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They are claiming to be the richest club in the world and there's no doubt that there have been a good number of changes at QPR since the wealthy men moved in to take over the running of the club.
Looking back at the team that started against Burnley on 11th December, just nine weeks ago, only Lee Camp and Zesh Rehman started who were also in their starting line up at Southampton last Saturday.
Four of the team against us are no longer playing their football for QPR and that's no surprise with manager Luigi De Canio having brought in no fewer than ten new players since the beginning of 2008, although admittedly two of those were just making permanent previous loan arrangements. It is worth taking a look at the deals.
Kieran Lee from Manchester United (loan)
Gavin Mahon from Watford (loan)
Matthew Connolly from Arsenal (£1 million)
Hogan Ephraim from West Ham (£800,000)
Patrick Agyemang from Preston (£350,000)
Fitz Hall from Wigan (£700,000)
Rowan Vine from Birmingham - previous loan made permanent (£1 million)
Damien Delaney from Hull (undisclosed)
Matt Pickens from Chicago (free)
Their current form is good; they have won five out of their last seven league games and from the game at the Turf onwards they have collected 22 points from 11 games. Rowan Vine is the player very much in form but Patrick Agyemang is the one getting the goals; he's netted no fewer than seven in his five league appearances and hasn't failed to find the net in any of them.
Having picked up just the one point from the last two games, and with no game this weekend, this is one we really need to get something from. Since they won promotion back to the Championship we've won only one point there in three visits, and only Chris McCann has scored in those games.
A win tonight would lift us further up the table. Getting into the play offs is a tall order and we would probably need to hit championship form of close to two points per game. But QPR think they can do it, so we surely can. Despite all their signings I believe we still have a better squad than they do, and we can show that by bringing their current run of four successive home wins to an end.
Such is the squad strength down at Loftus Road now that manager Luigi De Canio had the luxury of being able to leave out both midfielder Akos Buzsaky and central defender Damion Stewart on Saturday. Both had returned from international duty in midweek and so De Canio elected to leave them on the bench against Southampton.
Both of them are expected to return to the starting line up at the expense of Zesh Rehman and Kieran Lee the likely ones to drop out. The only definite absentee is Fitz Hall; he's some way from returning after suffering a torn groin muscle in their recent 3-1 defeat at Cardiff.
QPR will likely line up: Lee Camp, Michael Mancienne, Matthew Connolly, Damion Stewart, Damien Delaney, Akos Buzsaky, Martin Rowlands, Gavin Mahon, Hogan Ephraim, Patrick Agyemang, Rowan Vine. Subs from: Matt Pickens, Zesh Rehman, Chris Barker, Kieran Lee, Mikele Leigertwood, Gareth Ainsworth, Angelo Balanta, Dexter Blackstock.
Owen Coyle could have further problems with news that David Unsworth is doubtful through illness and that reduces the squad further with none of the injured players ready to return. Michael Duff continues to train whilst Clarke Carlisle is back in full training and could play a part in this Friday's friendly against Bohemians in Dublin.
Chris McCann remains doubtful after picking up an injury at West Brom whilst Alan Mahon is still not back in training. Steve Jones has suffered medial ligament damage and add all that to long term injury absentee Besart Berisha it leaves us down to seventeen players for this game should Unsworth and McCann be ruled out.
Steven Caldwell is likely to return for Unsworth on the ground where he made his Burnley debut but other than that I don't envisage much in the way of changes. I think Mark Randall will still have to wait for his first start in Burnley colours and like Ade Akinbiyi, who even the manager said was unlucky to be left out on Saturday, will have to settle for a place on the bench.
I think our team will be: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Stanislav Varga, Steven Caldwell, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, James O'Connor, Kyle Lafferty, Andrew Cole, Robbie Blake. Subs from: Gabor Kiraly, Stephen Jordan, Mark Randall, John Spicer, Garreth O'Connor, Ade Akinbiyi.
This was a shocker - an absolute shocker. And yet at least it brought us a goal having failed to score in any of our previous six league games which had yielded just a couple of points.
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It was the clash of the two sides with the worst records in the division over the previous three months, but it was Rangers who banished that record with an easy 3-1 win against us that was, quite frankly, embarrassing.
I claimed at the time that the performance had "We're in a relegation battle" stamped all over it, and that's exactly how it felt. It was one of those afternoons when the Burnley fans trooped out in almost total silence at the final whistle unable to take in what they had witnessed.
Chris McCann was back in the side, replacing the suspended Eric Djemba-Djemba who had been ridiculously sent off by Mike Riley at Derby in midweek and with Wayne Thomas out of the side it was Ade Akinbiyi who was named as captain.
Not long gone and Kyle Lafferty carelessly lost possession and Lee Cook ran through to score. With our total inability to score goals we decided that was it but then we finally did get ourselves that much needed goal. Joey Gudjonsson played a superb ball into the box that was met by McCann to head home.
The half petered out after that, but having scored we thought we might come out and give a much improved performance in the second half. How wrong we were. We conceded two goals from corners and both times it was McCann who lost his man in the box. But it wasn't just McCann, the whole defending was poor.
Were there any positives? Not really, but we did see the three from the bench we hoped we'd see as Jones, Gray and Caldwell all came on together. We know now that Gray wasn't fit, that Jones was not going to recapture his early season form, although the introduction of Caldwell was one that strengthened the side.
No matter what happens at QPR tonight, I can promise it won't be worse than this shocker from a year ago.
The teams were;
QPR: Simon Royce, Michael Mancienne, Danny Cullip, Damion Stewart, Gareth Ainsworth, Adam Bolder, Steve Lomas, Sampsa Timoska, Martin Rowlands, Dexter Blackstock, Lee Cook. Subs not used: Jake Cole, Zesh Rehman, Marc Nygaard, Ray Jones, Jimmy Smith.
Burnley: Mike Pollitt, Stephen Foster (Steven Caldwell 66), Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Alan Mahon (Steve Jones 65), Joey Gudjonsson (Andy Gray 65), James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Wade Elliott.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 1-0 | 11,427 | Mullin |
| . | . | h | 2-1 | 14,018 | Smith Taylor |
2004/05 | C | a | 0-3 | 15,638 | . |
. | . | h | 2-0 | 10,396 | Akinbiyi(2) |
2005/06 | C | a | 1-1 | 12,565 | McCann |
| . | . | h | 1-0 | 11,247 | Gray |
2006/07 | C | h | 2-0 | 12,190 | Jones(2) |
. | . | a | 1-3 | 10,811 | McCann |
2007/08 | C | h | 0-2 | 10,522 | . |