Jordon Mutch looks set to leave QPR just five months after signing from Cardiff (Picture: Getty Images)

So before the transfer window closes it looks like Jordon Mutch will end a short lived time at QPR by moving on to Crystal Palace as the clubs have reportedly agreed a fee of £4.75 million.

That’s a loss on what we paid to Cardiff just five months ago.

Mutch was signed with much fanfare, I hailed the signing as shrewd business as he was one of the bright points in a doomed season for Cardiff last year.

Netting five goals from midfield in a struggling side is no mean feat and it’s that attacking intent which would be needed from our midfield this season.




Yet a stop start beginning to his QPR career through injury and limited chances appears to be enough to right him off and out he goes.

We’re now left with the ageing Karl Henry and Joey Barton in midfield with the injury prone Sandro about to make another attempt back into action. Sweepstake on how long till his next injury is now open.

Signings can be a gamble and they don’t always work out, we’ve signed more than enough players since Tony Fernandes opened the purse strings to know that.

But what makes the potential sale of Mutch disappointing is the quick nature to write him off, when at 23 he’s got plenty of years ahead of him, has shown enough glimpses already to be given time to develop and be coached.

Matt Phillips is another who we’ll happily sell just a year and a half after signing.

Matt Phillips Is another young player with potential who QPR seem happy to let leave (Picture: Getty Images)

It’s the likes of Mutch and Phillips who should be looked upon as players who could be mainstays in the team for five or six years to come.

Instead that money will no doubt go to any of the many aging mercenaries linked with the club in recent days like Emmanuel Adebayor. We’ve lost the plot if we want anything to do with him.

We don’t want to spend time improving the players we have and instead run around from quick fix to quick fix. Just. One. More. Player. All we are doing is plastering over the cracks until the next transfer window.

Recently Tony Fernandes gave a lengthy interview to talk about QPR’s future – involving a new ground, new training facilities, better player recruitment and a vision of bringing through youth players to the first team.

All that talk flies out the window when we look to sell players like Mutch and Phillips, then get linked with mercenaries like Adebayor.

Just recently we let promising youngster Josh Laurent move to Brentford where he’ll have more chance of playing first team football.

QPR are still very much say one thing and do the other.

We’re just days away from Harry Redknapp’s Christmas day and all eyes are on a transfer window deal or two. But while all eyes are focused on another short term fix, we’re losing sight of what QPR should be as a club and what the long term focus should be.

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