This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Queens Park Rangers may need to strengthen in the January transfer window if they are going to make a successful push for the play-offs during the remainder of the 2025/26 season.
Despite having only picked up seven points from the last 18 available to them in the Championship, the Rs are still well positioned to make a charge for the top six between now and the end of the season.
Julien Stephan’s side currently find themselves three points adrift of the play-off places, so a run of positive results would put them right back in amongst the promotion contenders.
The West London outfit have a number of key players sidelined with injuries at present, so it could prove to be vitally important that they strengthen during the January transfer window if they are going to make a success of their season.
Ronnie Edwards has already completed a move to Loftus Road from Southampton in a deal worth £4.5 million this month, which suggests that the club is prepared to back Stephan as he looks to bolster his depleted squad.
Football League World’s QPR fan pundit, Louis Moir, believes that signing a new goalkeeper should be high on the club’s list of priorities as they navigate the winter window.
QPR urged to sign Leeds United goalkeeper Illan Meslier
When asked to name one player he would urge QPR to sign before the end of the window, Louis explained: “I think we are still in desperate need of a goalkeeper.
“I think we have got to really look, ideally, in this January window to loan someone and then sort out the position permanently in the summer.
“Despite Joe Walsh having a great game against West Ham in the cup, he is not good enough. Nardi, not good enough. Hamer, I am just not confident in him either. Basically, every keeper at the club is just not good enough.
“Hopefully we are having a look this month to sort that position out, but Ben Hamer was given a new deal, so does that mean we are going to settle with him for the rest of the season? I’m not sure.
“A keeper we could look at signing on loan would be Illan Meslier from Leeds. He is their third-choice essentially now, and he is still fairly young for a goalkeeper.
“Obviously, he is prone to a mistake. He has had a couple of howlers, but what keeper doesn’t have bad mistakes in their career? I just think people forget that he played a lot of games in the Championship for Leeds when they got promoted, and he is a good keeper.
“If something could be agreed with Leeds for us to take him on loan and then maybe look at something in the summer, I do think Meslier could be alright. I don’t think he is as bad as people make out.
“I think we need a keeper of that calibre to help us out until the end of the season because it is a position that really needs sorting, so fingers crossed we can loan in someone like that.”
The likes of Steve Cook, Isaac Hayden, and Rhys Norrington-Davies know what it takes to win promotion to the Premier League, and the importance of having experienced players in the dressing room cannot be underestimated.
Signing Illan Meslier on loan from Leeds United would give QPR another player with recent experience of winning promotion from the Championship, as he kept 21 clean sheets and conceded just 27 goals as Daniel Farke’s side lifted the title last season.
Meslier, of course, has lost his place at Elland Road following the Whites’ return to the Premier League, as he continues to receive a weekly wage of £30,000 according to Capology estimates.
If QPR sign Meslier, and he can recapture the kind of form that has earned him two second tier titles, a Championship Golden Glove award, and a place in the PFA Team of the Year for the division, it would be a shrewd signing.