QPR v Swansea City, Premier League, Match Preview.

To the nasty part of West London. (Isn't it good to be back? )

It seems particularly ironic to me that in the week of the closing of London's fantastically successful Olympics 2012, with all and sundry rightly praising the welcome and friendliness afforded by the Capital, our first game of the new season sends us to Loftus Rd., a reminder of what football used to be like in the 80's.

Despite its gentrifying and tartification, where the Club's hierarchy has explicitly tried to move it up-market with the cancerous phrases "boutique football" and "retro-chic" prevalent (with concomitant but unsurprising increases in cost of admission - £50 Cat A anyone??), this remains one of the most unpleasant of all PL Grounds to visit.

Here's a bit of advice to any fellow Jacks travelling - don't drink in the local pubs, wear spit-proof clothing if possible, get in = get out = get home.

That comes from at least 6 visits for me, and each and every time has been unpleasant, not just for the results, which were almost all uniformly bad for us, but from the experience. Anyway, having started you off by revealing my prejudices, I leave you to form your own impressions on Saturday, and let's hope the football matches a more pleasant experience.

QPR, our closely linked arrivistes from our most recent Championship season, did at least survive last year,(see final table here), but in a manner a degree less comfortable than for either ourselves or fellow first timers Norwich City, and their last day defeat to the Champs Man City left them relying on the eventual relegatees to do worse than they did. To their great relief, Wolves, Blackburn and Bolton did, and were.

Whilst we are rightly concerned with a progressive development of our modern stadium, any amount of layers of fresh paint can't disguise the fact that Loftus Rd, with its 18500 capacity remains the PL's smallest stadium, and an era of increasing reliability on Clubs to maximise their income, has led to their owner, the slightly more enlightened than previously Tony Fernandes, the Air Asia supremo, concentrating their efforts on relocating to a 35000-45000 alternative in the foreseeable future. Trust me, this is not easy anywhere. In West London, it's nigh on impossible (ask RA at Chelski), and the search goes on.

So with this off field churn and turmoil on going, what of the on field progression, or otherwise.

You will remember that despite his beneficent comments re their erstwhile Manager Colin Wanker (sic) toward the end of his tenure - ( "He's a special guy, we're very happy with him," Fernandes said then ) - it didn't stop an eight game non-winning run leading to Warnock's dismissal, and replacement with a familiar foe, the egregious (choose your adjective), Mark Hughes.

Whilst Hughes attempted to re-shape the team before the season's end, their last day survival owed more to the ineptitude of the three below.

However, we shouldn't belittle the ubiquitous Hughes, since he has a habit of producing teams after his own style - combative, technically proficient, tactically astute, hard grafting and dirty. Yes, I did say that, and I mean it. His teams would generally kick their Grandmother for a point. Often.

There is, indeed, evolution underfoot under Hughes' tenure, and, to be fair, it's of a rather higher order than previously, and the Jay Bothroyd/Junior Campbell type signings are making way for greater quality.

Using his Blackburn Rovers period and influence, two of the more intriguing signings were Ryan Nelsen, the veteran NZ CB acquired from a Tottenham release, and the exciting and young David (Junior) Hoilett,on a Free Agency from Blackburn.

Whilst Nelsen is long in the tooth, he brings experience, and Hoilett, as those of us who travelled to Ewood Park last year remember, turned us inside out on more than one occasion. Still, I like to think we've learned from then.

Furthermore, in goal,the error prone Paddy Kenny has gone, to be replaced by Rob Green, the England keeper from West Ham, although Green has had moments of his own.

The observant will have noticed that whereas last season when Hughes came in, the fees for Cisse and others were somewhat inflated, when we contrast this year with the above, who were all free at Contracts end, even the £2m paid for Park Ji Sung, Man Utd's still combative 31yr old midfielder, and a player who SAF trusted, have not been overly excessive.

Similarly from Man Utd., the lesser twin, Fabio de Silva, has come in on a full year's loan, with a view to buy. His brother Rafael's excesses in Brazil's defeat to Mexico in the Olympic Finals perhaps reinforced the perception that Fabio is the better of the twins, so The R's may have got lucky.

There remain, of course, the eternal problems relating to Twitter's very own Superstar and Renaissance man extant, Joseph Barton 7. Suspended for 12 games, specifically for a multiplicity of offences v Man City last season, and currently purportedly on loan to Fleetwood Town, in a crude attempt to shorten the suspension, this is an issue that will not just go away. It appears, however, that the FA have seen this for what it appeared to be - namely, an attempt to shorten JB's suspension period by getting him some games for a lesser but earlier performing club. To their credit, the Game's Trustees are not minded to let this go through.

More power to their elbow.

Most sensate adults would acquiesce if asked to give an offender a second chance. Lets be honest - most of us have probably nicked a Mars Bar from a sweetshop when young ( mea maxima culpa) .

But a 9th Chance?? Surely not, brother. Lest I be accused of trivialising the misdemeanors of JB, please remember they include beating a youth insensible outside a Liverpool McDonalds (classy-sic) (for which he was jailed) and assaulting a team-mate and breaking his jaw shortly after stabbing a youth player in the eye with a cigar.That's just part of his CV. 'Nuff said.

Good footballer though, eh? as I heard some very silly person on TalkSport say recently. You couldn't make it up, really.

All of the above parts will add to the remaining signings from last year, particularly Djibrill Cisse , Bobby Zamora, Samba Diakite and  Nedum Onouha. All of those are decent players, so Hughes will believe that he can merge the older with the more newly acquired.

Add the impressive Alejandro Faurlin, the flighty Shaun Wright Phillips and some older warriors like Clint Hill and Shaun Derry. Then we get to that lesser controversial half of the Ferdinand brothers, Anton, (sic), along with Armand Traore, and the perennially-posturing Adel Taarabt, who still remains for me a sort of Christiano Ronaldo from the Blue Square.

Forgive me my insouciance, it's just that this is a club that winds me up. I don't know why (......well maybe), I do know how, but this over-inflated, bloated squad is going to contain a number of disaffected players who don't make the final mark. Subject to that cut, we'll see where we go from there. This, currently, is their squad listing, or the nearest to it that I could get.........

Goalkeepers
Murphy, Cerny, Green

Defenders
Nelsen, Onuoha, Traore, Hill, Connolly, Young, Ferdinand, Da Silva

Midfielders
Wright-Phillips, Barton, Taarabt, Ehmer, Ephraim, Faurlin, Diakite, ParkDerry

Forwards
Hulse,Campbell, Zamora, Mackie, Helguson, Cisse, Smith, Bothroyd, Balanta, Hoilett, Johnson

You will notice from my notes above that I haven't even mentioned the grafting forward Jamie Mackie, a sort of  Bambi on stilts who retains an ability to score when he should fall over, or the headhunter Rob Hulse, who would give Jade Jones a bloody good fight. Some might question his footballing ability, but maybe on Saturday, we might get to see.

Whoops, I've forgotten the aggressive Tommy Smith, who continues to score goals against decent Clubs. Helgusson has gone to Cardiff, it seems. And then there's Andrew Johnson. Snaffled from Fulham again at Contracts end, he has still some pertinent ability, but seems to be a player who can be controlled, as we proved last year at both Craven Cottage and the Lib..

Then we get to players like Luke Young, the ex Villa FB, Peter Ramage, Danny Gabbidon, and Hogan Ephtraim is still on the books, a grafting MF'er. Add in Angelo Balanta, Bruno Andrade, and several others, and it will tell you that to get to a squad of 25 they have some crucial decisions. Still, we know how that feels. 

So what of tactics, and the approach?

Hughes' teams generally operate to a 4-4-2 variant.There is a degree of flexibility, but the ultimate sin is failing to graft. They will be ferociously committed.

One of the advantages of a smaller, old stadium is that the crowd intensity becomes an influential factor. For all it's faults, Loftus Rd does at least tick this box. Expect rabid R's fans at the throat of our team throughout, with special dispensation given to "Sheep" songs. Gimme shelter. Just give them the finger, please.

Think back to Blackburn when Hughes was in charge and as I've said above, they always had their share of technical proficiency, but, above all, they were

physical.

Arsene Wenger has said on countless occasions that they always took the rules to the limit - and we should expect no difference. Hughes will send his side out to physically intimidate, just as he did personally, so it will be key to be able to resist this.

From what we've seen of the Swans so far pre-season I find it hard to evaluate just where, exactly, we are.

In comparison to last year we know, of course, that we've lost Caulker, Sigurdsson and Allen. Good luck to Joe btw, he brought us a lot of pleasure, and in the ethos of the PL, undoubtedly the "greed is good" League, it was ever thus.

The immediate replacements seem sound, if that's what they are.

Chico Flores will be a hand on heart player who gives his all and I suspect he'll become a favourite.

Michu is the best deal we've done for a long time. I'll buy into a player who scored 15 La Liga goals last year in a struggling side. A sound character, too, who will give his all for our club.

I've seen a great deal of debate on Swans friendly websites recently on JdeG. I say one thing - chill, brothers. This is a hugely talented footballer who will take longer to settle in, and that's because he's a playmaker. So please, give him time, give him our support, and it'll help.

I'll reserve judgment on Itay Shechter, but any attacking support for DG is welcome.

We all know the quality the rest of the squad afforded us last season. After suffering another pilfering of our Manager, it was fantastic and ambitious to recruit the admirable Michael Laudrup.

I've read a lot about our nascent differences from last year, where we varied from an out and out 4-3-3 to a sophisticated 4-2-3-1, via the odd avenue of 4-1-4-1 along the way. Btw, no more 3-5-2 please ML, my heart won't stand it.

The very least we should expect is a subtle difference. Michael Laudrup is not Brendan Rodgers (thank goodness), so it was interesting to read his comments on his differing take on the role of our wide players.

Each new Manager at our Club brings his own, and his staff's, influence. Whilst it would be foolish to expect a carbon copy of our style, most of us will hope that ML can develop and build upon what we've already achieved. But, it will be different, and we should embrace that change in the fond hope that it makes us better still.

Don't forget that despite the loss of 3 gifted players, and their replacement by 3 who'll be their equal (we hope), we still have many and varied talents within the Squad, not least the  pass master, Leon Britton. Short people, eh?

Isn't it great to be talking about our second season in this hardest of Divisions? I think so.

Our job, as fans, is to support the efforts being made on our behalf, and to ENJOY!!

Am I nervous? Yes, intensely.

Am I worried? Not in the slightest, this is Football.

Am I expectant? You bet your life I am.

Start me up.

Onward, Swansea City.

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And in further news , perhaps JB7 would like to spend some time in the sun, but I'd recommend not getting into any fights down South.They take things rather seriously in France's largest port.