QPR transfer regret issued over Chris Willock's 4-year stint - he could've gone for "£15m" like Ebere Eze | OneFootball

FLW's QPR fan pundit has given his verdict on whether Chris Willock proved value for money

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…

Chris Willock’s time at QPR was filled with a lot of highs and lows before he made the switch to Cardiff City in 2024.

The forward joined the west London outfit in 2020, arriving from Portuguese side Benfica after a three-year stint at the Lisbon-based outfit (albeit he spent two spells on loan at Huddersfield and West Brom in that time), and immediately became a key part of the first team squad.

He made 38 appearances in the Championship in his first year at Loftus Road, contributing three goals and five assists to help the R's come ninth in the standings.

It wasn't all good news for Willock at QPR though - injuries meant his impact was stop-start, as he made a total of 144 appearances in the second tier across four campaigns - with significant chunks of the 2022-23 season missed especially.

After four years with QPR, Willock decided to test the waters and departed as a free agent, signing for divisional rivals Cardiff City, where he went on to suffer relegation to League One in his first season with the club - a move which so far has not worked out.

Chris Willock didn’t live up to his potential at QPR

When asked if the reported £750,000 fee to sign Willock proved value for money, FLW’s QPR fan pundit Louis Moir claimed it was a difficult question to answer.

He believes the player was once potentially worth up to £15 million, but because QPR failed to cash in, his injuries and dip in form subsequently led to him walking away for nothing.

“I think it’s hard to say we got our money’s worth for Chris Willock because he ended up leaving on a free anyway, and it was a real, real shame because he was a player who showed ability when he first joined and then it took a while to get into

the swing of things,” Moir told Football League World.

“He got fully fit under [managers, Michael] Beale as well, and [Mark] Warburton.

“He was a joy to watch that season we thought we were going to do something, he was scoring every week at the beginning of that season.

“Honestly, he was so good, he was one of the best players in the league.

“There were fans saying that he could be worth £15 million odd, selling him for as much as we did or nearly as much as we did for [Ebere] Eze.

“Injuries unfortunately just caught up with Willock, and it was a shame because a player like that with that ability, if he was consistent he would’ve been playing in the Premier League.”

Moir believes it’s a shame that something couldn’t be figured out to keep Willock at the club instead of letting him go as a free agent, and that he’s probably not better off with the move to Cardiff due to their relegation.

“Obviously, he came back from injury under Martí [Cifuentes] and again showed glimpses of the old Chris Willock and ended up, after that, leaving the club on a free,” Louis added.

“I think if you look at that decision now, he ended up getting relegated with Cardiff and now is playing football in League One, so that didn’t work out too well for him.

“And, to be honest, if he did want to stay, then you’ve got to look at the bigger picture.

“He’s ended up at Cardiff, they went down, if it was for more money then it was a pretty shambolic move to go there, to be honest.

“But, obviously, for a lot of his time with us, it was positive.

“He scored some cracking goals, and in hindsight I could say I wish we sold him when we did, but then there was a chance that we could carry on and get in the play-offs, or done something, and you don’t really want to get rid of your best players at that point.

“It’s easy to say now we should’ve sold him, but I think to end up losing him on a free and get nothing for him was ultimately very disappointing, really.”

Chris Willock departure hasn’t worked for anyone - most of all himself

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but Willock would’ve been better off staying with QPR and continuing to rebuild his career amid the injury issues he had suffered.

The £750,000 fee paid to sign him wasn’t a bad deal by any means for the Hoops, and he contributed enough in four years to justify it.

But there will be some semblance of what could’ve been attached to his departure, as losing him for nothing was bad business.

He had the potential to be a major windfall for QPR, and they took the risk of keeping him instead, and that’s just the way football goes sometimes, with the transfer market proving impossible to predict.