Choto at Queens Park ZIMBABWE international defender Dickson Choto has landed at English Championship side Queens Park Rangers and is being assessed by manager Harry Redknapp hoping to secure a contract with the ambitious London club. The 32-year-old defender, who has spent the last 10 years playingfor Polish glamour club Legia Warsaw, flew into the British capital last Thursday and was quicklyushered into the QPR family. Choto was at Bidvest Wits in the South African Premiership, with the hope of coming closer to home as he moves into the twilight of a very successful club career, but when an opportunity presented itself for a dance with the second-tier of English league football, he could not resist it. Redknapp wants to create a team that features players who are committed to its cause after sharply criticising the egos of the heavily-paid stars, who didn’t care about performance, he found when he arrived at the club during their time in the Premiership last season. Choto’s handlers, led by local Fifa-registered agent Kenny Mapeza, believe their experienced man fits that bill and could be a huge asset forRedknapp and his coaching staff if they can seal a deal for the big Zimbabwean defender. The management team in charge of Choto believe he could provide Redknapp with the kind of defensive strength that he saw in Christopher Samba, the giant defender from Congo-Brazzaville, who was a big-name signing for the English manager from Russia during the January transfer window. Samba, who also played for Blackburn Rovers in the English Premiership, was sold back to Russian club, Anzhi Makhachkala for £12 million, when QPR nose-dived back into the Championship at the end of the top-flight football season in May. Choto, at 1.92cm, provides the same aerial strength like Samba, who stands at 1.94cm, and the Zimbabwean is a bit heavier, though,at 95kgs compared to the Congolese who is the more athletic of the duo at 83kgs. The Zimbabwean defender is three years older than Samba. Choto has been training with QPR since the weekend and his handlers believe that the coup was getting him to be accepted, for such an assessment, and they are bullish overtheir player’s chances of landing a contract. “Footballers don’t just walk into a club like QPR, there are a lot of assessments that are made before one is even accepted to come in, and to be allowed to come and train withthe team, while the manager makes his assessment, means you have a certain level of quality,” Choto’s management team told The Herald. “Dickson is an experienced player who has spent a decade playing for a top club in Europe and has played in the Champions League and you can’t buy that kind of experience, that kind of exposure, and you earn your stripes and he has earned his right to try his luck at such levels like the English Championship. “Obviously, the decision lies with the people at QPR who will either say yes, he can come in because he will add value to the team, or they can say they have the resources, in terms of their defence right now, they might not require his services. “But you have to be always confidentto get a breakthrough and we have confidence in the qualities that Dickson brings to the table because he is a hard-working individual, who always gives 100 percent effort, and that he has lasted this long, playing at the very top for a big club in Poland, shows his real class and that’s why we took a crack at this golden chance. “Dickson is relaxed right now, he is the ultimate professional, and he knows that if he can put in a good shift, if he can really express himself during this period, he stands a very good chance of making a lasting impression and securing what he really wants.” Redknapp, who is in crutches after knee surgery, has already brought in former Manchester United defender, Danny Wilson, from Newcastle United. QPR are the bookies favourites to win the Championship and make a swift return to the Premiership and get their league campaign underway at home at Loftus Road, which has already been sold out for the fixture against Sheffield Wednesday, on Saturday. Although the league season gets underway this weekend, the transferwindow does not close until the end of August, which gives those who are handling Choto’s proposed move to QPR time on their plate to try and have their man make an impression. Choto, who played two games for the Warriors at the 2004 Nations Cup finals, has won two Polish titles in the Ekstraklasa in 2006 and 2013, was runner-up in 2004, 2008 and 2009, won the Polish Cup four times in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013 and one Polish Super Cup. What gives them hope is that Redknapp wants an overhaul of the team he inherited in the English Premiership, which failed to avoid relegation. The coach has already questioned theattitude of Samba Diakite, released defender Tal Ben Haim and is concerned that Adel Taarabt has only trained just twice, since pre-season got into full swing, about a month ago. Redknapp told the local area newspaper, Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle, that the QPR side that he had at his disposal was not good enough to even finish in the top half of the Championship next season, buttressing the need foran overhaul. “I’ve been watching Championship games the last few weeks and I don’tthink that team we’ve got here would finish in the top half,” Redknapp said QPR’s relegation was confirmed. “We have to do something about it if we can. You need to shift people to get people in. You can’t keep bringing a load of players in or you’d end up with about 70 players. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but something’s got to be done because one thing is for sure – if you kept that team here next year and played that team all season, you wouldn’t finish in the top half of the Championship. That’s the quality of the team. That’s a fact.” “It’s down to lack of quality. People keep talking about character, work-rate. But they [the players] try. It’s not them not trying. We haven’t got a lot of quality in the team. “We’re short of good players who canreally play at the top level.” If Redknapp gets Choto, it will continue his love affair with Zimbabwean players that started in 2000, when he tried to sign Norman Mapeza during his time at West Ham but could not secure a work permit for the Zimbabwean who had impressed during his trial period. The following year, Redknapp tracked Mapeza, who was then playing in Austria, and brought him to Portsmouth and offered him a two-year deal, after all the paper work had been completed, but once again the Zimbabwean couldn’t get awork permit. “Norman Mapeza is a player we have been chasing. I rate Norman very highly. I had him with me at West Ham for pre-season training at the start of last year but he never played for us because we couldn’t get a work permit,” Redknapp told the BBCthen. “I don’t expect to have problems with that this time because he’s the captain of Zimbabwe.” Five years later Redknapp broke Pompey’s transfer record when he brought Benjani Mwarurawi, for £4.1million, from French club Auxerre after being given assurance by Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, that it was worth the investment. Zimbabwe already has a player in theEnglish Championship, Charlton Athletic midfielder Bradley Pritchard, who has raked in 54 appearances since the club’s days in League One.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 07:35:54 +0000
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