QPR thought they'd struck gold with £0 deal for 15-goal midfielder - Adel Taarabt factor meant he flopped though | OneFootball

Queens Park Rangers believed they had pulled off a master stroke when Petter Vaagen Moen swapped SK Brann for Loftus Road

Queens Park Rangers believed they had pulled off a masterstroke when Petter Vaagen Moen swapped SK Brann for Loftus Road on a free transfer in January 2011, but he struggled for minutes behind a certain Moroccan.

Vaagen Moen's 2010 campaign in the Tippeligaen was the best of his career - redeployed centrally, he struck 14 league goals and another in the cup to finish as Brann's top scorer.

With his deal expiring, QPR swooped early and announced a two-and-a-half-year agreement that would begin on 1st January 2011 - a signing that cost only wages and hoped to add a late-run of goals to an already talented squad.

His debut came three days later at Loftus Road, yet the circumstances told their own story - Neil Warnock sent him on for Adel Taarabt in the 87th minute of a 2-2 draw with Bristol City.

It was a pattern that never changed, and across the remainder of the Championship-winning season Vaagen Moen totalled just 161 league minutes, and he started just one competitive game for QPR.

Adel Taarabt's individual genius closed the door on Vaagen Moen

Warnock had decided months earlier that QPR would live or die by Taarabt's talents, famously instructing teammates to "leave him to me" - eventually building the entire attack around the Moroccan playmaker.

The gamble did work spectacularly, though; Taarabt delivered 19 goals and 17 assists - picking up the Football League's Player of the Year award as the R's romped to the title.

For Vaagen Moen, Taarabt's quality only brought limitations. Warnock described Moen as having "all the attributes to adapt to the English game" when he signed, but there would've undoubtedly been little interest in him starting another attacking midfielder at that time.

When QPR submitted their first 25-man Premier League squad that August, the Norwegian was omitted entirely, being regarded as a "misfit" by West London Sport.

You have to consider that Warnock probably didn't want to mess the squad up too much, given they were on course to get promoted. Alongside Taarabt, midfielders Shaun Derry and Alejandro Faurlin handled deeper duties, while Heidar Helguson and Jamie Mackie rarely missed a beat in attack.

Petter Vaagen Moen's return to Scandinavia

Deadline day in January 2012 brought a quiet end to Vaagen Moen's West London career. His contract was terminated by mutual consent, freeing him to return to Norway with Lillestrøm.

Five players departed Rangers in the same fashion, at the same time, and none of them featured for the club in the top flight that season. The others were Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook, Gary Borrowdale, Bruno Andrade, and Rowan Vine.

Before Moen's exit, Warnock revealed in an interview that winter window: "When I signed him I told him he would replace Ale Faurlin if he got injured, but I'm glad to say that never happened, so he's been a little unlucky."

Faurlin signed for QPR in 2009 for a then-club-record fee of £3.5m from Argentine club Instiuto - but they ended up being paid nothing, and Rangers were subsequently charged with breaching FA rules.

As for Vaagen Moen, the records show a mere eight QPR appearances in all competitions, no goals, and only one assist. For a player with 15 goals in his previous campaign and over 35 caps for his country, it was certainly an unlucky spell.

Post-QPR, the Nordic midfielder's career never reached the same heights of 2010. After resuming regular football in the Tippeligaen, he later returned to Brann for a second spell and wound down with his boyhood club, HamKam.

With over 250 Norwegian top-flight appearances to his name, Vaagen Moen's story remains that of a respected professional - albeit not the cult-hero some R's fans might have dreamed of when he signed.