Queens Park Rangers have completed the signing of goalkeeper Dillon Barnes on a free transfer after he left Colchester United, the club has confirmed.

Barnes has signed a two-year deal with the West London club and he has further strengthened the club's goalkeeping ranks after they already signed Liam Kelly this summer to compete with Joe Lumley.

The 23-year-old kept eight clean sheets in 26 matches as Colchester almost snuck into the League Two play-offs last season, but he called time on his stay at the club earlier this summer after four years.

The stopper now becomes the ninth addition to Mark Warburton's squad since the new boss' arrival following the conclusion of last season, and he will provide strong competition for the number one shirt at the club.

He will be up against Lumley, Kelly and Seny Dieng for the jersey, but the club's goalkeeping coach Gavin Ward has confirmed that one of these players will be heading out on loan next season.

The verdict

This is a strange signing from QPR given that they have already added Kelly has strong competition for Lumley ahead of next season.

Barnes arrives at the club having played regular football last season, so he will surely be hoping to continue in the same vein ahead of next campaign. However, I struggle to see how he will get in the side ahead of Kelly and Lumley next term.

It is also an odd move given that the R's firm priority should be with signing a striker from now until the end of the window, and an additional goalkeeper seemed to be fairly low on the agenda.

However, Barnes is a talented goalkeeper and could go on to be a big player for the R's in the future. I just think the timing of this announcement will not go down too well with supporters, as the club in desperate need of more attacking players.