"Unsung hero" - QPR promotion winner lauded despite Loftus Road reception | OneFootball

Karl Henry's time with the Hoops doesn't always get the credit it deserves

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…

Sometimes in football, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, as can so often be the case with players who failed to get the plaudits they deserved during their time at particular clubs.

They may have been hounded by supporters week in, week out while playing for their side, with their skills and abilities only fully appreciated when their absence was felt across the side.

Every club will have their own stories of players who weren’t fully taken under the wing by a fanbase, and Queens Park Rangers are no different, with a number of players falling foul of the Loftus Road crowd.

With that in mind, we asked Football League World’s Rangers fan pundit Louis Moir to pick out one particular player who failed to feel the love during his time in the blue and white hoops.

Karl Henry fails to win over Loftus Road crowd during QPR stint

For many, Karl Henry will be synonymous with the Wolverhampton Wanderers side of 15 years ago, which were regular competitors at the top of the Championship, before going on to compete in the Premier League.

The midfielder had a massive influence on everything at Molineux at the time, with his combative performances in the engine room so often setting the standards for his teammates, and dictating the pace of the game at the same time.

But as Wolves’ glory took a downturn amid successive relegations, Henry was looking to get out of the Black Country in the summer of 2013, with QPR his next destination.

Within a year, he had played his part in helping the Hoops earn promotion to the top tier, with Bobby Zamora’s late winner against Derby County at Wembley seeing his new employers reach the promised land in the most dramatic of circumstances.

Immediate relegation followed before stuttering performances upon their return to the second tier saw his time at Loftus Road come to a less than dazzling end, but Moir still holds the midfielder in high regard during his early days as a Rangers player.

When asked about underrated players at the club, the R’s fan pundit said: “I think we have had quite a few underrated players recently, but I think one that might not come first to people’s minds is Karl Henry, who I think was a bit of an unsung hero for us.

“He made over 100 appearances, and I will be honest I wasn’t actually a massive fan of his, especially when we were in the Championship, but I actually think he looked better for us in the Premier League, which is quite unusual.

“Maybe it was because he was playing with better players around him, and despite us going down, I thought he did well, and he was solid for us.

“He was one of those players that, like I said, I didn’t rate when we were in the Championship, but you appreciate them afterwards, and I think that is the case with him. You didn’t realise how solid he was at the time.”

Karl Henry’s QPR career ends on sour note

It is safe to say that the longer Henry remained at Loftus Road, the worse his situation got at the club, with the home fans even booing his arrival as a substitute during a match in 2016.

That sort of reception from the people who are meant to be supporting you is never going to sit well with any player, and after falling out of favour he was on his way to Bolton Wanderers in the summer of 2017.

While he may not have been the most popular man around Shepherd’s Bush, Moir believes the early iteration of the midfielder needs to be remembered, as he played a massive part in getting the club to the Premier League when everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet.

He continued: “He struck up a really good midfield partnership with Joey Barton, and looking back at it he had some really solid games in the Premier League, and some cracking performances to help us get promoted when we won the play-offs at Wembley.

“He was actually a very good player, and even if you look at his career, he was obviously at Wolves for a long time and did well there. He was a steady Eddie in the middle of the park, did the dirty work, and he was a player that was needed in a team that was doing well, and a team that was struggling.”