Neil Critchley could be set for his first disaster as QPR manager in January, as reports suggest that Michael Beale is keen on signing Lyndon Dykes for Glasgow Rangers in January.
According to Football League World, the Ibrox outfit are keen on signing the Scotland international in the winter transfer window, with Beale keen to reunite with the 27-year-old forward after leaving Loftus Road for Glasgow earlier this month.
The report claims that Critchley is extremely keen to retain Dykes for the rest of the season and is in a strong position, as the striker still has 18 months to run on his contract with the Hoops.
However, the potential of European football with Rangers may well be too difficult for the former Livingston man to turn down next month, especially as it would mean moving back north of the border and perhaps increasing his chances of regular call-ups to the Scotland squad as a result.
Since signing from Livingston in 2020, Dykes has gone on to make 102 appearances for the west London outfit, contributing 27 goals and eight assists in that time.
Although he has just six goals in 22 Championship appearances so far this campaign, that is still enough to rank him as the joint-top scorer at Loftus Road, so Critchley will surely be eager to keep hold of him next month as he looks to reignite QPR’s promotion hopes in the second half of the season.
The Australia-born striker, who earns £6k per week at QPR, earned plenty of praise from Steve Clarke after an impressive display for the Scotland national side in 2020.
The national team boss said of Dykes: “I thought he was excellent. Good hold-up play, strong boy. Gives us a good option. We need to look, especially in the second half of the game, we need to look at getting more support for Lyndon a little bit earlier, but that’s something that we can work on, and that we’ll improve.”
Given the lack of potent goalscorers currently available at Loftus Road (only two players have more than three league goals this term), it would undoubtedly be a disaster for Critchley if Dykes were to follow Beale to Rangers next month, so the new R’s boss will be hoping that the 27-year-old can be convinced to stay put and help rectify QPR’s woeful recent form.
