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Reply | Fulham BCD Friendly?
at 11:24 4 Oct 2026
Limping off in 18th minute clutching hamstring also possible. |
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Reply | WLS podcast
at 13:09 3 Oct 2026
They were a top club, but they weren't a big club: which is similar to now size-wise and a perfectly fair comparison/question. We've punched above our weight in the past - other clubs around are doing so now, how close are we *really* to doing so again?
And there were a good crop of youngsters who came through the generation before, early 80s, when QPR were a 2nd tier club.So, all valid points for someone who successfully came through the system to ask. I'd back KG to know more than anyone on this board or indeed employed by the club about what attributes, skills a youth player needs to secure 100 pro apps. |
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Reply | WLS podcast
at 10:06 3 Oct 2026
Definitely on a par with the four. If we add Peter Hucker, we have a very decent 6-a-side team. |
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Reply | WLS podcast
at 10:01 3 Oct 2026
Really enjoyed this WLS pod, great to bring in a much younger voice from a less grizzled perspective on. I'm a cynic through experience when it comes to QPR, just like Dave and Kevin, but it's always good to be reminded of what genuine hope and excitement looks like!
Ben handled himself enviously well for a 19 year-old. Dave and Kevin are getting some serious pelters on X about how they quizzed him, which seems oddly harsh. It's a sign of respect that they didn't patronise him with softball questions - and he changed their minds a bit at one stage due to that.
There's a thread by William Halliday that is incredibly vitriolic about Dave Mc and Kevin. Who is he? It's pretty personal and he's really got it in for them, especially Kev. It's odd. Most QPR fans could live to be 200 and never achieve as much for Rangers, or give as much joy to QPR fans, as KG did. And if there's one thing Kevin Gallen knows is how a youth player becomes a first teamer. He's got to be in QPR's top five youth grads.
In my lifetime they are (not in order):
Gerry Francis
Dave Clement
Clive Allen
Kevn Gallen
And there's then a rung just below them, Goddard, Neil/Dawes, Langley, Fereday, Quashie and so on. Who is the fifth? |
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Reply | Dembele
at 08:53 2 Oct 2026
Some mad stuff on this thread. He’s 23! Almost exactly the same age as Lloyd and Adamson, players viewed at the start of their journey, desperately trying to find their feet at this level. But because they run round with their tongues out we don't dismiss their clear limitations. We need to give him the same chances and space, surely.
To dismiss a 23 year-old like this, wow. Stan Bowles didn't sign for QPR until he was older, didn't start really performing until he was 25/26. Roy Wegerle was 26 when he hit his purple patch with us having had one good season at Luton at 25. Flair, real flair, takes time to find its way. That's QPR, not Dean Coney/Alfie Lloyd.
Dembele has an ACl, a catastrophic injury, and not his first, but should he recover his level and potential is so much higher than either of those, and Smyth or Saito, so it is incumbent on the club surely to get him where he should be by 25 for us or the market. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 18:19 1 Oct 2026
I don't think we are actually disagreeing. Influence is opaque. But Abu Dhabi would have had less of it without Man City. I hope the PL sanction them as hard as they can.
The one line I disagree is this:
"But the PL is a global brand that also brings in large sums of money and sustains many jobs. Ernst & Young value that at £33bn over the next three years"
This estimate is before the 114 charges. Now, the PL is fatally compromised and its worth domestically and globally will crater. See Serie A, once the dominant league but hobbled by scandals and post the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 cooked. League hasn't really fully recovered there. Here too we are saying that several years of the product exported around the globe, "the best league in the world" is null and void. A sham. A lot of the value is based on the best players and managers being here - that's already changing and will be accelerated now.
The value of the PL will plummet. Oil, meanwhile, as you say continues to rise and that money can be invested elsewhere. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 16:27 1 Oct 2026
Burnham had an atypically good week for a British PM at Labour Conference, praised even by right-leaning journalists...
Two days later he felt compelled to offer that comment in support of the City ownership group who've just been found guilty of incredible cheating. Why? Why not just offer "no comment"? Because he is obliged.
So, today on BBC Politics Live they are not talking about his Conference win. Matthew Syed obliterates him, leaving the Labour MP next to him drowning in deep water, spluttering about Southend (!) and eventually forced to say his PM should clarify his comments.
Incredible own goal scored by Burnham against his own run of play. He's in big trouble. Watch...
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 16:14 1 Oct 2026
Just watched it, really good insights and fantastic not to have so much Disney and other product placement in an edition for once. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 15:08 1 Oct 2026
And yet that's exactly what they (and Qatar, Saudi) did. That the UAE's trade is worth £25b a year to the UK means they have massive political influence, with the City group at the sharp end.
Abu Dhabi Group invested billions into City, regenerated East Manchester to a previously unimaginable degree (at laughably advantageous rates) all the while currying favour of the garrulous mayor, A Burnham.
If at that the end of all that, the footballing body of England that they have - in their eyes - bankrolled and promoted with their expensive sexy football then sanctions them with relegation, eye watering fines and perhaps even banishment as individuals from the sport...well, money doesn't fix that alone. Political influence does.
Andy Burnham's whole brand is about being a good guy in tune with the country and the common man, all about fairness and saying largely what people want to hear. Other than City fans *nobody* wanted to hear Burnham say he would be "really concerned" if the UAE leave City. That's political influence.
Look, I have no idea what's going to happen. But it's potentially very ugly and not just for the City ownership group. The sponsorship deals at Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle will all be thrown under the spotlight. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 13:32 1 Oct 2026
There's enough material out there about Shiekh Mansour and Al Mubarak to suggest these are not people who will meekly accept the kind of sanctions being described. What was it Mansour said about UEFA according to the hack? "I'd rather spend £30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years."
That sports washing thing now is up in smoke. There's no getting back to it for them. They'll want some kind of refund. Burnham knows it for one. Sports washing is not just about advertising a nation, it's also about buying political influence and power: that's being exercised now. [Post edited 1 Oct 13:35]
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 13:02 1 Oct 2026
There is a reasonable chance that this collapses the entire Ponzi scheme of PL football and beyond. Self-interest may prevail, but if Abu Dhabi so choose, they could kamikazi the whole thing in retaliation. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 09:18 1 Oct 2026
The Burnham intervention is the thin end of a wedge that could do real damage to him. Worth looking at Melissa Reddy's X for links to the sweetheart property deals his Manchester gave to Abu Dhabi. It's shocking.
In the Guardian yesterday there was a column by Liew which highlighted the huge mess both the PL and HMG have got themselves into by allowing nation states to buy English football clubs and invest so much.
Two quotes leapt out:
1/ "Just last month, Bloomberg reported UAE officials warning that an adverse verdict against City could threaten billions in Emirati investment in the UK. Bilateral trade between the countries nudged above £25bn in 2025."
So, yes, the day after Andy Burnham's unveiled at conference some ambitious if precariously funded social care programs, he's going to be "really concerned" if the UAE owners of City leave.
2/ Good luck too, PL, with applying those sporting sanctions:
"At this point we should probably recall that this is a football club majority-owned by a country that, according to the UN’s own reports, is defying arms embargos in Sudan and Libya.."
https://www.theguardian.com/co |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 18:20 30 Sep 2026
It would've been hidden if their emails hadn't been hacked. The hack is the key element here. None of this comes out otherwise and the PL would not have investigated after the last CAS hearing win for City.
On that point, I feel a bit for them. As Medway R states, compare the way they've run City to the way Man U have been run in the same period: Man U £1bn in debt with a failing team, leaking roofs, protests from fans at their ill-treatment, redundancies of long-serving staff to cut costs, still massively over-spending £75m on Sesko etc to no avail ...Man City have rejuvenated the entire area, provided 100s of new jobs, rebuilt infrastructure, remodelled football, won dozens of trophies, comfortably in the black...
They face generational sanctions; Man United, carry on lads, you may win something real now again. Man City cheated, but they only got caught because of a hack. Imagine what we'd find in everyone else's emails. Let's have a look at the details of the transfers between Chelsea and Villa, for starters. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 15:11 30 Sep 2026
Well, we weren't caught. No. But QPR weren't ever charged by the PL for an offence, even though QPR's signings and wages suggested obvious breaches. QPR were sanctioned by the EFL, because the EFL have a keener eye on those trying to secure the riches of the PL unfairly.
Let's not forget the PL did not instigate this with Man City. They have no desire to get into a battle with Abu Dhabi (or Saudi, Fenway, Clearlake, whoever: hence the pitiful CFC sanction). They were forced to because the emails were hacked. If the emails hadn't been hacked and details of the crimes released abroad, this would all be under the carpet, Man City top of the league, going for another title. Nothing to see here.
That's why it's such a huge existential issue for the league. Let's imagine Abu Dhabi start some investigations of their own in retaliation. Nobody is clean here.
EDIT: But my comparison wasn't between QPR under the Briatore/Ecclestone or Fernandes/Bhatia eras and Man City; it was between those money bag QPR owners and Jack Walker. He did much more with possibly less. I think owners should spend what they like as long as the debt is largely theirs, not the club's. [Post edited 30 Sep 15:19]
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 13:35 30 Sep 2026
QPR were bankrolled beyond its means to very moderate eventual success and then significant, lasting failure by first Briatore/Ecclestone/Bhatia (Mittal) and then the ludicrous moneybags clown show of Fernandes/Gnanalingam/Bhatia (Mittal). All substantially wealthier than Walker.
We massively overspent, bought terribly, grossly broke financial rules. Where did it get QPR? Now we talk not of buying world class players as we did at the dawn of both those eras - we instead we dream of developing players and then selling them for profit. Like Bournemouth, Brighton or Brentford. How mad would that have sounded in 2008? Through the looking glass.
Money *guarantees* nothing.
Owners should spend what they wish. FFP/PSR is a racket designed just to protect the top three or four clubs. It hasn't helped control transfer fees, nor wages, nor ticket prices, nor saved clubs down the pyramid, hasn't prevented clubs being billions in debt. It has not levelled the playing field at all. None of its reasoning for being is in place. Throw it in the bin.
BUT ownership needs/needed vastly stronger controls. Too late now. But...
Nation states should not own British football clubs. US corporate multi-sport entities should not own British football clubs. Chinese, Far East billionaire speculators should not own British football clubs. Non-dom Bond villains should not own British football clubs. I'm sorry but Malaysian shipping magnets should not own British football clubs.
British football invited vast nation state-sized wealth into its sport, people with zero attachment to the clubs, but - for whatever reason in each case - a keen need to win. Then it imposed spending limits on them. If anyone thinks that Abu Dhabi alone flaunted what they deem these piddling restrictions is in for a shock.
The PL will be forced to impose huge sanctions if this document stands up as it can be read - shell companies with AI stock photos for CEOs, etc. But the Abu Dhabi royal family and men like Al Mubarak, Shiek Mansour are not going to meekly accept humiliation. They will not accept defeat. They're embedded in Britain, especially in Burnham's Manchester. Watching that Soriano video would no doubt have shaken the PL...it could get very dark, very quickly.
It's not just about Man City. I think it's potentially existential for the Premier League. |
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Reply | Jimmy Dunne - our third choice keeper
at 16:10 28 Sep 2026
Yes, I agree. I apologise for responding.
Have spent three years succeeding in not arguing with people about the Middle East having vowed not to engage with strangers on the Internet about it - and the irony of breaking that to respond to an anonymous avatar on a QPR message board in the international break is not lost on me.
To the "look at a map" guy. Am currently reading The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which is a bit more nuanced. Give it a bash. |
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Reply | Jimmy Dunne - our third choice keeper
at 15:06 28 Sep 2026
The USA hosted the World Cup this summer while bombing Iran, who also attended the World Cup, despite mass daily executions at home and fighting wars via proxies throughout the ME.
Iran lost away at Uzbekistan last week and have a friendly with - checks notes - 'The Football Union of Russia' tomorrow.
There is a civil war in Sudan currently that has resulted in over 14 million people being displaced in three years, mass starvation and between 150 and 500 thousand dead.
Sudan are away at Mozambique tomorrow. No news on what symbolic protest Mozambique's players will undertake.
Etc.
In fact, there are over 60 active conflicts globally affecting 35 countries. More than at any time since WW2. Only one involves a nation state actively attempting to invade another to conquer land: Russia/Ukraine. Hence the exclusion of Russia but not Ukraine. None of the other conflicts do involve that.
That's why it's not incomprehensible. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 16:41 27 Sep 2026
Oh yeah, definitely not the oracle. But also a better indicator of what punishment awaits than a (now deleted? Possibly phantom?) tweet from David Ornstein about what sanction Arsenal would prefer.
As you say, there is no direct precedent for cheating on this scale. However, one example of how seriously the breach will be punished - and why you can compare - is that Everton were docked eight points for two minor breaches of PSR, that they admitted. Man City have apparently been found guilty of seven separate breaches of FFP/PSR in the PL alone, as well as a further five tied to UEFA, none of which they've admitted.
When it comes, the punishment will be hefty. When/if it might be delivered, that's a bigger question.
That's all I was driving at when lassel proclaims it'll be a points deduction large enough just to curtail European future competition and a fine. No way could it possibly be just that. No PSR would ever be adhered to again if that was the case - and Arsenal (along with Man U/Liverpool) definitely don't want that. |
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Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 11:02 27 Sep 2026
The other cases are not irrelevant. It's not always been 4 offences. These are not statements of facts.
"You literally have one of the country’s most respected sports journalists, with impeccable sources within the hallways of Arsenal saying it’s not going to be anything to write home about..."
What an odd thing to take as definitive proof of what punishment will be delivered by the Premier League: the tweet of an Athletic journalist about what Arsenal desire the PL to do. Incidentally, have just looked for that tweet. Can't see it. Do you have it to hand?
But rather than mysterious tweets from "inside the hallways of Arsenal" by David Ornstein, and the trust me bro, Ian Holloway will be sacked by Christmas 2024 soothsaying of QPR messageboard insiders, I'm just basing my very limited reading of the situation upon the vast media rounds done yesterday and this morning by British football's main finance experts Kieran Maguire and Stefan Borson (formerly City's financial advisor) who both say - while comparing the cases directly with Forest and Everton - that there will be points deductions equal to a relegation. Maguire estimated on Talksport yesterday that City have profited close to £1b thanks to circumventing the rules.
Based merely on the three or four media rounds I've caught, I'm not sure we can discount a punishment heavier than European disqualification and a fine.
Can link to some of these interviews if you'd like? Quite a lot out there if you have Google though. Not sure of either's links to the "hallways of Arsenal" though. |
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