp charge, who had looked to be on his way out of Tottenham Hotspur. The former Nottingham Forest man has regained his starting place under Andre Villas-Boas however, and wouldn’t come cheap in either wages or transfer fee. Joleon Lescott is out of favour at Manchester City but his price would put that of Dawson in the shade, and it’s unlikely a man with designs on a starting England berth would welcome a move to a club fighting relegation.