EPL News 24/7It’s hard to get that excited about this.
Presumably, when Mark Hughes and his backroom team sat down at the end of last season, they would have identified the areas in the team which needed strengthening in order to avoid another relegation scrap in 2012/13.
How does signing Andy Johnson upgrade QPR?
Nobody can be quite certain about the extent to which Tony Fernandes is willing to bankroll squad improvement over the Summer, but whatever budget has been put in place surely allows for more ambition than this?
Johnson was a good player. He’s going to be thirty-two at the beginning of next year, he’s scored 13 goals in four Premier League seasons, and his injury problems have shaved off at least a yard off his pace. It’s fair to say his best days are behind him.
Additionally, as long as Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse are at Loftus Road and healthy, Johnson isn’t going to be playing – and you could also make an argument for Jamie Mackie being a more versatile and useful secondary option.
The three teams coming up are all capable of avoiding relegation, and so QPR need to be doing whatever they can to accentuate their financial advantage – i.e. bring in players who actually improve the first-team.
Ryan Nelsen is a solid addition to Hughes’ defence, and so that free transfer makes perfect sense – not Johnson though, or at least not the present day version of the former Palace and Everton forward.
Perplexing.
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This is quite an interesting transfer. Just let you know, I’ve been watching Fulham for many years and under Hughes, AJ was played sparingly. It often looked like he would rather play with 10 men than play AJ. He preferred Kamara which is not much of a compliment. He didn’t like Gera but often played him over AJ. This is not a bad idea because Johnson is an awful footballer. He’s good at running fast. Also good at finishing his run with a swan dive. He rarely gets penalties any more because he’s a known offender.
I’ve spoken to many Palace fans and asked how he managed to score 30 goals in the prem, and their answer is always that he’s good at penalties (winning/scoring).
All in all, we were glad to see the back of Zamora, and now glad to see the back of AJ. QPR are a poor man’s Fulham.