Yet another reflexive story that equates activity with spending money.
Frighteningly high-profile names Julio Cesar and Esteban Granero have arrived this week from European giants, joining a squad filled with enough midfielders for around seven Premier League teams.
Really? Could you list them please?
In QPR’s case, signings from earlier this window have been rendered a quaint irrelevance by the business they have done recently.
Again, who is being referred to? From a positional PoV César is the only unexpected arrival. All the others fill a clear need in the squad.
According to Sky's transfer tracker in the middle of this past week, QPR ranked 15th in spending among Premier League clubs in the summer market. The aquisitions of Granero and M'bai may have raised that since, but not above mid-table I'd guess. Of course that's just guesswork — though maybe based on a bit more data than the writer possesses — and salaries, as at every other club, are anyone's guess.
But here's one fact. Twelve new players have walked through the door at Loftus Road since the end of last season, but sixteen have walked out. Most of them were signed by the club's previous owners, none were Hughes's signings.
Undoubtedly this team will take time to gel, and I'm not yet convinced that Hughes is capable of forging a team out them, but the spending hasn't been scattergun. Fernandes has consistently maintained that there is a budget, and the club's spending is within it. At this point I see no reason to doubt him.
