Terrible slide down the table and we could be in the bottom 3 come the end of the festive period. Next set of fixtures are crucial for us having played most of the big boys once already, but defeats and points thrown away to the likes of Sunderland, Fulham and WBA have knocked us.

Norwich and Swansea over Christmas. Then Wigan home, Villa away, Wolves home, Blackburn away, Fulham home, Everton home and Bolton away. Crucial doesn't even come close!

The Transfer Window opens soon..........

My honest opinion there is that the best transfer window is the one pre-season. SWP and Bothroyd have been big disappointments, and DJ Campbell has been out long term injured so hard to judge - although he did well for Blackpool last season. All we can hope for are established strikers who are not first picks for their clubs being tempted away. Defoe? Pav? Andy Johnson? Zamora....

It is actually embarrassing to be one of the lowest scorers at home in all four divisions, and our only home victory has been against Chelsea. It bugs me that Norwich are doing so well, and all of a sudden we are right in the relegation mix after much talk about whether all 3 teams (for the first time ever?) could avoid relegation.

But that said, the fellow promoted clubs have the big clubs to come...

Compared to Ipswich, you are doing amazingly well

The money only appeared at the end of the Summer window, though? I'm sure Colin will unearth a few gems to replace the dire SWP and Taarabt will be off... With the Euros coming up and players actually wanting to play to try to get into their Int sides there will be a few good ones available - it will just be a matter of selling QPR to them.

I hope you are right blah blah, although I also hope we don't sell Taarabt. He has had decent-ish performances in our last two games, and if he can forget the rollickings Barton will give him if he loses the ball (pot, kettle, black recently) then he can start to shine. I still hold out some kind of hope of a real big name signing with the exact reason you give - the Euro's 2012.

Warnock gave Sky an interview the other day just before he was off to a meeting to discuss transfer strategy with Fernandes and The Board.
He said he was primarily looking at loans of 2 ambitious young Premier players (he did point out how he made Kyle Walker an England player) and one from overseas.
He played a straight bat to questions about Jelavic,the prolific Rangers striker,who Sky think could well be a big money target.
I thought he might try and get Ashley Williams from Swansea since he is badly in need of a solid centre back,but Swansea's success might militate against that.

why is it bugging you that we're doing well? We went for the invest in hungry lower league players approach, whilst QPR went for the big name, big wage approach... it was always going to be interesting for me to see how that pans out over the season. I would have thought Norwich are everyones 2nd favorite team by now, even Blah's

No doubt you will spend big in Jan, which is why I'm glad our visit to Loftus road is on 2nd Jan rather than at the end of Jan when you may have a very different side. Got my tickets through and looking forward to another end to end goalfest

I'm sure I tipped you to stay up, but sorry closet Swans fan here.

Someone mentioned your lot were getting Rhodes as a slightly late Xmas pressie. Cue Roy Keane rants from Suffolk............

Sorry brian, but in recent years I have developed a disliking for Norwich (and not entirely linked to the fact you are a big bogie team for us!). I felt there was a cockyness last season amongst Norwich fans that they would overhaul our lead just as they had done in the division below the season before (not sure who they caught)....?

Nothing personal, and I very much like your manager and the club, and of course Norwich get coverage on my local news. I just want to finish higher against both promoted teams, otherwise for me it will very slightly tarnish last season's Championship success. Can't argue though, that Norwich do look very good. You had many injuries to worry about yet?

QPR will again be without Anton Ferdinand for tomorrow's trip to the Emirates.

The former Sunderland defender has been sidelined since limping out of the defeat at Liverpool earlier this month with a hamstring problem.

And Neil Warnock admits the centre-back has no chance of recovering in time for the games against Arsenal and Norwich.

Meanwhile, the QPR boss has no fresh injury worries and is likely to name an unchanged side from the one which earned a point at Swansea on Tuesday.

Shaun Wright-Phillips is available despite struggling with a knee problem earlier this week, but he will have to settle for a place on the bench.

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/london ... -30035243/

I hope Warnock does start with the same attacking team - which includes Taarabt. I don't think we can afford to go to the Emirates and sit back and watch them come on to us. Ferdinand will be a big miss though. Gabbidon, too(?). Just a showpiece game for us really to visit a cracking new stadium. Not letting our goal difference collapse too much would be great. The next game from Norwich onwards is where our season really kicks in.

just back from my trip to loftus road, and obviously delighted with the 3 points (sorry Jonathan)

so the first talking point, joey barton of course! I didnt see the actual flashpoint clearly just the tussle which led to Johnson holding his face. I'm sure replays later will clear that up, but im sure im not alone in thinking it couldnt have happened to a nicer guy. Barton was quite happy to run goading in front of the away fans when he scored, and we were quite happy to return the favour when the red card appeared

1-1 seemed a fair reflection of the first half, as qpr scored with their only real chance whilst we had most of the possession but not a lot of cutting edge.

2nd half, qpr played really well with 10 men and SWP looked dangerous when he came on. We were really struggling to create anything despite the extra man, thankfully Lambert addressed that with a triple substitution and from there on it was an end to end game of chances and we took ours thankfully!

Is warnock that thick!!! wasn't anything in the headbutt but to say joey wouldn't have gone down like that......can't he remember Barton going down like a sack of shit to get gervinho sent off. Both bell ends

I said we could be in the bottom 3 after the festive period, and if Wigan take all the points tomorrow....

Clearly not a red, and the ref waited for (another) foul on Barton before blowing his whistle. Odd that, if he had already considered it a red card offence. If he only took the red card advice from the linesman, then did the linesman flag for a headbutt at the time to stop play immediately? I don't think he did, so how did they come up with that decision? I don't see the point of appealing, because heads were pushed together, but it wasn't a butt. Two players were kicking Barton between each other in the run up to it!

I do hate to lose to Norwich, brian, but you played well first half, and we had the second by some margin (I didn't go to the game). Nice to see Taarabt getting back to his old self though. See what other signings we get - Hulse has gone onto the squad of 25 which tells me something - although Macheda is interesting. Worrying times with those below showing some improvement.

Well, the first victory in the FA Cup since 2001 - hardly an inspiring one at that. A Championship quality performance last night, and MK should have taken that 2 or 3-1. I enjoyed the way they play.

I think DJ will be moved out the door, which is a great shame because he has hardly had a go at the team he supports. He should have got a run out last night. Macheda is shocking - his first touch worse than mine and SWP just runs around looking busy, with a few tricks with no end result. Should have buried his chance. Boothroyd looking a little better.

I know we have agreed a deal for the next Brazilian wonderkid goalscorer, but all the talk is about Alex and Samba but I don't really think that defence is our weakness. Besides, if Cahill is worth £7m to Chelsea, how can Samba be valued at £15m?

Crucial 2 weeks coming up.

Alex and Henrique deals fall through. I expected the Alex deal to not happen, but I was really hoping Henrique would come but he couldn't get a permit it seems. Alex wanted too much in wages.

Do you think Taiwo will start straight away? How do yo think their back four will end up once Traore is back. I was pretty disappointed about the Alex deal too...I really want him to stay in the PL just to watch him crush the ball on free kicks!

I can't fathom how things will change, but you would imagine a player of his supposed calibre (have to be honest and say I hadn't heard of him ) on loan will have come to play.

Traore can play left midfield, as he can be a bit iffy defensively at times, but I think we seem quite well sorted in that area.

Wait and see I guess, but really we need a couple of goalscorers.

Have you seen Taiwo's free kicks?!? He will be good for a couple of stunners!! Where is all the "big money" that is supposed to be spent this window?

Saw some of the YouTube clips so he does look an exciting prospect. As for the money, a small snippet in The Mirror yesterday hinting that Fernandes maybe doesn't have the funds everyone thought he had so who knows what is going on. First I had heard of that to be honest. No point in signing rubbish though, and the players need to be available to start with.

Linked with a French player today who I also hadn't heard of. I don't like the fact that a lot of these proposed signings are loan deals and players from outside the Premier League and they take time to settle. Something we don't have is time. We went the loan route before and it gets messy (not Lionel!)

QPR sign Nedum Onouha

I know he is a 'defender' but can anybody confirm his exact position and who may lose out from the existing QPR line up??

Good question, murf. This is also a player who we tried to sign in August, but it didn't happen, and since then his "relatives" have stated it wasn't necessarily a done deal this month as "other clubs" were also interested.

We are signing - or showing interest in - far too many defenders.

Wiki usefully tell us he is typically a centre back, but he can also play at right back or left back.

They also tell us he is the co-national record holder for boys under 15 standing triple jump

What is the new defensive line up and how soon? Is Luke Young under threat?

I think we'll have to wait for the transfer window to close before that becomes clear. Samba's still desperate to join QPR, and it's probably simply a matter of how much cash they can come up with to clinch a deal,despite Blackburn's protests.

Hughes was also reported to be looking for a new GK.

I would imagine that Young is fairly safe to be honest. The defensive line hasn't been too bad, just injury prone and the strongest line up of Young, Ferdinand, Gabbidon and Traore doesn't seem to have played together that often.

Kenny is a great keeper, and I think the talk is just based around whether Warnock will go to another Championship side any time soon and take Kenny with him. But then I got caught out with paper talk before...

I want strikers anyway, not more defenders.

I think Gabidon will lose out to Nedum Onouha for sure. Hughes thinks very highly of him and in the limited minutes I have seen him play he is a very solid player. Plus he is the national champion standing triple jump champion so you know he is good in the air I honestly expect Traore and Taiwo to rotate much like Kolorov and clichy do for City depending on how Hughes wants to play on any given week.

According to Sky this morning, this is a done deal. £4m for a 30-year-old wanderer. At least it isn't another loan deal.
Djibril Cisse

Would love to see him do well in England again. He'll get a good reception at Anfield.

Always talented and gave his all but was quite selfish / self-centred with it. No idea how well he has played in recent years but the facts do hint at 'journeyman with a greedy agent'.

He doesn't stay anywhere long that is for sure. But maybe at 30 he will want to settle a bit. I think it is a good signing because so far, all the new boys have never played in England, and they will need time to settle. Cisse could even play tomorrow night if he signs before midday today. With Helguson injured could be a ideal signing to hit the ground running!