QPR will be relieved and frustrated at West Brom situation after losing summer battle | OneFootball

Queens Park Rangers will have a mixture of emotions looking at Gianluca Frabotta’s early struggles at West Brom.

Queens Park Rangers’ surprise victory over Norwich City over the weekend has offered a welcome boost to their Championship survival hopes.

The R’s blew away the promotion-chasing Canaries in a romping 3-0 victory in West London, with strikes from Jimmy Dunne and a double from Rayan Kolli propelling Marti Cifuentes’ men outside of the bottom three to 20th place, collecting 18 points from their opening 19 second tier outings.

Such an important victory in front of their home support could be crucial towards QPR maintaining their Championship status, with forward momentum being built ahead of another crunch home clash against Oxford United on Wednesday evening.

During the summer transfer window, QPR managed to recruit 10 new faces to Loftus Road in an attempt to bulk up the playing squad after surviving for another year of Championship football.

One player who the Hoops did miss out on though was Italian full-back Gianluca Frabotta, who was linked with a move to the club but eventually joined Championship rivals West Brom from Juventus on a free transfer.

After reviewing Frabotta’s time at West Brom so far, QPR are bound to feel a mixture of emotions at the way his spell has begun at The Hawthorns.

Gianluca Frabotta’s underwhelming West Brom start

After teaming up with Carlos Corberan and the Baggies during the summer transfer window, Frabotta has yet to truly to stake a claim for regular first-team football in the Black Country.

The 25-year-old made his debut for Albion against the R’s on the opening day of the Championship season, making a five-minute appearance off the bench as the Baggies earned a 3-1 victory.

The Rome-born defender would make his full debut just a few days later in an EFL Cup encounter at Fleetwood Town, featuring for just over an hour as a youthful Baggies side were dumped out of the competition by the Fishermen.

Short cameos followed in the second tier against Stoke City, Swansea City and Sheffield Wednesday while the Italian has also been forced to secure minutes with the Premier League 2 side in order to build up his fitness.

Since an introduction at Hillsborough for the first team back in September, Frabotta has failed to make another appearance for Albion, dealing with either being left out of the 18-man squad or remaining an unused substitute.

With the likes of Torbjorn Heggem and Callum Styles preferred at left-back and reducing Frabotta to just a handful of games played during his spell so far, questions will already be raised about where his future lies, with a loan move potentially in sight heading into the January transfer window.

QPR will undoubtedly be relieved to miss out on dealing with Frabotta’s struggles, but a move to the West London club in the summer could have changed his fortunes and turned him into a much more competent player at this level.

QPR will think what could have been with Frabotta

There’s no doubt Frabotta would have seen more action at QPR if he had made the move, with the form of Kenneth Paal less than convincing so far this term.

With competition at left-back sparse, the West London outfit would have made more use of Frabotta than Albion have and given him the opportunities to stamp his authority down on a starting spot in Cifuentes’ team.

Frabotta’s decision to snub QPR for West Brom has been a poor decision on his part so far, and the R’s will be frustrated that they haven’t been able to make his move to the UK a smoother transition then what has ensued so far in the West Midlands.

Barely being given a go under Corberan, there could be an option for QPR to re-enter the race for Frabotta and snatch him on loan for the remainder of the season, with the defender needing a consistent number of games to get used to the demands of the division and make his move to England worthwhile.

The January transfer window could provide some interesting developments in this saga, allowing Frabotta to put a nightmare five months at West Brom behind him and in turn, allow QPR to strengthen the full-back department, which will be desperately needed heading into the second half of the season as injuries and suspensions continue to surface.