GARETH Ainsworth says QPR will go to Cardiff on Saturday with what they’ve got following yesterday’s capture of Steve Cook from Nottingham Forest.
The centre-back penned a two-year deal at Loftus Road and is expected to make his debut in the Welsh capital.
Cook’s arrival couldn’t be more timely after the Hoops shipped four first-half goals on the opening day at Watford.
And although transfer rumours continue to surround Ainsworth’s side, the manager isn’t expecting any comings or goings before this weekend.
“I don’t think so, I seriously doubt there will be anything,” he said.
“There definitely won’t be more ins. Outs wise we live with the same rumours everyone else does.
“The rumours do the rounds. I’m probably the last one to see rumours because I have no socials or anything so I come in and people say ‘he has been rumoured to be here’.
“Listen, I’ve been in this game a long time now and when it happens then I will know it is serious but until that is all paper talk for me.
“There is going to be rumours surrounding our best players, the likes of Ilias (Chair), Chris (Willock), Sam (Field) – there are going to be rumours surrounding those players, but I think they will take that as a compliment.”
Cook, 32, will add some much-needed steel to a backline which looked shambolic in the 5-0 pre-season drubbing at Oxford and the 4-0 humiliation at Watford when it actually mattered.
Ainsworth is convinced both his vast experience and leadership qualities will be vital this season for the Hoops.
The manager explained: “At the moment everyone is looking at us as relegation candidates.
“There is going to be a big battle to stay up and you’ve got to have battlers in there but we’ve got some super technical players that I think he will give some confidence to.
“The best advice or criticism you can get is from your own peers and Steve is not going to be afraid of opening his mouth in the dressing room. He has told me that already.
“On the pitch, off the pitch – he will tell people to pull their socks up in no uncertain terms because he is come in for that.
“You can’t put that in people, that is in people.
“He is a serial winner and he is going to get the best out of the players, so that is what I want from him in the dressing room and on the pitch.”
QPR head west along the M4 this weekend to take on a Cardiff side boosted by the summer signing of Aaron Ramsey.
That signing may have raised a few eyebrows but Ainsworth wasn’t in the least bit shocked by the former Arsenal star’s decision to rejoin his boyhood club.
“He is a Cardiff boy,” said the QPR manager.
“It is the club he always wanted to play for again, so I’m not surprised he came back.
“I don’t know where they are playing him or what they are going to do with him. I know they played him last week at Leeds just off the front so we will have a look at that one, but he is a cracking player. When you can get the ball to him he is a brilliant player.
“He is one we are going to have to watch and are going to have to monitor.
“I wasn’t really surprised he went back. These Welsh boys have got a history of going home.
“They are really good to their home towns and their home clubs.
“As long as Gareth Bale doesn’t walk through the door I’ll be happy!”
