Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk calls on Queens Park Rangers to recall Taylor Richards from loan spell
Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk believes that it would be best for all concerned if Taylor Richards moved elsewhere to get regular first-team football – and he has called on the loanee’s parent club Queens Park Rangers to make that come to fruition.
The 24-year-old has had minimal impact since joining the U’s in the summer on a season-long loan deal.
Injuries have limited Richards to just 45 minutes of League One football spread across five appearances as a substitute, while he was once again absent last weekend for the 2-2 draw at Bolton Wanderers due to a combination of illness and a dead leg.
QPR have so far been reluctant to recall the attacking midfielder during the January transfer window, but Monk has urged the Championship club to do the right thing by their player.
He said: “It’s not worked out as we would have liked with Taylor in terms of availability.
“The conversations we’ve had with Taylor and we’ve tried with QPR, is if there is a better option for him to go and get more game time, that would be best for him.
“But in the meantime he’s with us and he’s our player. We have to continue working hard and hope that QPR do their job as the parent club and help Taylor with that side of it.
“Taylor is no problem being here. He’s a good lad, he’s a good trainer but obviously we recruited him at the start of the season for a different purpose and we’ve adapted our style (since then) so he doesn’t quite fit into that.
“He’s been injured for quite a long period of it and the ideal situation for him is to be going and playing some minutes and get more game time.
“Hopefully QPR feel the same but we haven’t quite had that feeling back from them – which has been disappointing – but there’s some days left in the window where hopefully that can get sorted out.”
Richards last completed 90 minutes of senior football on 16 August 2023 when QPR suffered a 1-0 defeat to Norwich City in the EFL Cup.
