QPR putting Chelsea to shame with conveyor belt of talent after Dalling becomes 18TH youngster to make debut in 6 years

MOVE over Chelsea, there is another club in West London with a stunning track record for blooding young stars. Frank Lampard’s Blues have taken the plaudits for bringing through kids this season — but QPR are putting them to shame with their conveyor belt of talent. When Deshane Dalling, 21, appeared in the FA Cup […]

MOVE over Chelsea, there is another club in West London with a stunning track record for blooding young stars.

Frank Lampard’s Blues have taken the plaudits for bringing through kids this season — but QPR are putting them to shame with their conveyor belt of talent.

When Deshane Dalling, 21, appeared in the FA Cup win over Swansea this month, he became the 18th player nurtured by Under-23 boss Paul Hall to make his first-team debut for the R’s.

Former Jamaica World Cup star Hall is in his sixth year in charge of the development squad at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium — and is turning up talent at a dazzling rate.

The squad is littered with homegrown players like Ebere Eze, Ilias Chair and Bright Osayi-Samuel, who are already catching the eye of Premier League clubs.

Many are likely to be in action tomorrow night when boss Mark Warburton’s side host fellow Championship side Sheffield Wednesday — looking to book a place in the FA Cup fifth round.

And no one is prouder than former Portsmouth winger Hall.

He has carried out the wishes of director of football Les Ferdinand and head of coaching Chris Ramsey by nurturing wave after wave of products ready for Warburton to call on.

Hall said: “As a club, we were in a financial position which meant we couldn’t spend any more.

Reuters

“And that’s when Chris and Les came and said, ‘Look, we’re just going to have to see if we can produce home-grown players’.

“I like to think I’ve played my role in that and been instrumental in bringing so many through. Pride is the biggest feeling.”

While first-team managers have come and gone, Hall and assistant Andy Impey have quietly gone about producing a development squad which has provided the club’s backbone.

He added: “We’re Queens Park Rangers — the R’s. We’ve got three here: Respect, responsibility and resilience.

“We have had a massive turnover of managers since I’ve been at the club.

“I’ve seen lots of styles of play. However we have stayed the same — because I have to make these guys adaptable to play under any kind of manager.

I like to think I’ve played my role in that and been instrumental in bringing so many through.”

Paul Hall

“So the identity of the academy has not changed throughout it all.

“It’s total football right across the board, an adaptable style of play. It’s a strength-based capability programme, which focuses on what players are good at.”

Hall hailed Eze, who started out at Millwall, as the biggest example of their reward for trusting in young players.

The England Under-21 forward has ten league goals and five assists this season and is only eight games short of 100 appearances for the club already.

Hall added: “Eze’s come in, at the age of 21 he’s a supremely talented boy. For whatever reason, he failed at different clubs.

“But he came to us and we saw the strength he had, his ability is fantastic. He needed a lot of belief, needed to tidy up in a lot of other areas — but that’s what we do.

“We polish them up because it’s the last stop before the first team.

“We’ve got to grow these young players into being men, to grow them into being ready. They can’t be embarrassed by not being technically ready or psychologically ready — they’ve got to hold their own.

“That’s what we did with Eze, Ilias, Joe Lumley, Ryan Manning, Darnell Furlong…there’s a long list of players who have gone into the first team.”