Ex-Files: Patrick Agyemang
As a trainee, Agyemang started his career at Wimbledon, now MK Dons, where he earned himself a reputation for being an unpredictable and pacey forward. In his time in South London he conjured up 136 appearances in all competitions for the club and netted 22 goals to boot. In the early days of his Wimbledon career, Agyemang was sent out on loan to Brentford to gain some experience where he featured 13 times.
Following the demise of Wimbledon FC in 2004, Agyemang moved to Kent to play for Gillingham where he caught the attention of Preston manager, Billy Davies. During his 33 appearances for the Kent based club, Agyemang did enough to force a move to Preston for a fee or £350,000.
As a relatively unknown player in the North of England, Agyemang soon alerted himself as a different type of player than what was already on the books at Preston. Complimenting Richard Cresswell's hard work and the coyness of David Nugent, Agyemang gave Preston a new dimension to their play and formed a formidable strike force as Preston narrowly missed out on promotion via the play-offs.
In his first season at Preston, Agyemang contributed with four goals for the club before going on to score 17 more during his 3 years. Goals that include that overhead kick against West Bromwich Albion to give Preston a 1-0 win.
Such performances impressed the new ownership and management of QPR who deemed Agyemang as the ideal man to spear head their attack and so accordingly his move back to London was completed for £350,000.
Following his departure from Deepdale, the general consensus was somewhat divided, with some citing that he offered nothing and was lazy with others insisting that he was, at the time, the only inventive and pacey forward at the club. Therefore making the move a bad one for Preston and with eight goals in his first six games for QPR adding more weight to their claims it seemed that, momentarily, that they were right.
As is the case when a new manager takes over at any club, there is an element of uncertainty as to whether he is going to make wholesale changes and with Iain Dowie taking over at Loftus Road, it was no different. Fortunately for the Ghanaian international, being given the number 11 squad number as opposed to the 17 he donned last season is a positive sign towards him being part of the manager's plans.
This upcoming season is sure to be an interesting one with all things Queens Park Rangers is concerned and so Agyemang could be part of the QPR revolution that saw them return to the Premier League big time.