QPR will be jealous of seven-figure Everton, Aston Villa deal: View | OneFootball

QPR will be jealous of Everton signing Tim Iroegbunam from Aston Villa.

Queens Park Rangers will be keen to ensure they have a strong summer of transfer business as they look to avoid a repeat of last season.

The 2023/24 campaign was a rather difficult one for the Rs, as they were stuck at the bottom end of the Championship all season, with them beating the drop nearer the end of the campaign after an upturn in results.

Marti Cifuentes was key to ensuring the club wasn’t relegated to League One, and now the Spaniard will want to improve his options as they try to climb the table.

One player who could have been a target for the West London club is Tim Iroegbunam; he didn’t play under Cifuentes, but he is well-known to the club already and was adored by the supporters during his loan spell in the 2022/23 season.

However, his imminent move to Everton means it is unlikely he will be joining QPR anytime soon, making the Rs jealous of his seven-figure switch.

Tim Iroegbunam joins Everton

Tim Iroegbunam started his football career at Sutton United before he joined West Brom in 2011.

The midfielder played for the Midlands side’s youth team before representing their under-18s and under-21s.

Iroegbunam never played for West Brom’s first team, as he was snapped up by Aston Villa in July 2021.

The 20-year-old played for the club’s under-21s and the first team, as well as having a loan spell at QPR.

But Iroegbunam’s time at Villa Park has now come to an end, as he’s joined fellow Premier League side Everton on a three-year contract, in a deal that cost the Toffees £9 million.

This will come as a surprising move given how his time at Aston Villa has gone, but QPR will likely be looking on with jealousy, as he was someone they enjoyed having at their club.

QPR will be jealous of Tim Iroegbunam’s Everton switch

QPR signed Tim Iroegbunam in September 2022 on a season-long loan deal from Aston Villa.

The midfielder joined the club after making four first-team appearances for Villa after he joined the club from West Brom.

The loan switch was a chance for Iroegbunam to showcase to his parent club what he could offer, as he had only played academy football at the Hawthorns before he joined Villa.

The 20-year-old really took his chance in West London, as he featured heavily for the Championship side and impressed in the process.

Iroegbunam started 28 of the 32 league games he played in the 2022/23 season, averaging 71 minutes on the pitch per game.

In those 32 games, Iroegbunam scored two goals - quite a low return for a player that was averaging 1.2 shots per game.

The midfielder was unable to record any assists alongside those two goals, but it wasn’t without him trying, as he created one big chance for his teammates and collected 0.6 key passes along the way, as per Sofascore.com, per 90.

Iroegbunam became a popular figure with the QPR supporters during his season stay at the club. He featured heavily for the West London side and his performances were very impressively consistent.

Heading into the 2023/24 season, QPR fans would have been hopeful of securing another loan deal for Iroegbunam, but Aston Villa decided to keep the midfielder at the club.

He featured 15 times for Villa last season - nine of those appearances came in the Premier League, as he played 158 minutes of football.

His lack of game time may have seen him become available for a loan this summer, which would surely have interested QPR. But now that he has joined Everton, the next steps in his career are a little unclear.

For QPR fans there will be a hint of jealousy at Everton securing Iroegbunam’s signature with the Toffees securing a player with real talent from their Premier League rivals. £9m is, ultimately, a deal that QPR cannot compete with whilst they are where they are in the Championship. Splashing cash on deals on the cusp of eight figures will simply have to wait until the Hoops are gracing the top-flight once more, only fuelling that jealousy.