QPR struck gold for just £600,000: The Trevor Sinclair masterstroke | OneFootball

Queens Park Rangers struck gold when they signed Trevor Sinclair from Blackpool for £600,000.

Born in Dulwich, Trevor Sinclair began his professional career with Blackpool and spent four seasons turning himself into a cult hero at Bloomfield Road, before Queens Park Rangers pulled off a genius piece of business.

Sinclair had been a part of the youth setup at Blackpool, before debuting for the Lancastrians in 1990. He went on to make close to 150 appearances for the Seasiders over the course of four years with the club.

Blackpool gained promotion from the fourth-tier in 1992, but it was their impressive 1992/93 campaign in the third-tier that saw Sinclair attract the attention of QPR.

Having notched 11 goals for the Tangerines during that season, a return to London beckoned and the R’s managed to swoop in for a fee of just £600,000 – bringing him into the Premier League.

He forged his name and reputation at Loftus Road, going on to thrive for West Ham United and Manchester City, whilst becoming an England international.

Blackpool gave him the opportunity, but it is QPR where he shone brightest first.

Sinclair was a fans’ favourite at QPR

In the 1993/94 campaign, Sinclair’s first season in West London, the R’s finished ninth in the Premier League table under the management of Gerry Francis, with Sinclair forming part of an extremely exciting and entertaining side.

Having finished fifth the previous campaign with a side that boasted Les Ferdinand as top scorer, as well as former England captain Ray Wilkins, QPR were enjoying perhaps a golden era.

Sinclair immediately established himself in the side and became a mainstay of the team for the five seasons that he spent at Loftus Road, becoming the star man for the club.

Having finished eighth in the 1994/95 campaign, with Wilkins taking over from Francis mid-way through the campaign, QPR then found themselves relegated from the top-flight.

Despite the team’s performances, Sinclair remained extremely impressive and had been linked with a big-money move away to the likes of Manchester United.

Sinclair remained loyal but bigger things were inevitable

Despite that reported interest, Sinclair continued to become a fans’ favourite among QPR supporters as he remained at the club as they geared up for a First Division campaign.

QPR could only manage a disappointing ninth-placed finish in the second-tier, with Wilkins replaced by Stewart Houston in early-September, but that underperformance was in spite of the performances of Sinclair.

He had forced himself into the PFA Team of the Year for the 1996/97 campaign, despite QPR’s mid-table finish, and the then 24-year-old was continuing to get recognised for his talents.

None more so than when he scored one of the most famous goals in FA Cup history as QPR defeated Barnsley by two goals to one in the fourth round, with Sinclair managing to acrobatically score an overhead kick from outside the box with precision and quality rarely ever seen of that kind at the time.

As QPR struggled through the following campaign, Sinclair eventually departed the club, who had endured yet another managerial change on their way to a 21st placed finish in the First Division, as he joined capital city rivals West Ham United.

Sinclair would go on to star for the Hammers over the next five years before another stint in the Premier League with Manchester City upon the Irons’ relegation in 2003.

Both West Ham and QPR were relegated with Sinclair in their team when they really shouldn’t have been, and that could lend itself to suggestions of him being a luxury player.

That was far from the truth, though, with the 12-cap attacker balancing his supreme technical skill alongside a tenacious industry and work rate. He couldn’t quite inspire QPR to kick on from their fifth-placed finish in 1993, but he earned them a major profit on his purchase and gave them a few incredible moments and memories in almost 200 appearances.