Football League World
·16 marzo 2025
QPR will always have more questions than answers from nightmare Cardiff City transfer agreement

Football League World
·16 marzo 2025
The midfielder joined the R's in the summer of 2014, but what followed was a bizarre drop off for a player full of potential.
Queens Park Rangers headed into the 2014/15 campaign off the back of one of the club's greatest days in the 21st century, as Bobby Zamora's last-minute winner at Wembley saw the West London club promoted back to the Premier League in place of Derby County.
There was a huge amount of anticipation surrounding Loftus Road as they prepared for their return to the top flight, and Harry Redknapp had his work cut out to build a squad capable of staving off relegation to the Championship.
Rio Ferdinand was the R's first permanent signing of the new season, with the Manchester United legend making his way down south for a new challenge after a disappointing campaign with the Red Devils.
Steven Caulker soon followed, before QPR brought in their first non-defensive player of the summer in Jordon Mutch. Cardiff City accepted a £6m bid for the midfielder after an impressive year in South Wales, but what followed was unexpected.
The now 33-year-old was excellent for the Bluebirds during his season in the Premier League with them, scoring seven goals and registering five assists in 35 matches. However, he could not stop his former side from suffering relegation.
It was mightily impressive, though, that Mutch was able to rack up a tally of that ilk while still aged just 21 and playing in central midfield for the division's basement side, with the then-starlet developing a penchant for scoring from range.
He arrived at Loftus Road with a lot of hype and Redknapp praised Mutch when he put pen-to-paper on a four-year deal.
He said: "Jordon's a fine young player, with a big, big future.
"He's already shown what he can do at this level with Cardiff last season, with a decent goals return, and this move will provide him with a great platform to take his game onto the next level."
Despite this new-found reputation, Mutch could not carry over his form from Cardiff to QPR and he failed to make an impact early on as his new side struggled in their first weeks back in the Premier League.
The R's won just one of their first nine games, with their £6m summer signing picking up just one assist and playing in only five of those matches.
Injuries started to rack up and after a thigh issue saw him miss a 2-1 defeat Southampton, Mutch suffered a muscle injury a couple of weeks later that saw him miss nearly a month of action.
The Derby-born talent played four more times in the Premier League for QPR in 2014, starting twice as his side's form started to pick up ever so slightly.
However, it was clear that they were struggling towards the bottom of the division and Redknapp needed new faces to help turn their season around.
To do this he needed to free up funds, and, unfortunately for Mutch, this meant that his time at Loftus Road was going to be cut extremely short as he was sold to Crystal Palace just under six months after making the move to the R's.
He made 27 league appearances over the course of the next year-and-a-half with the Eagles, but his time at the top was coming to an end quickly as he spent time out on loan with Reading in the Championship.
Moves to Canada, Norway and South Korea followed as the once promising Premier League youngster struggled to make a name for himself and settled down as he completed a world tour.
He moved to Australian side Western Sydney before dropping to the lower reaches of the country's pyramid, eventually returning to England with Crawley Town. However, he made just four appearances in League Two, and made the move back down under, where he is now without a club.