QPR boss unfazed by prospect of Chair interest
QPR manager Mark Warburton insists he is unfazed by the prospect of clubs showing an interest in Ilias Chair.
The Morocco international scored a late winner – his fourth goal in as many games – to give Rangers a 1-0 victory over Blackburn and further enhance his growing reputation.
Asked if he was worried Chair might attract bids during the January transfer window, Warburton said: “Not at all, because if Ilias goes to another club it will be for QPR’s value.
“If some club wants to come and pay £25m for him then great.
“If you’re going to sell in January it’s to a (Premier League) team that’s struggling and will spend to stay up or a team that’s pushing for promotion and they’ll spend to try and push on. So you only lose a player in January on your terms.
“We don’t want to lose any players. But if they do go then they go at our price.
“Every player has a value. If your house is worth £500,000 and I say ‘Here’s £2m’ then you’re going to sell to me 99 times out of a hundred.
“So if his value is X and someone will pay X plus Y, then all the very best. I don’t want to Ilias to go anywhere. But if someone leaves it’ll be on our terms.”
In a game of few chances, Chair broke the deadlock by curling home a shot after collecting Rob Dickie’s pass.
Warburton said: “It was a great strike. He’s got great technique. It’s about getting that half a yard of space and maximising it, which he did very well.
“I thought we were dominant in the second half and that the goal was going to come.”
Warburton added that he “used the squad” in deciding to rest Moses Odubajo, who was replaced with the outstanding Albert Adomah.
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray, meanwhile, admitted he set his team up in order to frustrate Rangers.
“I genuinely sat there thinking we were going to win 1-0, and we’ve lost,” Mowbray said.
“We needed to score and we’ve been scoring in just about every game this season, so it’s frustrating for us that we didn’t score.
“We came really to frustrate and hope we could grab the points and in the end it wasn’t to be.
“We can grind results out away from home and I thought we could do that tonight.
“There was no need to come here and be too expansive and for it to be like a basketball game against a team that scores a lot of goals.
“We set up not to be expansive and to frustrate. That’s OK – you can get results doing that. We play totally differently at home.
“The players worked extraordinarily hard. I sit here tonight pretty proud of how hard they worked and tried to deny a pretty good team. I’m not going to criticise them.”
