Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink ready to put his faith in youth at QPR

Boy's brigade: New Rangers boss vows to bring through youth at Loftus Road
Pete Norton/Getty Images

While new QPR manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was yesterday signalling his intent to put his faith in young English players in his bid to get the club back in the Premier League, well-respected former Charlton coach Damian Matthew has issued a warning about an over-reliance on youth.

Hasselbaink, who was unveiled yesterday, wants a change of philosophy at Loftus Road, where in the past big-name signings have been made but have failed to help the club push on.

The 43-year-old Dutchman said: “I feel I have to bring through younger English players. That is how I was brought up in Holland. If I have a chance to bring a young player through at 18, or whatever age he is, and he is good enough, I will chuck him in. I will give him a chance.

“He has to bring something to the team, otherwise you cannot do it and, if you do that, the senior player will have to understand. If they throw the dummy out, you pick it up and put it back in their mouth.”

But as Hasselbaink was plotting his brave new world at Loftus Road, Matthew was claiming that Charlton risk compromising their future with a transfer policy that focuses too heavily on young players.

Matthew worked at The Valley for nine years, helping to bring through players like Arsenal’s Carl Jenkinson and Joe Gomez of Liverpool, before he left the club along with former boss Guy Luzon in October.

He is now working for Celtic, identifying young London talent for the Scottish champions.

While Charlton’s youthful side had a reasonable start under Luzon’s successor, Karel Fraeye, they dropped into the Championship relegation zone last weekend — and Matthew admits he fears for their future.

“You need experience in the ranks,” he told Standard Sport. “Two or three of the signings over the summer were excellent. They were players who could come in and affect the game straight away.

“With some of the others, you could see the potential but that was all it was. We had a lot of success bringing young players through the system but when you have players like that you need to make sure the squad is boosted by experienced players who know the Championship.”

Hasselbaink appeared to be at odds with QPR’s director of football Les Ferdinand at yesterday’s press conference over the future of their England striker Charlie Austin.

While Hasselbaink insisted Austin would not be “pinched” in January, Ferdinand admitted their top scorer could be sold, saying: “Every player has his price. I would not want to sit here and say Charlie is definitely staying.”

Hasselbaink added: “Charlie is an important individual at this club, do not get me wrong but it is a team game and I want to have a team.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in