QPR Story: 5th season: Summer transfers!

Hello everyone, hope you are all well. Now in my last post we had finished a very credible 10th, but quite far away from 9th place Chelsea, 13 points away to be exact. I went into the summer window knowing that 5 positions needed to be filled (after quite a few fringe players were let go). These were: a back-up keeper, a top class striker, a top class centreback, a top class AMC and a back-up left back. I am happy to say that I filled all of these positions. Take a look:

 I am quite proud of these transfers, although they were very expensive, £42m! Wijnaldum is a fantastic AMC with bags of potential, and if I had signed him just 2 years previous, I would have had to pay only £3m. Ah well. Papastathopoulos (commentators nightmare!) is a top class centre back who was the shining light of Genoa, which is why I had to pay so much for him. Keirrison is a Brazilian striker who will surely bag me lots of goals. He will be my first choice striker alongside Kevin Doyle. Marius Niculae will have to warm the bench! Finally, Martin Fulop is a solid back up keeper, and on a free as well! You may have noticed that I have not signed a left back as I intended, but that's ok because I called up January signing Andrew Flynn to the first team squad. He can play RB and LB so I am sure he will be an integral part of my team in the next few years. He is only 19 years old though, and has a lot to learn. Anyway, onto the out section:

As you can see, I made the tough decision to let dependable Glauber, a fan favourite, go to Siena on a free. I could have squeezed £1m or so for him, but I chose not to because of his great 4 years of service to our club. He will be missed. Also, January signing Rafael Van Der Vaart had to go because he just wasn't up to the grade for where we want to be (in Europe). At £5.75m, I am laughing all the way to the bank, despite making a £750k loss. Back-up keeper Bogdan Lobont went to Valencia for £3m, Mourad Meghni to Ankaragucu for £1m and finally Damien Delaney, one of the 2 remaining players from before I took over alongside Peter Ramage, to Birmingham for £875k. I also released a lot of reserve players for free, as they were only projected to be decent Championship standard, which would send out the wrong message to the first team squad. Now onto my pre-season results, and the next few fixtures ahead:

Not the same kind of pre-season as last season, but a very solid start so far, results aganist Valencia and Zagreb being particular highlights. Liverpool is definately not a game I expect to win, but out of the first 5 games I would expect a win against Fulham and Leeds, with a point against Portsmouth. If that happens then I am happy.

Ok that is it for this post, next post coming up soon!