Six years into a 12-month stay, Hill bids sad farewell — Column Wednesday, 11th May 2016 21:50 by Clive Whittingham Clint Hill, a shining light of consistency, honesty and integrity during an often rotten period of QPR’s history, is sadly leaving the club after six years. Big mouthThis is a very similar signing to Shaun Derry in many ways. It’s a player at the wrong end of his career age wise, somebody who has not impressed when we have played against him in recent times and a limited footballer even in his prime. He is however very experienced at this level, known and liked by our manager, covering an area of the team that we’re lacking in, and cheap. As with Derry, and Leon Clarke, I cannot help but feel that we could and probably should be doing better than Clint Hill. That's Clint Hill, as assessed by this site way back in 2010, on the day he signed from Crystal Palace. Don't ever say we don't roll out the red carpet for new arrivals. Or know what we're talking about. There was little indication of the glorious season to follow at the start of that summer. Neil Warnock had turned things around in 2009/10 having arrived from Crystal Palace but the quickfire acquisition of Hill, Shaun Derry and Leon Clarke didn't exactly scream ambition and promotion. Hill and Derry, in particular, were both the wrong side of 30 and had been part of a Palace side that itself was almost relegated the year before — albeit with the considerable handicap of a points deduction and Paul Hart in charge for their final dozen games — and totally outplayed by Warnock's QPR at Selhurst Park in April. Derry had a particular nightmare that day, again with the caveat that he was trying to keep hold of Adel Taarabt and Akos Buzsaky. Hill, 31, was only given a 12 month deal because he had an ankle "like a cement mixer". He was signed to play at left back, despite growing up at Tranmere and Oldham as a centre half, instead of Dusko Tosic, who'd impressed on loan from Portsmouth at the end of the previous season and was available on a free. When Warnock first arrived at Crystal Palace he'd swapped his starting centre half, Leon Cort, for Hill from Tony Pulis' horrible Stoke side. Cort, who I quite rated, Warnock joked hadn't been booked yet that season and that would never do for his centre back. Typical bloody Warnock anti-football, signing a clogger from Stoke to kick people instead of a more talented, younger player. And now here it was happening to us. Indeed it was typical Warnock, we were right about that at least. Team over individuals, footballers over names, leaders across the park, dressing room spirit… by the end of 2010/11 QPR were champions, the seventh time Warnock had won a promotion from the second tier. Giving a speech in the dressing room at Watford's Vicarage Road ground after a 2-0 win in the penultimate match sealed the elevation, Warnock said Hill was a "fucking hero" after starting 45 matches that season. The team had genuine ability, with the likes of Ale Faurlin, Adel Taarabt and Wayne Routledge better than anything else in the league in their positions. But it had a heart as big as a dustbin as well, with Derry, Hill, Paddy Kenny and Jamie Mackie absolutely key in Warnock's dressing room. The wily old boss knew full well what it took to win promotions. It took people like Clint Hill. DisserviceIt is easy to slip into the trap of talking about Clint Hill the leader as if that's all he is. Vocal on and off the pitch in all the right ways, he went on to be an outstanding captain of QPR. As the club lost itself in piles of Malaysian and Premier League money, and lumbered itself with one self-absorbed footballer after another - interested only in the disgusting wages the club was forking out and not at all bothered whether they played or not, whether the club won or not, or what those who did care about that thought of them - Hill was a beacon of light. He carried himself with dignity, represented the club superbly, spoke with honesty and passion about the place and engaged with the supporters at a time when the club as a whole and most of his colleagues were moving away from those who cared most. Neil Warnock's wife Sharon said she hoped their son would grow up to be like Clint. But that does a disservice to his playing ability, which quickly became apparent to the initial doubters and remains at a deceptively high level to this day. Clint Hill is, first and foremost, a good footballer with a very decent left foot for a centre back, an undiminished ability to win the vast majority of the balls he competes for in the air and a reading of the game far superior to most centre backs in this league which always meant he could be relied upon for a timely interception and block. That, coupled with the leadership qualities, meant the defence was always more secure with him in it, right up until his final match against Bristol City on Saturday. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink may come to regret writing him off as a player who can't be a regular starter for him next season, and therefore somebody who can be allowed him to leave the club. For Hill has been written off before at QPR, several times, including that summer when he first arrived, and always proved doubters wrong. If he does so again this time, it'll be in another club's colours. Even Neil Warnock, surely one of his biggest fans, felt Hill was only going to be good for one more year, and contracted him accordingly. After promotion Rangers started chasing the so-called bigger names and better players, and Hill — who'd been sent off in an opening day thrashing by Bolton - actually spent the initial part of Rangers' return to the top flight out on loan at Nottingham Forest while Arsenal's Armand Traore settled into that position.
But after a 6-0 shellacking by Fulham, he was recalled, and put back in the team for a daunting visit from soon-to-be European Champions Chelsea. He was, of course, magnificent in a 1-0 win, and kept his place for the rest of the season, even when Warnock was replaced by Mark Hughes. The spending only got more excessive, the names only bigger, the egos only more unbearable, when Hughes started moulding his team the following season. Hill and Derry joked that they'd know QPR were in trouble if either of them got back in the team. And so it proved. When the toads from Kia Joorabchian's client log sold Hughes, and QPR, down the river the Welshman turned to first Hill, then Derry, and finally Jamie Mackie as well as his reign fell apart. All three were better than the con artists and mercenaries that went before them, and Hill further endeared himself to the support by talking about his sadness at the direction the club, and the dressing room, had taken. Relegation, apparently, prolonged Hill's career another year, back at "his level". But when QPR won promotion again in 2014, that surely would have to be that. Now 36, and only meant to stay for a year in the first place, another Premier League season would be beyond him. Of course it would. And besides, Rio Ferdinand was on the horizon. Arguably the nadir of QPR's shambolic, shameful approach to top flight squad building. Needless to say, once again, it didn't go well and Hill, once again, was called for and, once again, turned in an outstanding effort. He even, finally, got the first Premier League goal of his career, a thumping header in a 3-3 draw at Villa Park. Although, as we know, he’d had a perfectly legitimate one ruled our by rank bad officiating in a crucial game at Bolton in 2012/13. One torturous afternoon at West Brom, after which Hill himself admitted he couldn't handle left back any more and would have to be played at centre half from now on or not at all, and an afternoon of brutal schooling by Luis Suarez at Loftus Road apart, Hill has never looked his age, nor fitted with the perception of him. He's that rare example of a modern day QPR player you felt cared about the result and how the club was progressing as much as we did, and we loved him for that. But more importantly, he is still the best all round centre back at Queens Park Rangers even now, as he's written off by the club for the final time. StepsClint Hill had played at Wembley before. It had not gone well. As a 21-year-old he’d been a defender learning his trade in a Tranmere Rovers team managed by John Aldridge which punched above its weight in the First Division, and was renowned for lengthy cup runs. In 2000 they went all the way to the League Cup final at the old Wembley to face Martin O’Neill’s Leicester City, beating Premier League Middlesbrough and Bolton on the way. Leicester won 2-1. Matt Elliott twice came up from the back to head home at set pieces. Clint was sent off on the hour for a second bookable offence. Hill was denied a redemption of sorts, albeit at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, in 2002/03 by the club he would later go on to serve with such distinction. It’s often forgotten that the loveable Scouser was part of Iain Dowie’s Oldham side beaten by that Paul Furlong goal on one of the greatest ever nights at Loftus Road. He’d left Stoke City long before they started troubling Wembley occasions — the Potters lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup final of 2011 — and the Palace side he was part off lost a fractious 2008 play-off semi-final to Bristol City. It seemed like it wasn’t meant to be. Palace are serial play-off competitors — their four promotions the joint most achieved through the end of season knockout along with Blackpool. If Hill couldn’t banish his demons at Selhurst Park, surely he wouldn’t find much more luck at Loftus Road. QPR, after all, had only been to Wembley four times in their history — twice for the same final — and won once, in 1967. In 2013/14, despite the signing of Richard Dunne at centre half, and the addition of Benoit Assou Ekotto on loan from Spurs at ghastly expense to play left back, Hill completed another 46 matches. When Assou Ekotto, persistently half-arsed in his efforts for the club, once again cost QPR a goal through pisballing about in possession in a dangerous area at Brighton, followed by the traditional collapse and demand to be substituted with some mysterious injury or other, even Redknapp couldn’t tolerate him any longer and Hill was back in at left full back. Along with Dunne, Danny Simpson and Nedum Onuoha he formed an impenetrable wall in the semi-final away leg at Wigan. One of the worst games in the short history of the play-offs, but a tie successfully killed which is what Rangers had set out to do. The home leg was no Oldham, but there was electricity in the Shepherd’s Bush air. Trailing by a goal after half time, it was Hill who was sacrificed - at the time, it was said, at his own insistence — to get the more attacking Yun Suk-Young on down the left side. Rangers won 2-1 in extra time. At Wembley, Hill insisted on being removed. This time it was Gary O’Neil who saw red at the national stadium and that compounded a situation of Rangers’ own making. Harry Redknapp’s team selections, throughout the season, had often seemed to have been made with no regard for the opposition whatsoever, and frequently needed one, or sometimes two, substitutions at half time to get the side into the shape and system it should have been in to start with.
That was no different on the big day, where Redknapp’s insistence on picking his golden boy Niko Kranjcar despite his lack of first team action and hamstring injury meant the first change came after 23 minutes and saw left back Armand Traore come on. Another odd idea, playing Kevin Doyle wide, ended before the hour which meant that when O’Neil went off a short time later two substitutions had been used, and one attacking left sided player had already been brought on. Redknapp had worked himself into a position where either he had to take Bobby Zamora off three minutes after bringing him on, or take off top scorer Charlie Austin. Hill’s demand that he be replaced instead, allowing Traore to come to left back, was self sacrifice on the highest stage, and helped swing the final dramatically into QPR’s favour despite the numerical disadvantage. One only hopes he'll be standing on that touchline himself one day, making those decisions as manager, with the QPR badge on his chest once more. Hill, choked, said afterwards: “13 years ago I let a lot of people down here, I got sent off and didn’t get a chance to go up those steps. I’ve regretted it throughout my career. These lads have made me a very proud captain today, by giving me a chance to get up them steps and rectify an error I made. I got a chance to lift a trophy at Wembley Stadium, something I never thought I’d do.” In the process, Hill followed Mike Keen as the only QPR captains ever to have walked our team up the steps at Wembley Stadium. If there’s never another, the honour couldn’t have gone to anybody more deserving. In numbers2015/16 2014/15 2013/14 2012/13 34 starts, 0 sub appearances, W5, D11, L17 2011/12 Key Facts — 22 starts, three sub appearances, no goals, two assists, three Man of the Match awards. The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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