QPR lauded for £20m transfer profit on top-flight star who was "an absolute joke" | OneFootball

FLW's QPR fan pundit outlined, in his view, the club's biggest ever transfer masterstroke

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Ebere Eze's impact at QPR will live long in the memory, as the Championship side reaped all the rewards from both footballing and financial standpoints and profited from a show of faith nobody else was willing to take.

The London-born playmaker represented the likes of Arsenal, Fulham and Reading in his youth before being taken on by Millwall, who opted against offering him his first professional contract. Following a successful trial, Eze then joined QPR and the rest is history.

Eze rose up the ranks in West London and enjoyed a successful loan spell in League Two with Wycombe Wanderers during the first-half of the 2017/18 season before returning to make his mark. He appeared in all but four of the R's 46 Championship affairs throughout 2018/19 but it was the following year when Eze truly flourished.

The attacking midfielder was one of the Championship's shining lights in his final season at Loftus Road, recording 14 goals and eight assists. That form promptly earned him a move to Crystal Palace, which was worth a reported £20 million.

Eze has gone from strength to strength in recent years with the Eagles. It could be argued the 26-year-old hasn't displayed his peak form this season, but he has still proved an extremely valuable asset under Oliver Glasner and reached double digits for league goals in each of the previous two campaigns.

A fully-fledged England international with nine caps and counting under his belt, Eze was named in Thomas Tuchel's first senior Three Lions squad and looks set to continue holding an important role for both club and country - it could be easy to forget, then, that it all started at QPR.

Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze named as QPR's biggest transfer masterstroke

FLW asked our resident R's fan pundit, Louis Moir, to put forward his case for the club's biggest transfer masterstroke. While Louis could have opted for Adel Taarabt, Clint Hill or Charlie Austin, for example, he instead went with a more unorthodox option by naming Eze.

Louis admits his selection is debatable, given that Eze initially signed for the team's academy, but the fact QPR acquired his services for nothing and flipped him for a handsome, complete profit after a stellar individual campaign swayed him.

"I think the biggest transfer masterstroke we've had in the modern era has to be Ebere Eze if that counts as a transfer, you can obviously debate that as he signed for the club as a youngster on a free," Louis told FLW.

"He just developed crazily well. The upwards level he showed so quickly, it was unbelievable.

"It has to be Eze because of the fact we then sold him for just under £20 million, we've never sold someone as a youngster who has come through the club like that and we did well to get so much money for him.

"I think there is still potential [there], if he was to leave Palace we would get some of the profits from that deal as well.

"Taking a chance on him when he wasn't fully developed and matured and other clubs took him in and didn't want to keep him was their loss and our gain, because he gave us some unbelievable moments.

"For me, he's in the top five for players I've seen in terms of technical ability. He was an absolute joke.

"You want to see him really push on now, he's obviously had a few injuries at Palace. You want to see him in the England setup consistently, you want to see him at a bigger club doing well.

"You can't say anything bad about him as a guy either, he really enjoyed his time at the club and will really appreciate it because, without us, his career wouldn't have really kick-started. But yeah Eze, getting him in as a youngster and then getting around £20 million for him was superb."

QPR will be proud of Ebere Eze, Crystal Palace exploits

Although Eze isn't exactly one of QPR's own, having turned out for a host of other academies beforehand, that should not undermine the role they played in his development and the credit they are deserving of for his eventual success.

QPR took a punt on Eze when few were willing to and so many had already cut him off. That show of faith turned out to pay dividends for QPR, who managed to get one glorious season and a substantial cash windfall from their gamble.

As Louis alludes to, they could yet turn out in receipt of even more funds. Shrewdly, QPR inserted a 20% sell-on clause into the deal with Palace and Eze reportedly has a £68 million release clause.