Reggie Cannon

[rangerray]

Is his arrival as good as the pundits are saying? He certainly looks like a good acquisition.

[dan]

This is good. I’ve been saying there are Americans that can be had on the cheap. He’s not our (US) best defender, but he will be good for the club. He doesn’t mind playing up the field and can get back quickly.

He wanted to be in London (IMO), and we had a need. So it works for both parties. We should use that to our advantage more often with foreign players.

[rickyqpr]

Looks a very good signing, although the showreel of sliding tackles may prove costly in this division.
But some credit needs to go where due.
I know Ainsworth has his doubters. For me that is counter balanced by the sense that Dobson spouts.
If players are joining because of Ainsworth, and Dobson can coach some sense, then it is only some of the daft PR statements that we need to iron out.
But I think that what this signing achieves is very important. It reinforces the area that the opposition have targeted all early season. It should allow Smyth to concentrate on going forward more.
But the window has been good for the club. Many, many have departed (very few finding other clubs) and the recruitment of Begovic, Cook, Fox and Colback (albeit on extended expensive contracts) has plugged a big gap. We have developed some youngsters (what we like to see) and spent very little from FFP perspective. We remain light up front and in central midfield, especially if Field is suspended or injured, but hopefully it will provide for some development. The Development Team are currently top of the league.
Things change quickly, but some credit where it is due........and achieved without a Director of Football that was rumoured to have been costing us £600k per year.
And we await details of what the 'no new ground' 'refurbish Loftus Road instead' all means.

[robindubois]

The signing is still subject to FIFA, FA and EFL approval and International Clearance which I hope comes quickly. Pending that I assume he will be training and getting fit ready to hit the ground running but will need a bit of time and fan patience while he adapts to Uk Championship football which will be vastly different to Portugal.

As long as his pay issues in Portugal have been solved there is no reason for any of these bodies to stop the move but who knows with the EFL if they are being vindictive. We must have work permit approval already to reach this stage and with 28 international caps he fully meets the requirements to get that permit.

A good signing in my opinion especially with our current weak spot down the right side. Also good to get a 4 year contract. if he does well he might even have a decent sell on value in a couple of years.

Any US international goal scorers kicking around as free agents?

[rickyqpr]

It is a strange thing now that I always wonder what makes players like this opt for QPR.
Possibly because of London....but 4 years is a long commitment from both sides.

[robindubois]

Sept 27, 2023 12:31:35 GMT rickyqpr said:

It is a strange thing now that I always wonder what makes players like this opt for QPR.
Possibly because of London....but 4 years is a long commitment from both sides.

Good question but I assume it is for location, the better chance of regular first team football which he needs if he wants a future international career with the US, or being talked into joining us by Ainsworth's enthusiasm and "project". Maybe even the new training ground helped. Interesting to see the club have been tracking him for 2 years and other clubs were interested.

Re the length of contract I can see both sides of the story. In the end it is a bit of a gamble, probably more for the club than the player but has to be based on the clubs assessment of how good he is/will be and age.

If we signed him on a shorter deal , say to the end of next season, and he works out well enough he will be in a position to start to talk to other clubs or run down his contract very soon and there would be nothing we can do about it as we could not compete on wages. Then we could see another good player walk for free and wait for the message boards to explode with "why do we let good players go for free".

On the other hand if the club has confidence in who they are signing (as they should or should not be signing him) a 4 year deal makes more sense in either keeping a good player with us for a decent period of time or the ability to sell him for decent cash if bigger clubs want him. If we had paid a fee, a longer deal also would have allowed us to spread his cost over a longer period for FFP purposes and I assume (maybe incorrectly) that the same may apply to any signing on fee or agent fee we are paying.

Given his age, international experience and versatility I completely support the 4 year deal. Far more chance of it working out than the stupid 4 year deals handed to Nico and the likes.. 4 years is still short compared to some of the long term deals being handed out by the PL big boys to protect their investment in the players and keep their FFP spend down.

[rickyqpr]

I think the 4 year deal is fine for all the reasons you list, just surprised that both sides agreed to it.
Apparently, Boavista do not accept that they have not paid Cannon and say they will take the matter to court.
Probably the reason for the drawn out signing with QPR.
Perhaps he has been paid what he was owed now, but not when he walked out on them.
Hope we got our due diligence right. Boavista apparently paid E3.5m for him, so will not want him joining us for nowt. Whereas we would dearly love to sign a player of that value for nothing!

[dan]

Sept 27, 2023 12:31:35 GMT rickyqpr said:

It is a strange thing now that I always wonder what makes players like this opt for QPR.
Possibly because of London....but 4 years is a long commitment from both sides.

For Americans it’s about “destination cities”. Miami, New York, LA…. But that’s for the American sports. American footballers (the good ones at least) have a different set of “destination cities”, London being towards the top.