Jan 23 Incomings

[72bus]

Unless Armstrong was injured I don't know why he didn't start at Fleetwood

[Martinmalta]

Man. City, Liverpool and other big clubs play players under the of 20. If they are good enough, why not? In the past, young players used to be drafted straight into the first team. In our case ... Allen, Goddard, Mcdonald, Gallen etc etc.

[SheepRanger]

If we play players aged 21 and under then the likelihood is that we would not gain promotion as they learn the finer arts on the pitch. They will make mistakes.

If we want to be a club who focus solely on player resale and stay a lower Championship team then fine. I dont see any problem sending players out on loan, but it theyre not ready to play first team football by 22 they should be released.

The bigger clubs are dealing with pure natural talents and the main example being the class of 92. We will not have that calibre of youngster.

As promising as Armstrong is he hasnt found the net yet.

[QPROslo]

A bit saddened that Armstrong is now being touted as a loan move. Had such high hopes at the start of the season. Did well in flashes when coming on, but NC doesn't seem to rate him as MB did.

What has been everyone's feelings on Armstrong been this year? I still think he could do a job for us off the bench.

Armstrong has now featured 15 times without scoring (14 times off the bench). I doubt he is the solution to our goal scoring problems in the short run. As much as I like Armstrong, I can see he has clear limitations and I understand why four managers in quick succession have hesitated to play him (Warburton, Beale, Hall, Critchley). He is exciting to watch when running at defences (even though it hasn't brought much success yet), but his link-up play is missing and his positioning is questionable.

I think it is a good idea to give him a run at League 2 level. He did well in his short stint with Aldershot (or was it Torquay?). Hopefully we will have a more developed player at our hands next season.

[MINCER]

It’s much easier to introduce youngsters or new signings into a settled or successful team.

[FurtiveFox]

He needs games at a lower level to improve his game and get into a rhythm. Here he may get the odd start but will be a bit part player. Has real potential but not quite ready yet for this level.

[Harrow QPR]

Saw on a website that Middlesborough have bid £900,000 for Dan Barlaser a centre mid from Rotherham , his contract is up in the summer so Rotherham would likely sell .
We should try and get him , scores goals and gets lots of assists at this level , would allow us to get rid of Amos and Thomas to pay his wages and use the Beale compensation to pay transfer fee.
I know we badly need a centre forward and hopefully the club have something lined up but we should definately try and get Barsaler as he is a good player at this level.
As for Armstrong , i would send him on loan to a club that will give him game time to get experience as he is'nt ready for this level yet. Although neither is Dykes.

[Abseits]

I think it’s odd - we seem to have this obsession that players need to be loaned out first. Give him game time here. We have scored 5 goals in 11 games - how much worse can it be?

other clubs don’t seem to have an issue playing players younger than him with some successes. But not us we seem fixated on the path to the first team.

This includes new signings- had Lowe started against the fakes we would have won that game.

but maybe Armstrong isn’t the player we think he is or has been hyped up to be.

Totally agree. All kids have more or less the same schooling and development through their teen years and players like Rooney, Sako and Rashford seem more than ready to play for 1st XI in their late teens.
Armstrong should definitely stay here. As you say, it's not as though we have loads of alternatives and with what is it, 5 subs, per game there's no reason he cant get plenty of minutes here. If it's a choice of him getting 1500 minutes at Tranmere Rovers or 500 minutes wearing the Hoops it's a complete no-brainer..... start scoring for us ASAP.

[ConorQPR2000]

Totally agree. All kids have more or less the same schooling and development through their teen years and players like Rooney, Sako and Rashford seem more than ready to play for 1st XI in their late teens.
Armstrong should definitely stay here. As you say, it's not as though we have loads of alternatives and with what is it, 5 subs, per game there's no reason he cant get plenty of minutes here. If it's a choice of him getting 1500 minutes at Tranmere Rovers or 500 minutes wearing the Hoops it's a complete no-brainer..... start scoring for us ASAP.

I wonder if its time we got out of this EPPP system and instead opt to have a B Team, with a smaller pool of better quality players.

I think it costs something like £1.5m to run the academy for our club as a Cat 2 academy

We spend that amount for very little to come through, which for a club like ours doesn't make any real financial sense to me.

If we left and decided to set up a B Team, instead of having 100+ players from U9 to U21, we could just focus on players between 17 and 21 and perhaps have a B Team squad of 20-30 players.

one of the main benefits of being a B Team is unlike the current approach which sees the U21s play teams like Colchester U21s. you can vary the schedule, so you could have the B Team playing Hampton and Richmond Boro Senior team one week, then the next week play Chelsea U21s.

in addition, B team speeds up the pathway to the first team, at Brentford who operated a B team model from 2016 until recently, had a B Team of around 40 players, and 10 were promoted to the first team, 2 were sold on for profit and 10 are still with the first team.

Finally, leaving EPPP means we can recruit across the country for players and are not restricted to the 90 min rule, and we dont lose them for minimal fees as well.

I wonder what everyone's thoughts are on this idea?

[Darkranger]

I wonder if its time we got out of this EPPP system and instead opt to have a B Team, with a smaller pool of better quality players.

I think it costs something like £1.5m to run the academy for our club as a Cat 2 academy

We spend that amount for very little to come through, which for a club like ours doesn't make any real financial sense to me.

If we left and decided to set up a B Team, instead of having 100+ players from U9 to U21, we could just focus on players between 17 and 21 and perhaps have a B Team squad of 20-30 players.

one of the main benefits of being a B Team is unlike the current approach which sees the U21s play teams like Colchester U21s. you can vary the schedule, so you could have the B Team playing Hampton and Richmond Boro Senior team one week, then the next week play Chelsea U21s.

in addition, B team speeds up the pathway to the first team, at Brentford who operated a B team model from 2016 until recently, had a B Team of around 40 players, and 10 were promoted to the first team, 2 were sold on for profit and 10 are still with the first team.

Finally, leaving EPPP means we can recruit across the country for players and are not restricted to the 90 min rule, and we dont lose them for minimal fees as well.

I wonder what everyone's thoughts are on this idea?

All valid points, I do tend to agree with you with regards to the amount we spend on our academy versus the return on players produced.
Didn't we rebrand our under 23's to a B team though, I'm guessing we are trying to move towards the model you suggest.

[SheepRanger]

It doesnt look likely there'll be any signings by Sat. I havent heard any rumours???

Also seems quiet of the players out front too???

Perhaps most Jan deals get done late as trading filters down from the big guns?

[Sleeping Giants]

Crystal Palace are being linked with a move for Bright Osayi-Samuel.

[scaz_QPR]

Rumour on Twitter...
Queens Park Rangers have opened fresh talks with Burnley over a loan move for striker Ashley Barnes.

[SheepRanger]

Rumour on Twitter...
Queens Park Rangers have opened fresh talks with Burnley over a loan move for striker Ashley Barnes.

A goal every five games for Burnley and 33 yrs old! Surely we can find someone younger and a bit more prolific?

If this comes off its nothing about recruirment stats, its what we can afford and who's svailable.

I can see his contract is up in the summer but Burnley have a one year option. From his length of service and age they would surely release him. Hopefully this is only a loan to the end of the season and we'd look for better options in the summer?

All seems a bit desperate to me.

[FurtiveFox]

Ashley Barnes is an odd one. I saw him a number of times after he signed for Brighton some years ago now. He looked League One standard but he went on to be a decent player for them. Burnley under Dyche were set up to be organised and difficult to play against so not easy to be a striker there and standing out but again he went on to be a first team regular there for a while.

I wouldn't expect him to score lots but could see him being useful competition/back up for Dykes and could bring other attacking players more into the game.

Not an exciting potential signing but can see the sense in it.