Colback answers QPR’s call for experience – Signing Tuesday, 1st Aug 2023 15:25 by Clive Whittingham Veteran central midfielder Jack Colback is the latest addition to QPR’s class of 2023 as Gareth Ainsworth once more tries to add experience and street smarts to his beleaguered outfit. FactsWor Jack is a 33-year-old, left-footed central midfielder from Newcastle. Despite growing up a fan of the hometown team, he came through the ranks at their bitter local rivals Sunderland. Having been with the Mackems from the age of ten, his debut in men’s football came during a season-long loan at Championship side Ipswich in 2009/10. His senior debut came in a 3-3 draw with Shrewsbury in the League Cup and he would go on to start 33 games with eight sub appearances and five goals for the Tractor Boys. He featured in a 3-0 home win and 2-1 away success against QPR and was voted the club’s Players’ Player of the Season. He did actually make it back to Sunderland in time to play their final game of the Premier League season at Wolves – they lost 2-1 and Colback, who’d only been sent on as sub in the 78th minute, was one of two Sunderland players sent off by our old friend Lee Mason. There was another, shorter, loan at Portman Road to follow in 2010/11 before he started to make a serious breakthrough in the top flight at his parent club. His first Premier League starts, after a number of sub outings, came in a 2-0 loss at Birmingham and 4-1 home win against Wigan in April that year. He started the 2011/12 campaign in an uncompromising midfield pairing with lee Cattermole and would go on to make 40 appearances that year, scoring his first goals in a 1-1 at home to Everton in the league and a 2-1 win away against local neighbours Middlesbrough in the FA Cup. In 2012/13, following injuries to Danny Rose and others, he more often than not ended up at left back, and his versatility position wise has been utilised by several managers throughout his career. He stayed a full back for a good season and a half before being moved back into midfield by Gus Poyet, and having shifted further forward there was a memorable goal against Newcastle to savour in a 3-0 away win in February 2014. Things soured under the chaotic reign of Paolo Di Canio. The Italian manager talked openly about Colback’s forthcoming contract expiry, encouraging him to stay at the Stadium of Light amidst a hail of interest from other top flight clubs. Terms couldn’t be agreed, Colback remained coy about his future, and the reasons for that became clear in the summer when he became the first player since goalkeeper Lionel Perez to move directly from Sunderland to Newcastle, on a free transfer. Sunderland said the move left a “bitter taste” and Colback admitted that Sunderland fans would no doubt hate him for the rest of his life.
Colback ended up turning out 104 times for the Magpies, scoring five times, between 2014 and 2020. He was part of the team relegated from the Premier League in 2016, but got a Championship winner’s medal when they bounced straight back the year after. Unfortunately relations soured with manager Rafa Benitez after he rejected summer moves ton Wigan and Hull, and the Spanish manager banished him to train with the junior sides at St James’ Park. He would subsequently spend the second half of 2017/18, and all of 2018/19, on loan at Championship side Nottingham Forest. When a permanent transfer didn’t materialise he then sat out the whole of 2019/20 playing reserve football waiting for his contract to expire, and he finally made the switch to The City Ground on a free transfer in the summer of 2020. His latest debut in red came at Loftus Road, on the opening day of the Covid lockdown season, with QPR winning 2-0. Of course he would go on to have the last laugh, winning promotion with Forest under Steve Cooper in 21/22 – a campaign he spent mainly at left wing back, and which featured a dramatic last minute equaliser for the Trees against Rangers in W12. His outrageous goal against West Brom was voted the best of the season by supporters. Colback has one England U20 cap, playing a 2-0 victory against Italy at Loftus Road in 2009. He was called up to the senior squad in 2014 for games against Norway and Switzerland but withdrew injured. Having been without a club since his release by Forest at the end of their Premier League return season, he has now signed a two-year contract at QPR with an option for a third on the club’s side. Reaction“I’m excited to be part of what the manager wants to do here. It was an easy decision. This is a tough league, it’s relentless. I am well used to that and prepared for it. Success in this division takes a lot of work, you have to be ready to do the ugly side of the game. That’s the difference between the two levels in terms of the Championship and the Premier League. There’s a difference in terms of the tactics, too. In this division you will come up against teams who want to play football a lot, and you will come up against teams who will be in your face and more direct, which is something you don’t get as much in the Premier League. You have to be ready for the fight, and if you’re not ready you will be left behind. I will bring 100% effort. I feel I have done that wherever I have been. I will bring experience, a calmness on the pitch, a confidence and a leadership. What fans want is the players to turn up and give 100% for the shirt. You have to have a pride in what you do, individually and for the team and the fans you’re representing. I have always had self-pride in terms of that.” -Jack Colback “I am really pleased to bring Jack in. He is a great player and he had one or two other suitors but he chose QPR because he wants to buy into what we are trying to do here, which is great. He will add energy and experience to us. He has got quality on the ball, but he has tenacity off it and a winning mentality, which will hopefully be contagious. The last thing we want to do is risk him getting injured. Jack will show me this week where he is and hopefully we can get him on the pitch pretty soon.” -Gareth Ainsworth OpinionObviously we tend to come at these signing pieces from a strategy, budget, medium and long term plan point of view. For now, let’s not go that deep: Jack Colback’s a decent player. QPR are rubbish. Let’s be honest here. They have lost 37 of their last 65 games, going back 18 months, under four different managers. Our team has been in steep decline for a long time now. Hopes of a brave new era and fresh new start for Gareth Ainsworth’s version of Rangers in 23/24 were dealt a blow in the final friendly of the summer on Saturday, when something approaching our strongest available team was absolutely pulverised by League One Oxford, with ten starters who were all here for last season’s collapse. We’ve looked miles off it, to me, for months, and in all the friendlies so far this summer. Saturday was stark. As it stands QPR simply aren’t good enough to compete in the league we’re in. Adding players with ability, regardless of any other attributes we’re about to come onto, is desperately needed. Colback was still capable of turning out 16 times for Nottingham Forest last season, including four Premier League starts. Our Forest contributor writes: “Very good signing. Was a great servant for us. Went missing for a couple of years and I was really critical of him, but found his mojo again under Cooper. As a defensive mid he's just always in the right place, always breaking up play and frustrating the opposition. I imagine he's a nightmare to play against. Mostly played LWB for us in our promotion season as we had nobody else who could. He was the antithesis of Djed Spence on the other side, but gave us the solidity that allowed our attackers more freedom to do their thing. Also scored THAT goal vs WBA that he definitely meant. Last season when called upon he was very reliable - had a great game when we drew with Man City. Oh, and he's always good for a yellow card if you like a bet.” We have problems all over the park but the centre of midfield is particularly insipid. With Stefan Johansen paid up, Andre Dozzell in some sort of coma, and none of the Stephen Duke-McKenna, Elijah Dixon-Bonner or Rafferty Pedder-types looking remotely capable of stepping up from the second string, it really is Sam Field against the world in there. We are frequently outnumbered, out fought and out thought through the middle, and you don’t win many games of football while losing midfield – as we’re conclusively proving. How often we’ve suffered afternoons of irritation at the hands of a Luke O’Nien, or Ben Pearson, but come away begrudgingly admiring the role they perform for their teams and the complete lack of an equivalent in Hoops. With both Field and Dozzell left footed, and only Osman Kakay by way of options at right (wing)back ideally you’d have wanted this addition to come on the right, and the same was true of the Morgan Fox addition last week, but the situation we're in beggars can’t be choosers at this point. Then there’s all the stuff we’ve been talking about for ages, and Gareth Ainsworth has really hung his hat on since he came to the club, about a lack of leadership, voice and character both in the dressing room and out on the pitch. QPR are a quiet team, easily bullied by opponents and referees, who crumple and fold at the merest hint of adversity. What leadership there was here has, by and large, left the building with Johansen and Chris Martin, and having made a huge deal of the influence Asmir Begovic would bring this is another addition in that regard right in the centre of the park. This is, by the manager’s own admission, going to be a tough, backs-to-the-wall season in which the sole aim is to stay in the league. There’s going to be some long nights, particularly away from home, and we’re going to need far more grit, determination, experience and street smarts than we’ve shown to this point to come through that with the points we need. It is, however, another signing that just highlights how tight a corner we’ve painted ourselves into with the 21/22 overspend. Scrabbling around, five days before the season starts, to squeeze a 33-year-old into our budget, because the team we’ve got is so far short of where it needs to be and we cannot afford anything more.
Colback had other suitors, which is a good sign. But to secure him we’ve had to offer a two year contract, with an option on the club’s side for a third. Watching him dance around the obvious answer to “why QPR?” for six minutes in his official interview with the club was hilarious – because they’ve offered two years and everybody else offered one. One is all we should have been offering as well, but because we cannot pay as much as other clubs in wages, and we’re offering a relegation scrap on the pitch rather than a chance to compete for promotion, we’re having to offer more to tempt in Colback, Begovic, Fox etc. This is a problem because the best case scenario is you add some stop gaps and coagulant to the team, it stays in the league this season spending nothing at all, and then next summer with some extra FFP headroom and more breathing space then you can start rebuilding the team properly. Problem is, if you’re having to give your stop gaps two, or even three, year contracts, then you’re already sucking up that rebuild budget (although, admittedly, if they’re signing now, they can’t be on much). We’ve already got situations like Albert Adomah, whose two-year contract extension was an absolute joke and we’re now saddled with a winger who can’t run, and Stefan Johansen, who we went all out to get with a three-year deal in his 30s and have now had to pay to leave. You risk multiplying those situations next summer and beyond by doing deals like this. You only had to look at us at the weekend though, and in just about every single game we’ve played in 2023, to know we’re desperately in need of reinforcements, ability, experience and warm bodies, in just about every position on the field. Not much good planning FFP headroom two or three years ahead if we’re in League One by then. I wonder if the nature of that Oxford defeat has perhaps moved one or two of QPR’s ‘maybes’ into the must-do pile, and we can perhaps expect to see a couple more contracts and/or loan deals they didn’t ideally want to do happening in the remainder of the window. If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via PayPal The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures – Action Images Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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