EFL Championship side QPR finally has its man after constant negotiations with Southend United.
Charlie Kelman was acquired by the London club on Wednesday, signing a three-year deal from the League One side. Southend United previously rejected two offers from QPR for Kelman, but eventually allowed the 18-year-old to move on from the club.
“We’ve tracked Charlie’s progress and we feel we can bring him to where he needs to be,” QPR director of football Les Ferdinand said. “He is a goalscorer and, at just 18, has scored goals in league football already, which alerted us.”
“Initially, Charlie will be with the Under-23’s, but we want him to push Lyndon Dykes and Macauley Bonne. He’s tasted a lot of men’s football already, so he understands the game – we just need to polish him up. Hopefully he can make the grade sooner rather than later.”
After coming through the ranks at Southend United, Kelman was given the early opportunity with the first team in England. After registering one league goal in 10 appearances in 2018-19′, Kelman finished last season tied for the team lead with five goals in 18 appearances.
The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team player did not feature in Southend United’s last three matches due to links to QPR. With the move completed, Kelman can now begin his new chapter in the EFL Championship.
“It’s exciting to be able to join a great club like QPR who also develop players,” Kelman said. “I’ve got a lot still to prove, but I’m excited to do that – coming in and playing with and against better players will only help me.”
Kelman will start with QPR’s Under-23 side, which faces Crewe Alexandria next on Oct. 21st. He will eventually hope to feature next to fellow American Geoff Cameron in QPR’s first team.
He can now be treated as a Championship Player and not a League One Player. This gets him out of the Gooch Trap where even though you’ve been capped and done alright, and played EPL without embarrassing yourself, you seemingly get dissed for staying with your childhood team as it gets relegated and relegated. [Gooch fits a particular pattern to a “T.” Horvath, Green, and Gooch were first capped by Klinsi, played in the Cuba/NZ friendlies right before quali, were dressed for Mexico/CR that got Klinsi fired (Gooch played), disappeared under Arena, reappeared under Sarachan, disappeared under Berhalter. We pretend there is some objective reason Berhalter has them “off” but it’s a subjective coaching decision.] That being said, Kelman on stats is probably not one of the 23 I’d call just now — we have a ton of F talent — but I am bored with all the arbitrary resume rules we use instead of performance.
You do realize that Berhalter and his staff have access to film of every match these guys play. They spend most of their time watching and evaluating players. They aren’t looking at the Americans Abroad list on Monday and deciding who is in the 23 based on a guy’s league.