QPR hit the jackpot with Huddersfield Town - Hoops netted £2.3m transfer profit | OneFootball

Alex Smithies proved to be a shrewd pickup for the West London side

In the early stages of their current 10-year spell in the Championship, it's fair to say that the chequebook wasn't always open to a large degree at Queens Park Rangers.

Rangers and several managers prior to Julien Stephan were restricted when it came to injecting new blood into the Loftus Road ranks, with the W12 club forced to count the costs of overspending throughout a spell of three Premier League campaigns in a four-season period.

This meant the recruitment team in this part of the capital had to operate in a particularly savvy manager when looking to provide those in the dugout with the required tools, with the club unable to offer the staggering finances that were previously on offer under Tony Fernandes.

Despite such circumstances taking place, those on the terraces are able to look back on some of those transfer dealings with a fair amount of fondness, as well as hyping up those who have come through the academy ranks, such as Ilias Chair and Ebere Eze, now of Arsenal.

However, in their initial rebuild after falling down from the Premier League under Chris Ramsay, the Hoops still enjoyed an extremely active summer recruitment drive, with the addition of Huddersfield Town goalkeeper, Alex Smithies, in particular, proving to be an extremely savvy pickup.

After coming through the academy ranks at the Accu Stadium, Smithies became one of the EFL's brightest prospects and a mainstay between the sticks under Lee Clark, Simon Grayson, Mark Robins and Chris Powell.

During this period, he helped his hometown club return to the Championship as they defeated Sheffield United in a dramatic penalty shootout in the 2011/12 League One play-off final, with his opposite number, Steve Simonsen, missing the crucial spot-kick, before helping the Terriers consolidate back in the second-tier.

However, after making 274 appearances for the West Yorkshire club, during which he kept 70 clean sheets, Smithies would make the first move out of his native county at the age of 25, joining Rangers for a reported £1.2m on a three-year contract.

"This was a big decision but the timing was right for my career. QPR is the ideal opportunity for me," Smithies said at the time.

"Being at a club that was recently in the Premier League, there is going to be a lot of expectation to push on and improve, and I think I will thrive off that."

Throughout the aforementioned timeframe, the London outfit certainly got their money's worth, despite there being two managerial changes during Smithies' spell between the sticks, with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ian Holloway appointed in December 2015 and November 2016 respectively.

Such a chaotic and unsettling period for the club didn't have a major impact on their shot-stopper's performances, though, as he scooped three end-of-season awards in the 2016/17 campaign after emerging as 'number one' ahead of Matt Ingram, sticking to his aforementioned words with a string of fine performances despite keeping a tally of just seven clean sheets

Another way in which the aforementioned price-tag was certainly repaid was Smithies' remarkable penalty-saving record, with six of his overall 15 spot-kick saves coming for the Hoops.

The most notable of those would come in consecutive West London derbies against Fulham at Craven Cottage and Loftus Road in 2016/17.

With the scores tied at the Cottage in the first of these local feuds, Smithies denied Tom Cairney from the spot before Conor Washington and Idrissa Sylla helped his side claim a 2-1 comeback victory against the Whites.

He was then on hand to thwart notorious second-tier bagsman, Chris Martin, from 12 yards in the exact same minute - the sixth - in a 1-1 draw between the two sides just three months later.

After being one of the second-tier's most-dependable goalkeepers for a prolonged period, not many could begrudge Smithies for making the first Premier League switch of his career, joining Cardiff City for £3.5m after their promotion under ex-QPR boss, Neil Warnock.

After keeping 20 shutouts in 109 games for the R's, it was clearly a satisfactory deal, and one which also benefited Cardiff over time, with the Yorkshireman going on to average just shy of one clean sheet every four games in the Welsh capital, keeping 24 in total across 100 games, which included a play-off finish in the 2019/20 season

Following four years with the Bluebirds, Smithies moved to Leicester City on a free transfer in the summer of 2022, but never made a competitive appearance for the Foxes before announcing his retirement in 2024.