Newcastle United winger Wayne Routledge has signed for Queens Park Rangers in a loan deal until the end of the season, which is understood to become a permanent deal if the Championship side are promoted. The 25 year old joined Newcastle from QPR in January 2010 has scored 3 goals in 26 appearances for the club.
Neil Warnock said at the beginning of the week;
"We've got 20 games to go and it's going to be exciting, but the squad is a bit thin. We've lost three quality players but we showed at Burnley on Saturday that we're not short on character.
The board have supported me so far and we're looking to bring two or three players in this week.
There wasn't a lot on the bench on Saturday that we could win that game with. I'm sure we'll put that right."
I haven't been the guy's biggest fan this season but our squad is threadbare. Absolutely nobody should be sent out until we get at least two in. Ridiculous. We already have no depth.
If we had gotten Larsson or Bentley in, I could see this being a sensible move. As it stands, this leaves us with Barton on the right wing, Kazenga LuaLua, Ryan Taylor or Ranger. At least until Ben Arfa is back fit (he can play on the right I think/hope).
Barton does well there, but we don't really have many other decent options (unless Gosling will be thrown out there 'til the Summer).
Any possibility there's a part-exchange for Taarabt?
LuaLua is on loan, don't know the terms for sure but have heard no mention of his return. R. Taylor is injured long-term.
Essentially, we have-literally-no back up for the wings right now other than Ranger playing out of position and the kid, Ferguson. Gosling can go out there, but he's made one extra-time appearance since a major knee injury. I wouldn't recommend banking on that when we're still several results from safety.
do any of the above know if there is a recall clause?
anyway, we have options and we are near the finish line. it would be a heck of an injury list before we missed routlegde, he has failed this season, i'm afraid.
Sixteen matches remain. We're seven points off the relegation zone. True, Routledge hasn't succeeded but it's annoying to see headlines only about us losing players when everyone else around us sees the danger of the tightness of the table and is reinforcing. Against Stevenage we played Smith and Nolan at CM, not scraping the bottom of the barrel, and got p3wnd. I don't buy the s.hit about fatigue. Nolan doesn't have the legs to play there (especially not two games in a row) and Smith gives up the ball too much and loves collecting yellows.
Gotta hope Gosling hits the ground running, Guthrie improves with more time on the pitch and we don't see an injury pileup the likes of which we have seen several times in the last few seasons.
we doing this on two different threads? in short, wayne routledge played himself further than ever away from the first team last week at stevenage. it hasnt worked for him, we move on.
taylor wont be long, gosling will be fully fit by the end of the month, and ben arfa soon after. and pardew has shown he'll pick smith and leave barton wide rather than routledge with barton inside when all are fit. says enough, smith is rotten and he gets the nod.
Yeah, I looked at the other one first and decided to just respond to this one.
I'm nervous about the contribution of our returning players, that's all. I know the likelihood of relapse. I'm also not deceived by our 9th-place position right now. Two weekends of bad results and we'll be right down in the s.hit. Guthrie is close but Gosling was deemed ready for exactly 5 minutes of action this weekend. Reports I've seen put HBA a month away and R. Taylor more like six weeks. I hope that's wrong but that's what I'm seeing.
I think it's clear that we've got too many midfielders in our squad. We've got Barton, Nolan, Guthrie, Gosling, Smith, Tiote, Jonas, Ben Arfa, Ferguson, Vuckic and Ryan Taylor. So the way I see it Pardew has decided that Routledge is not worth keeping for he can use Barton, Gosling, Ben Arfa or Jonas on the right until the end of the season. I'm also sure we'll see someone come in to replace him but whether that's now or in the summer only time will tell. I find it interesting that we have not confirmed Routledge departure yet though. Perhaps we waiting to tie up a deal for someone before making everything official.
i hear you tunyc, no guarantees are there. i'm not against us bringing quality in, just that i'm not concerned too much if we dont, and have a nagging feeling that the players who have done so well quite often this season shouldnt be pushed out mid-season for a highly paid loanee. worse things do happen though, i guess.
i think the prize money is well on the way to a million quid a league place this year mind, so perhaps we will chase the short term in order to help finance the next moves in the summer.
hahaha, i read that as 'i'm right, and in a month you will all tell me i was right!'
fair play tunyc, but if anyone other than barton, nolan or carroll excels as an attacker in that period, i WILL be pointing out that they would have been benched under your regime!
as i said, i'm not strictly against it, just less convinced today than i was a month ago that its needed.
your playing the injuries card to say we need him. Saying gosling is injured he is back now (not 100% but will be in time to cover anyone injured) we have ben arfa returning..barton (r.Taylor 6 weeks is still the last 10+ games) guthrie jonas...would just cover us but be bare but its the transfer window still I wouldnt worry until Feb 1st he has suggested he is trying for a winger.
Also the fitness point is quite insulting to nolan he has scored vital goals and has covered the pitch quite well he has never been a pacey player. The Stevenage game was majority fitness and lack of effort I would belive the majority of the players didn't even care if they won that game.
Daragh got it right, actually. I worry a lot, sometimes too much. That will be clear if we get a couple results (c'mon lads-smash those spud @#$%& for me!) in the interim, making all of this moot.
I'm not insulting Nolan-I just that he like everyone has limitations. He's not the ideal 4-4-2 CM. I never, ever slated him. He's great.
And ask any of my pub league players-I'm for using all of the squad, but you gotta have depth on the bench to do that.
Ye true the nolan point tbh was more a defence of him against what at times seems a battle vs the general opinion about him on here sometimes not just yourself so ignore that one .
Ye i too worry but I've a lot of confidence in this set up (never thought id be saying that this time 2 years ago) we are only 7 points off the bottom but some of the teams there and your point is valid if we go on a bad run we will drop places but we say lose next 5 games I cant see all of those teams picking up 7 points in 5 games.
I think we look short but I do think a winger will be found...wheres Pancrate
On the Routledge front I have sort of mixed feelings.
Its a bit of a shame as he did so well for us last season and was a top signing right when we needed it. He didnt cost a lot and wont be on top wages. But he has had a good few games in the premier league for us and hasnt done a great deal especially when you compare his to Barton's performances.
I suppose you can count him in some of our fringe player brackets where they can be moved on to bring some cash in. I think we would definately get our money back on him as he is still a young player and well proven in the championship. If we pulled in 1-2 mill then it goes towards a better player.
are we talking about the Oba goal again?? I know, I couldn't resist.. BEST. GOAL. EVAR!!
as for Nolan, I have memories of when we first signed him, I thought he was past it, and all the bolton fans were singing thanks for the 4 million but my god has he been worth every cent and more
and on a side note.. don't you just love the fact that hundreds of sunderland fans will now be walking around with BENT on the back of their jerseys, for no apparent reason??? HA HA saw it this morning on sickipedia, classic
piston26 are we talking about the Oba goal again?? I know, I couldn't resist.. BEST. GOAL. EVAR!!
as for Nolan, I have memories of when we first signed him, I thought he was past it, and all the bolton fans were singing thanks for the 4 million but my god has he been worth every cent and more
i'm going with bellamy against...
seriously though, as fine as oba's thunderbolt was, i'll have to trump it with ginola against ferencvaros...
[">www.youtube.com]
as an aside towards the thread, watching that makes me certain that routledge isnt the man for the job. bit by bit we improve each window. he was an upgrade last january, lets see who the next upgrade will be...
Good shout, lmk. That's a fantastic goal. Hard to choose between the unstoppable force of Martins' shot and that Ginola's was a volley. Both absolutely belta!
this guy knew how to trouble spurs, too. either enjoy a great compilation, or head to 3 minutes thirty for his brace against them.
what a midfield, eh? solano dyer speed and robert. i'm sure one season they all hit more than a few goals each, something like 30 between them, and that was behind shearer and bellamy. aah, we didnt worry about spurs in those days, did we?..
a wicked left peg, and some superb long range finishes with his right, too. what a striker!
i have heard that his final gift to newcastle was to persuade ben arfa that he could do well here. i cant tell you that i know this as fact, but apparently he is related to ben arfa by marriage (to roberts sister/niece/cousin??), and offered his advice to the player that he'd love it at newcastle and be loved as an attacking player. if its true, it goes some way to explain why ben arfa seemingly fixed his sights on us last august...
LMK... you have just made my night... and I dont mean you turned up at my front door wearing nothing but a bowler hat (never mind).
Robert was just f00king amazing and that realy brought some top memories back for me. I remember the f00king tools we used to sit near slagging him for not tracking back. He didnt need to as the oposition team were always too worried about him then to attack.
What you said about that midfield behind Shearer and Bellamy beggars belief. How we did not win anything. I have no facts to back it up but Im sure one of the seasons Robert and Nobby had more goals and assists than Giggs and Beckham... definately more assists.
As we are having a trip down memory lane and old teams. I have cut and paste the team who started against Inter at the San Siro. One of the best trips Ive ever been on even when those dirty ba5t4rds were chucking cups of p155 and spitting on us.
Looking at the team you can see where the weak link is.... the back four. I remember Solano nearly breaking the cross bar in two with an amazing shot. Scary that it was nearly 8 years ago.
My favourite goal was Shearers against Everton, that was bloody quality. Good shouts on the links Ginola's was a top draw goal. God they were the gold days of fantasy football. Albert chip against Man U in the thrashing of them was another great one
Regarding Routledge, he was a great signing for the money, he was one of the reasons we got back to the league, and even though he struggled in the premiership I would have kept him as we won't be able to flog him for much and won't be on big wages, and unless we get somebody in we are leaving ourselves short, unless AP has something up his sleeze
he hasnt had to go to vuckic/ferguson yet, doesnt mean he wont. there have baan games he would have been criticised for losing when smith was available if he had played kids. now smith is dead, and teh points are still coming in, we are heading for games where he will be more free to try things.
also, ranger pressed again yesterday. wasnt on for long, but he'll have caught the gaffers eye.
oh, and routledge was star man on his qpr debut, which included hitting the winning goal! he is just the man for the situation qpr are in at the minute - which is just the same as ours a year ago. good luck to him, hope he has the same effect on them as he did on us in our title run in
For all his endeavor, Ranger still doesn't look at all comfortable in front of goal at this level. Loven looked like he wanted to wring his neck after he didn't pull it back.
As for Rout-thanks for the help getting up, son! Best wishes at QPR.
Routledge has found his level and needs to stay there, he's one of these players who is too good for the championship but not good enough for the premier league!
Do QPR have to buy him at the end of the season if they are promoted?
If not do you think they will, personally i dont, he's been tried and tested there many times and i dont think QPR will be wanting to gamble on him!
Regarding the goals i have to say Ginola's has to be my all time favourite
On the subject of Robert, i know he had a lot of critics but i loved him, i can remember watching him play and thinking everytime we got a free kick that he was going to score! Also remember Andy Gray of all people saying on sky sports that with Robert and Solano we had the best 2 wide men in the premier league and thats exactly what we needed with Shearer up front, just a shame about the defence!
Another thing about Robert, i was really pi55ed off when we missed out on Zenden and then bought Robert but how wrong i was, people moaned on about his defending but we knew we weren't going to get him doing it and i thought he would of been better suited playing in the middle either as a striker or as an advanced midfielder!
Don't know the details but I read an article in the paper over the weekend that stated all three (Ecclestone, Briatore and Mittal) are still involved. In any case, none of them are eating out of trashcans, are they?
mentalman Routledge has found his level and needs to stay there, he's one of these players who is too good for the championship but not good enough for the premier league!
Do QPR have to buy him at the end of the season if they are promoted?
If not do you think they will, personally i dont, he's been tried and tested there many times and i dont think QPR will be wanting to gamble on him!
Fully agree, the lad can blow away the championship and is worth a club signing him as he doesn't cost much money, and he will always give defenders a headache. In the premiership he does struggle as the LB are of a far better quality.
For QPR he is not a gamble as previously stated he won't cost much, and I wish him the best as he was one of the reasons we got up. Good luck Routledge
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