Post by QPR Report on Feb 27, 2009 18:13:39 GMT
One of a number of QPR players over the years (Martyn Busby, Frank Sibley, among others) about whom one thinks: What he might have been without that injury
Barnsley Official Site
Barnsley Official Site - I KNEW MY TIME WAS UP - GALLEN
- FORMER Barnsley striker Kevin Gallen may have spend half a season at Oakwell but tomorrow's opponents QPR will always have a special place in his heart.
Kevin told http://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk: "Back in the summer of 2001 I was without a club and training with QPR after leaving Huddersfield. QPR never came forward and offered me anything and the new season was getting very close when Nigel Spackman rang up my agent and offered me the chance to come and train with Barnsley. I did that and the deal was done before the new season kicked off. It was a good move for me at the time because I was desperate to stay at Championship level as it is now and Barnsley was a good place to be. I liked the set up, the people and the training facilities are first class.
- "I got off to a good start with Barnsley and scored against Nottingham Forest in only my second game. Unfortunately I pulled my hamstring badly in the second half of that match and was out for something like six weeks. By the time I had made my way back into the first team - and scored a good goal at Sheffield Wednesday - we were struggling and Nigel was sacked shortly afterwards. It was a tough time for me after that. Steve Parkin came in and a new manger always has new ideas. When the manager gives you permission to go and talk to another club, as Steve did when QPR came in for me that November, you know your time is up.
- "I am disappointed that things did not work out at Barnsley but it did give me the chance to go back to QPR, which always will be my club and the team I have supported since I was a boy. I have the best five or six years of my career at QPR after that and we did a lot of good things there. We won promotion and it will always be my club. I have been going to watch games since before I can remember. My dad is still a season ticket holder at Loftus Road and goes there every week rather than come to watch me. That is what QPR means to my family".
- Kevin added: "I never, ever wanted to leave QPR. I was forced out really by John Gregory. It was the same old thing again about a new manager coming in and wanting to change things. That's football but I was very, very disappointed to leave like that.
- "I joined Luton initially on loan last year before making the switch from MK Dons a permanent one in January. We have a massive challenge at this football club after having 30 points docked in the summer. A lot has been written and said about it but it is very harsh on the new owners and the club to pay for other people's mistakes like this. The task we face is just getting more and more difficult as the games go by but I still believe we can do it. The manager and the rest of the team still believe and we will continue to go from game to game trying to claw those points back. It is a massive task but we can start working towards that miracle again against Port Vale tomorrow.
- "The QPR result is always the first one I look for after our match. Sometimes the gaffer tells me to shut up about QPR and remember I am playing for Luton".
- After starting out at QPR and enjoying a year with Huddersfield Town, Kevin arrived at Oakwell in July 2001. He made just ten appearances for the Reds, netting two goals, before returning to Loftus Road the following November. He then went on to hit 57 goals in 202 more matches for QPR before signing for Plymouth on loan in 2007. Kevin joined MK Dons that summer before making the switch to Luton in November 2008Barnsley
Barnsley Official Site
Barnsley Official Site - I KNEW MY TIME WAS UP - GALLEN
- FORMER Barnsley striker Kevin Gallen may have spend half a season at Oakwell but tomorrow's opponents QPR will always have a special place in his heart.
Kevin told http://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk: "Back in the summer of 2001 I was without a club and training with QPR after leaving Huddersfield. QPR never came forward and offered me anything and the new season was getting very close when Nigel Spackman rang up my agent and offered me the chance to come and train with Barnsley. I did that and the deal was done before the new season kicked off. It was a good move for me at the time because I was desperate to stay at Championship level as it is now and Barnsley was a good place to be. I liked the set up, the people and the training facilities are first class.
- "I got off to a good start with Barnsley and scored against Nottingham Forest in only my second game. Unfortunately I pulled my hamstring badly in the second half of that match and was out for something like six weeks. By the time I had made my way back into the first team - and scored a good goal at Sheffield Wednesday - we were struggling and Nigel was sacked shortly afterwards. It was a tough time for me after that. Steve Parkin came in and a new manger always has new ideas. When the manager gives you permission to go and talk to another club, as Steve did when QPR came in for me that November, you know your time is up.
- "I am disappointed that things did not work out at Barnsley but it did give me the chance to go back to QPR, which always will be my club and the team I have supported since I was a boy. I have the best five or six years of my career at QPR after that and we did a lot of good things there. We won promotion and it will always be my club. I have been going to watch games since before I can remember. My dad is still a season ticket holder at Loftus Road and goes there every week rather than come to watch me. That is what QPR means to my family".
- Kevin added: "I never, ever wanted to leave QPR. I was forced out really by John Gregory. It was the same old thing again about a new manager coming in and wanting to change things. That's football but I was very, very disappointed to leave like that.
- "I joined Luton initially on loan last year before making the switch from MK Dons a permanent one in January. We have a massive challenge at this football club after having 30 points docked in the summer. A lot has been written and said about it but it is very harsh on the new owners and the club to pay for other people's mistakes like this. The task we face is just getting more and more difficult as the games go by but I still believe we can do it. The manager and the rest of the team still believe and we will continue to go from game to game trying to claw those points back. It is a massive task but we can start working towards that miracle again against Port Vale tomorrow.
- "The QPR result is always the first one I look for after our match. Sometimes the gaffer tells me to shut up about QPR and remember I am playing for Luton".
- After starting out at QPR and enjoying a year with Huddersfield Town, Kevin arrived at Oakwell in July 2001. He made just ten appearances for the Reds, netting two goals, before returning to Loftus Road the following November. He then went on to hit 57 goals in 202 more matches for QPR before signing for Plymouth on loan in 2007. Kevin joined MK Dons that summer before making the switch to Luton in November 2008Barnsley