The Spurs player has struggled to start in the first team since Andre Villas-Boas arrived in the summer, and the Loftus Road boss believes the mooted transfer could still happen

Tottenham defender Michael Dawson could still move to QPR in January claims Mark Hughes.

The former Nottingham Forest man has been frozen out of the first team by incumbent manager Andre Villas-Boas and came close to swapping White Hart Lane for Loftus Road, but failed to agree personal terms.

However, Hughes thinks the transfer - which in the summer had seen the two clubs agree a fee of around £9 million - is not dead and buried and could still happen in the next window.

“Maybe Michael’s situation had happened too quickly for him to understand what his future is at Spurs,” the former Manchester City boss told reporters. “He would have been a good buy but it wasn’t to be.

“In January that might be different if he is still out of the [Spurs] team; but we may have moved on by then.”

Both Tottenham and QPR are yet to win at home in the league this season, and while Spurs picked up their first win of the campaign at Reading last weekend, QPR are still searching for their first three points.