Opinion: QPR should approach experienced Spaniard as centre-back crisis continues
With injuries rife at Loftus Road and a general lack of depth, Gareth Ainsworth should make a move for Daniel Ayala
With the 2023-24 Championship season around the corner, Queens Park Rangers’ need for new centre-backs has gotten even more desperate.
The R’s went into the summer transfer window with three solid Championship options on the books, but that became two as Rob Dickie was sold to divisional rivals Bristol City before he could enter the final year of his contract at Loftus Road.
And with Leon Balogun not signing a new contract, it left just Jake Clarke-Salter and Jimmy Dunne as Gareth Ainsworth’s options, with 22-year-old Joe Gubbins – who has played just three times at senior level for the club – in reserve if needed.
Pre-season has been disastrous though at the back with Clarke-Salter limping off in a friendly match early on in preparations and Dunne stretchered off last weekend against Oxford United, it has left Ainsworth with just Gubbins as his only out-and-out centre-back.
New signing Morgan Fox could fill in next to Gubbins but considering he is best used as a left-back or on the left-hand side of a back three, it could be a struggle of a debut for the Welshman against Watford this coming weekend.
It’s very clear that QPR now need new centre-backs more than anything – they missed out on ex-Wigan man Jack Whatmough who headed to Preston North End, they have been struggling to agree a fee for Wycombe’s Chris Forino, a move for Peterborough United’s Josh Knight collapsed at the last minute and even veteran defender Aden Flint, who was rumoured to be a target, has joined Mansfield Town of League Two.
Ainsworth needs a centre-back to come in who is reliable and would be content to perhaps not play every single week when Clarke-Salter and Dunne are back fit, and that individual could very well be Daniel Ayala.
Who is Daniel Ayala?
Ayala has plenty of Championship experience but also good pedigree from before that, having come through the Sevilla academy and then moving to the Liverpool youth setup at the age of 16.
The Spaniard has never left English football since and despite not really making it at Anfield, he has forged himself a very solid Championship career with appearances in the Premier League too for the Reds, Norwich City and Middlesbrough.
With Hull City, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Boro and Blackburn Rovers though, Ayala has racked up 276 appearances in the second tier of English football and won promotion from it once in 2015-16 with the Teessiders – a year in which he was also named in the PFA Team of the Year.
Most recently he has spent the last three years at Blackburn, but at times he was plagued by injury – which would suggest he’s not the best fit for QPR with their current problems.
He featured just 10 times in his debut campaign at Ewood Park but raised that to 22 matches in 2021-22, even though once again he missed a large chunk of the season through injury.
Ayala was a regular for Jon Dahl Tomasson for the first two thirds of the 2022-23 season when he kept relatively fit, but a spell on the sidelines towards the end of the campaign saw him not offered a new deal at the Lancashire outfit, ending his time there with 58 appearances and four goals.
Would Daniel Ayala sign for QPR?
Considering he has gone without a club so far this summer, you’d think that Ayala would jump at the chance to sign a one-year deal in West London.
Ayala is only 32 years of age which means he still has something left to give at Championship level, even though his injury record is very patchy.
Should Ainsworth want to play a back three at any time, then Ayala with Dunne and Clarke-Salter or Fox either side of him would prove to be very solid, but even in a back four he would be a useful addition.
The only glaring issue with bringing him in now without a pre-season under his belt is that he may need weeks to get upto speed with the Championship, but it may be worth just taking a punt on the 6 ft 3 in Spanish central defender on a free.
