QPR may yet sign Crystal Palace midfielder Darren Ambrose this summer, according to assistant manager Mick Jones, but Hogan Ephraim continues to make a strong case for his inclusion with another pre-season goal last night.

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Hogan Ephraim may yet have a bigger role to play this season than many fans expected or hoped. The former West Ham youngster failed to impress when given a prolonged run of first team football at the end of last season – Ephraim started every one of Neil Warnock’s games in charge – and the general consensus this summer was that he would be pushed down the pecking order by new arrivals. But with only Shaun Derry being added to the midfield so far Ephraim has seized his chance to impress, with six goals in pre-season so far the latter of which came last night in a comfortable 4-1 win against Equipe Romagna.

The Italian side is made up of players released from Italian sides at the end of last summer who are yet to find a club. They do pre-season training and play friendlies to put themselves in the shop window, but the R’s made light work of them in searing heat on Wednesday evening. Ephraim opened the scoring, Leon Clarke bagged his first two goals in QPR colours, and another in form player who may be more involved this season than we initially thought Josh Parker also scored.

Fitz Hall was not involved because, surprise surprise, he’s injured again. Neil Warnock told the club’s official website: “Fitz felt a little bit tight last week, but it's possible he'll play Sunday. He wants to play - he loves his football and he's looking really good."

QPR: Cerny, Leigertwood, Connolly, Gorkss, Hill, Derry, Faurlin, Buzsaky, Mackie, Ephraim, Parker.

Subs: Ramage, Clarke, Borrowdale, Helguson, German

Back in the south west the QPR players not touring Italy, most notably striker Rowan Vine, won 3-1 at Taunton on Wednesday evening. Ramone Rose scored twice and Max Ehmer once as the R’s second string cruised to victory.

QPR: Putnins, Harriman, Stewart, Brown, Waters, Oastler, Ehmer, Hibbert, Mason (trialist), Vine, Rose

Subs: Andrade, Doughty, Bewick, Bulmer, Fitzsimmons, Johnson (trialist)

Meanwhile Rangers apparently remain confident of bringing Crystal Palace midfielder Darren Ambrose to the club despite a proposed £750,000 transfer collapsing earlier this summer. Rangers had hoped to take advantage of Palace’s financial plight and Ambrose only having one year left on his contract by picking up the player, who scored 20 goals from midfield for Palace last season, relatively cheaply however a takeover at Selhurst Park put paid to that and the deal seemed to be dead in the water.

Now it seems the R’s have upped their offer for the player and that is sure to test the resolve of the new Palace owners and manager George Burley. Assistant manager Mick Jones told the Kilburn Times: “"The bid's on the table and it's substantial. Remember, we took him to Palace on a free transfer and we feel the bid is more than fair. But Neil's in two minds in that he wants to look after Palace as well and that's why the offer is a good one. If they ask for more I can't see us upping the bid, but equally I can't see them keeping a player who doesn't want to be there. "Hopefully it's going to get resolved and Darren will become our player before the start of the season. If he doesn't, we've got other people in mind. With a bit of luck, we'll have three more signings before the kick-off. We're just waiting for people's responses now and if we get the right response we'll get them in as soon as possible."

Off the pitch Bernie Ecclestone has done little to endear himself to fans of QPR with an interview in the Evening Standard, although certainly his position on QPR is nothing we didn’t know already. Ecclestone said: “QPR? I don't have a real passion for it at all, I got into it by accident. I'm a Chelsea fan. I got involved through Flavio Briatore. It's difficult not to buy into his enthusiasm for things. I took some shares, I don't care. It's just something I've done.

“People are either passionate enough to get into it or else they want to massage their ego. Football commercially is a disaster and is going to be in trouble until they start sorting out the costs. Look at most of the clubs in the Championship. They're all in trouble financially.”

Ecclestone admits that QPR achieving promotion to the Premiership would just be “more aggravation” which perhaps explains the board’s lack of commitment to transfer fees in recent seasons.

Rumours:

It seems that veteran Albanian target man Erjon Bogdani will not be coming to Loftus Road after all. The 33 year old, released by Chievo with whom he played against Rangers in a friendly two summers ago, seems set to remain in Italy by signing for Cesena. Cesena finished second in Serie B last season, winning promotion to Serie A in the process, and are hoping to pair Bogdani with former Arsenal and Derby striker Arturo Lupoli.

Part of the problem Neil Warnock is facing this summer is offloading the deadwood from the QPR squad before he can bring in new players. Striker Alessandro Pellicori remains at Rangers despite claims to the contrary repeatedly made on certain other QPR websites. Stories in Italy suggest the situation with Pellicori, who scored once for QPR last season in a disastrous spell and spent the second half of the season on loan at Mantova where he somehow bagged eight goals in 17 games, that Flavio Briatore has apparently been ringing round his contacts in the Italian game trying to get clubs to take the player off our hands. Pellicori was, ludicrously, given a three year contract when he signed at Loftus Road last season.

Rangers have been linked with a move for Ipswich forward Jon Walters this week, although the quoted price tag of £2.5m immediately places this in the ‘highly unlikely’ pile.

Former R’s:

- Paul Furlong has been confirmed as the new player coach at Kettering. The Blue Square National outfit are currently managed by one time R’s goalkeeper Lee Harper and have been struggling for strikers this summer with Moses Ashikodi injured and Jean Paul Marna on his honeymoon. Furlong, now 41, was released by Barnet at the end of last season and is keen to move into coaching at the end of a long and distinguished playing career. He made his debut on Monday night as the Poppies crashed 4-1 at home to League One side MK Dons for whom Angelo Balanta opened the scoring.

- Jay Simpson looks set to quit Arsenal this summer after being left out of the Gunners’ travelling party for their summer tour of Austria. Simpson scored 13 times for QPR last season but his form tailed off towards the end of the campaign and Rangers’ interest in the player seems to have cooled. It looked like the 21 year old may have a future at the Emirates after all when he played, and scored twice, in their annual friendly with Barnet but now it seems his future lies elsewhere. Leeds, Hull and Leicester are all said to be eyeing the player.

- One of Simpson’s many striking partners at Loftus Road last season Tamas Priskin could be set for a move from Ipswich to Swansea. The Hungarian flopped badly at both Ipswich and Rangers last season after a £1.7m summer move from Watford. Now his former boss at Vicarage Road Brendan Rodgers, the only man to get any kind of form out of Priskin during his four years in the UK, has enquired about the possibility of making Priskin his first signing at the Liberty Stadium. Rodgers said: “He is a player that I worked with at Watford and he scored a lot of goals for me. He is a talent. He is one of a number of players that will be linked with Swansea because of their association with me. He is a good player, but he is an Ipswich player.”

- Midfielder Adam Bolder has been released by Millwall following their promotion to the Championship and is set to sign for League Two side Burton Albion.

- Danny Maguire, who captained the QPR youth team to the league title before being released from Loftus Road, is on trial at Crewe. Maguire, now 20, missed the whole of last season with a cruciate knee ligament injury but is hoping to impress sufficiently to win a contract at Gresty Road. Manager Dario Gradi told the club’s official website: “"Danny's grandfather asked if he we would have a look at him because he had a bit of bad luck with an injury. I am not saying that we would be in a position to offer him anything but he has a chance if he is good enough because I haven't got another one ready enough to go in at the moment if one of the main ones gets injured. He was very impressive in training and we will continue to have a look at him. The PFA paid for his operation and to be fair he looks very fit. He has worked hard over the summer on that and our physio's looked at him and his knee is fine, so we'll see."

- Tommy Williams has been taken on trial by Bristol City following his release from Peterborough. Williams spent a third spell of his career with QPR last season and finished the campaign on loan at Preston before being released. Williams will play in City’s next two friendly games in an attempt to win a contract at Ashton Gate.

Championship shorts:

- Ipswich defender Alex Bruce is set to sign for Sheffield United after spending the second half of last season on loan at Leicester. Bruce was one of eight players told they could leave Portman Road by Roy Keane earlier this summer. The Blades have already completed the signing of Nyron Nosworthy on a season long loan deal from Sunderland. Ipswich are hoping to replace Bruce with Cardiff centre back Gabors Gyepes, who once played for QPR on trial.

- Preston manager Darren Ferguson has slapped a £20m price tag on goalkeeper Andy Lonergan after West Brom returned with a third bid for the stopper. Ferguson said: “They have been in three times now and we have turned down every bid. I value him at £20m - I don't want to sell him. I think everyone has some sort of perception the club is skint but the chairman and the owner are trying to help me as much as they can and to turn down a third bid suggests that.”

- Portsmouth have withdrawn their offer of a new contract to goalkeeper David James after failing to come to an agreement. The veteran keeper will now travel north of the border to discuss a potential deal with Neil Lennon’s Celtic.

- Dele Adebola has returned to training ahead of schedule at Nottingham Forest after having a second operation on an infected Hernia earlier this summer.

Photo: Action Images

qpr_ox added 12:06 - Jul 22 Ecclestone's comments are nothing new. Perhaps he can be pursuaded to move on and Mittal can come in for the lot. It would be good to see the back of that very short Hitler loving moron (case for liable?)
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JB007007 added 17:55 - Jul 22 Looks like we are enjoying this pre season. I saw the Bodmin game and most of the players look pretty fit. Dont know how Leon Clarke will fair, but he is by no means fat as some suggested. I would go as far as to say the bloke needs to add some meat on his bones! Would be a good move if we could bring in Ambrose. Just need that clinical striker or two to finish the squad off. Hope Furs can keep going. Arguably our best signing ever if you measure the success he helped bring to us.

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DublinQPR74 added 17:59 - Jul 22 Thanks Clive. Agree re Ecclestone. What a sad little man. Seems much more suited to Chelsea alright. : P BTW, Mark Bircham's u16s have been tearing it up in the Foyle Cup in (London) Derry, have won 4 out of 4 and are in the Semi-final. Well done to them and hope they can beat Hull tomorrow. http://www.foylecup.com/Foyle_Cup_2010/Under_16.html
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