Benni McCarthy Scores For QPR But Will They Take Him Off West Ham's Hands as the new loan ranger?

Benni McCarthy’s canny knack of scoring goals may have secured a loan move to Championship leaders Queens Park Rangers this week.

The 33-year-old, frustrated at current club West Ham where Avram Grant refuses to even grant him a place on the bench, was allowed to play in a reserve friendly for QPR against Spurs on Tuesday.

And South Africa’s all-time top-scorer promptly scored despite a heavy 9-2 defeat against a tough Spurs second string side that included Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane, England centre-back Jonathan Woodgate and young Jamie O’Hara.

Ironically, cash-rich West London outfit QPR – backed by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Formula One moguls Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briattore – could replace EastEnd strugglers West Ham in the Premier League in May.

McCarthy’s agent Rob Moore is believed to be “in talks” with QPR boss Neil Warnock. The deal appears to involve McCarthy moving on loan, with QPR paying most of his £50,000-a-week salary until May.

If he scores the goals to help QPR gain promotion back to the top flight for the first time since 1996, he will be signed on a full-term basis.

Warnock, a shrewd, experienced boss who gave up his day job as a chiropodist when he took non-League minnows Scarborough into the Football League way back in 1986, is urgently seeking a goal-getter for the second half of the season, having lost two strikers - Jamie Mackie and Patrick Agyemangboth – with broken legs before the New Year.

McCarthy was signed from Blackburn Rovers by Gian Franco Zola for £2.5m last January but a knee injury suffered on his debut wrecked his Upton Park career. By the time he had battled back to fitness, he had been fined for putting on weight by new club owner David Sullivan, missed the World Cup in his own country, and dour Israeli Grant had replaced the flamboyant Zola.

Despite assurances from his agent Moore that the Capetonian “has been at the right weight since October”, Grant rarely even gives McCarthy a glimpse of the bench. If he leaves this week, he will go without a single goal for West Ham’s first team. In a year, he has made just 13 appearances for West Ham, with 10 of those as a substitute.

Meanwhile Steven Pienaar’s transfer to Tottenham, first predicted by this writer three months ago, was confirmed on the club’s official website yesterday.

Pienaar, who will wear the No40 shirt at Spurs when Spurs play Newcastle on Saturday, twittered yesterday: “Saying final goodbyes at Everton tomorrow. It’s not easy after many great years. Thanks to all the fans, you have been brilliant.”

Pienaar said of his first appearance at Tottenham’s Chigwell training facility yesterday: “Friendly reception from players yesterday. Michael Dawson first to say hello then Rafa (van der Vaart, his former team-mate at Ajax in Amsterdam). Great to team up with him, he's been great this season.”

Lalas Shoots Down The Loan Ranger: Beckham May Have To Stay on Holiday

Harry Redknapp’s loan ranger master-plan was in tatters last night after former LA Galaxy manager Alexi Lalas poured cold water on David Beckham’s chances of appearing in a Tottenham shirt later this month.

Lalas, in charge of Beckham’s MLS club from 2006-2008, said: "The reason David went on loan to Milan for the last two years was to prepare, in theory, for the World Cup.

"I think that was commendable and understandable to a certain extent - but now it is happening again I'm not sure."

Redknapp has been most vocal in his interest in taking Becks – England’s most capped outfield player – on loan, though Newcastle and Blackburn have also expressed an interest this week.

But Lalas told BBC Radio 5 live: "Soccer fans in the US say David Beckham has given a lot, but he's also taken a tremendous amount out of Major League Soccer."

Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy’s second most famous player, has already rejected the chance to go out on loan as he did so successfully with Everton before the World Cup. And American fans remain furious over the six-month Achilles tendon injury 35-year-old Beckham suffered playing on loan for AC Milan against Chievo in March.

That put him out of the World Cup and saw him appear only as a bit-part player in the regular season last year, playing just five games. The MLS’s best paid player was booed by Galaxy fans when he came back from his loan spell at the San Siro in 2009 and Lalas admits: "When Landon Donovan comes out and says he won’t go on loan this year, it certainly puts pressure on David."

Redknapp has toned down his need for Beckham, whose MLS season kicks-off on March 15, admitting: "Weeks fly by and this month will have come and gone before we know where we are. It's a difficult one. But let's wait and see, it's not in my hands.

"He'd be great to have around the place and I'm sure he's got a lot to offer as a player and a person. As a professional, he's top class."

Blackburn’s new owners – India’s chickens-to-chemicals Venky Group - have said their club are "open whenever David is ready to come". They have also confirmed a £6.2m bid for Brazilian Ronaldinho.

Beckham remains keen to gain some playing time in the Premier League to enhance his chances of adding to his record 115 England caps. Under pressure Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti, in charge of Milan when Beckham was his loan ranger, said: “Beckham could be good support for Tottenham if he comes back. But we are not interested. In that position we have good players."