15. Dominic Shimmin

17 year old Dominic Shimmin arrived at QPR for a fee of around £80,000 from Arsenal in March 2005.

Ian Holloway was delighted to capture the highly rated defender who agreed a three year contract at Loftus Road.

Shimmin is a strong and aggressive central defender who is also very useful on the floor with the player likening himself to Rio Ferdinand.

Dominic Shimmin has perhaps been the biggest hard luck story of last season. His performances in pre season had Ian Holloway drooling and the plan was for him to be a first team regular by the end of the season.

That plan was thrown into action quickly as he made his first team debut at Coventry. The debut didn't go as planned though as Shimmin looked nervous and made a mistake for the third Coventry goal in a forgettable debut.

He was quickly slated by the same QPR fans who spent the rest of the season moaning that we never pick any youngsters. One fan at the game screamed that Shimmin was not fit to lace Santos boots, a great way to give a 17 year old confidence in his debut.

Shimmin's second game was against Northampton were he did reasonably well but was switched to right back during the first half and with the whole team performing poorly he didn't really have much of a chance.

He was relegated to the bench after that and given the chance to improve in the reserves but a succession of injuries ended his season before it had really began and he quickly became the forgotten man.

Last season he missed most of t through injury but impressed enough in training to earn a start and a home debut on the last day of the season against Stoke. Shimmin looked a decent defender in that game which will have done his confidence the world of good.

The young defender still has bags of potential though and if he can stay fit he could have a big future at Loftus Road.