"A joke" - Claim made on QPR's Loic Remy regret involving Chelsea | OneFootball

FLW's QPR fan pundit wishes that he had been able to see more of Loic Remy, who enjoyed a brief but blistering stay at Loftus Road

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

QPR made a number of fateful big-name, big-money signings who flattered to deceive between 2011 and 2015, although Loic Remy was the exception to an otherwise destructive pattern.

The R's achieved promotion to the Premier League in the 2010/11 Championship campaign, preceding a catastrophic two-year spending spree - which was reenacted to some extent in 2014/15 after returning through the play-offs - under the ownership of Tony Fernandes following his purchase of the club.

Fernandes' ambition during that time cannot be faulted, so to speak. However, it was driven by a regrettably reckless and scattergun approach to recruitment, luring a batch of high-profile players to Loftus Road and building a squad which could have been strongly competitive in previous years but was instead made up of individuals past their best and with predominantly financial-based motivations.

Indeed, QPR's accounts from the 2012-13 Premier League season - where they were relegated in 20th-place - showed a wage bill of £78 million at 128% of the club's entire turnover.

With additional losses displayed of £65 million, QPR were left in debt of £177 million after returning to the Championship for the 2013/14 campaign, which was almost double the increase on their £91 million debt in 2012.

Verdict offered on QPR's Loic Remy regret

However, they struck rare gold by signing Loic Remy from Marseille in January 2013, even if the Frenchman did cost a pretty penny. According to reports, Remy became QPR's club-record signing in a shock £8 million switch from Ligue 1 outfit Marseille, agreeing a four-and-a-half-year deal on reported weekly wages of £80,000.

While Marseille had no qualms about offloading Remy after he had scored just once from fourteen top-flight appearances in the first-half of the 2012/13 season, his return of 22 goals and eight assists across all competitions in the previous campaign was a real cause for excitement and he quickly justified the hype.

Remy scored six goals in 14 games for a side who were relegated dead last and promptly joined Newcastle United on loan for the following campaign, where he found the back of the net on 14 occasions before leaving QPR permanently in the summer of 2014 to sign for West London rivals Chelsea.

We caught up with our resident R's fan pundit, Louis Moir, to ask him about one player he wishes he had seen more of at Loftus Road and he namechecked Remy, who made a lasting impression on supporters despite only spending half a season with the club amid trying circumstances both on and off-the-pitch.

"There's one player who I just think back to the time and wish we were a better-run club and doing so much better than what inevitably happened in terms of relegation, when we signed Loic Remy everyone was buzzing," Louis explained to Football League World.

"The guy at the time was one of the more exciting strikers around Europe, you could argue that. It was one of them were you thought 'wow, we've got him, he can be the player to get us out of the relegation battle'.

"That obviously didn't happen, he came in but it was such a shame we could only see him for not even 20 games. He scored goals, a few cracking goals as well and he was a dangerous, dangerous striker.

"He had pace, he could finish, I remember one goal at home to Wigan and it was one of the best finishes you'll see in Premier League years.

"The guy was so good and it was such a shame we were relegated and he signed for Chelsea, before that he was on loan at Newcastle. He scored a few goals there, scored a few for Chelsea.

"It was just one of those signings where unfortunately we were a mess, we ended up going down and I just wish we would have been able to see him for even half a season more as he was capable of getting 15-20 Premier League goals.

"He was a joke, what a player back then. He was a top, top striker."

Loic Remy may have QPR, Chelsea transfer regret

The regret regarding Remy's brief stay at QPR is perhaps not just held among the club's supporters. Indeed, the player himself could just be looking back now with regret at his decision to leave QPR for Chelsea in 2014, which set the tone for a subsequent stagnation in his career.

While Remy was a useful squad option in the side which lifted a Premier League title under José Mourinho during the 2014/15 campaign, scoring seven times from just 19 divisional appearances, he never became anything more at Stamford Bridge despite, arguably, having all the talent to do so.

At his best and as shown predominantly with Marseille and Newcastle, Remy was a ferociously-talented marksman who combined blistering speed in behind defences with remarkable finishing ability. But his career hit something of a standstill after joining Chelsea, and he never hit the same heights as he did prior to the move.