Right from pre-season it's been a joke in fact. I watched those pre-season matches with that stupefied sense of hope you always get pre-season, imagining that somehow, this time it will be different. Except that even in my most happy-clappy, post-play-off high, I couldn't ignore that the new 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 system that Harold was trying out just didn't look right. We didn't have the players for it for a start, and anyway, what I couldn't fathom was why Harold was being so rigid as to decide on the formation first, without trying out something that fitted the players best to begin with. Square peg, round hole and all that.
Then there were the transfers - Rio Ferdinand being the first, with Tony saying categorically "watch my lips - there's no way we'll be bringing Rio, we're not making those mistakes again.." (or words to that effect), then 2 days later, we got Rio. That seemed farcical already, and for the umpteenth time I wondered what kind of hold Harry had over hapless Tone. But the other transfers looked good - on paper. Caulker, Mutch, Jack Robinson - these were the kind of players the fans had been crying out for, young, with great potential, and hopefully hungry. Except that Harold almost immediately sent Jack Robinson out on a season-long loan, which didn't make sense to me, especially as we weren't exactly flush with full-backs and to compound matters, within a week or so of the season starting, he got rid of Danny Simpson and Yun was still out injured. But the Chilean loans looked really good business - Isla and Vargas, quality and pace, exactly what we were looking for. If only Harold had played them together, from the start, in their preferred positions, instead of chopping and changing like a man with a tic.
Then there was the strange Adel saga - the fitness issue, the fatness issue, the spat between player and manager played out in the public arena. Not cool. Who was telling the truth? I hated seeing our most talented player ostracised. I understood the issues surrounding him, but nevertheless, it smacked of poor man-management.
Then there was the arrival of Glen Hoddle. Too many cooks was my thought. Even though it seemed Steve McClaren's appointment the previous season had been good, it didn't feel right to me to have another big ego at the club, and how would that work out? Well, it didn't take long to see the farce as it unravelled. After two dire displays at 3-5-1 we abandoned the system with unseemly haste and reverted to 4-4-2. After that, what was Hoddle's role exactly? Not long after, Harold was telling Gazza to come and train with us. It was like QPR was the ex-Spurs retirement home.
You know how the rest unfolded - the abject away form that led to the top-flight English record for most consecutive away losses. The rumours that began to surface about Tim Sherwood. The gutless display at West Ham. The January transfer window damp-squib, with not a player bought in except Zarate, and even that was farcical, with a last-minute attempt by Harold to loan-swap him for Jarvis, except that wasn't actually allowed and thank god it didn't happen anyway.
And then the resignation and knee-Gate. And then the shortlist of 3, which apparently included Tim Sherwood, T. Sherwood esq. and Timmy S. Followed by reports of ludicrous demands by Sherwood and the current managerless limbo we find ourselves in. And here we are, 2/3 through the season, in the bottom 3, our main striker out injured with an apparently clueless backroom team in charge....
Perhaps this is the nadir. Perhaps, from here, the only way is up. Joey made a level-headed point after the last game:
“There’s a long way to go and there’s almost no pressure on us – everyone sort of thinks we are going to go down so I’m quietly confident. There’s a long, long way to go and it would be very foolish to isolate anybody and that includes Leicester who are below us in the table. “If we roll our sleeves up at Sunderland on Tuesday night and get something there and all of a sudden the perspective changes a little bit and then hopefully we have some definite news on who is going to take this club forward and we can start to move in the right direction.”
If Joey and his will to win can save us from relegation, maybe he should be knighted along side our other knight, whom I forgot to add into the farcical equation I've just relayed - Sir Les. Who knows, maybe Tony finally has woken up and smelt the coffee and his refusal to fund Harold was the first sign of a properly steely determination. You'd expect Mittal to be steely, maybe this has finally rubbed of on our Tone.
One thing is sure, we can look forward to the rest of the season in a more relaxed state (is that possible??!!), because anything better than relegation will be a crazy bonus, and even if we do get relegated, so what? There's no shame in being a yo-yo club, and maybe, just maybe, Tony Fernandes has finally learnt the right lessons.
Then there were the transfers - Rio Ferdinand being the first, with Tony saying categorically "watch my lips - there's no way we'll be bringing Rio, we're not making those mistakes again.." (or words to that effect), then 2 days later, we got Rio. That seemed farcical already, and for the umpteenth time I wondered what kind of hold Harry had over hapless Tone. But the other transfers looked good - on paper. Caulker, Mutch, Jack Robinson - these were the kind of players the fans had been crying out for, young, with great potential, and hopefully hungry. Except that Harold almost immediately sent Jack Robinson out on a season-long loan, which didn't make sense to me, especially as we weren't exactly flush with full-backs and to compound matters, within a week or so of the season starting, he got rid of Danny Simpson and Yun was still out injured. But the Chilean loans looked really good business - Isla and Vargas, quality and pace, exactly what we were looking for. If only Harold had played them together, from the start, in their preferred positions, instead of chopping and changing like a man with a tic.
Then there was the strange Adel saga - the fitness issue, the fatness issue, the spat between player and manager played out in the public arena. Not cool. Who was telling the truth? I hated seeing our most talented player ostracised. I understood the issues surrounding him, but nevertheless, it smacked of poor man-management.
Then there was the arrival of Glen Hoddle. Too many cooks was my thought. Even though it seemed Steve McClaren's appointment the previous season had been good, it didn't feel right to me to have another big ego at the club, and how would that work out? Well, it didn't take long to see the farce as it unravelled. After two dire displays at 3-5-1 we abandoned the system with unseemly haste and reverted to 4-4-2. After that, what was Hoddle's role exactly? Not long after, Harold was telling Gazza to come and train with us. It was like QPR was the ex-Spurs retirement home.
You know how the rest unfolded - the abject away form that led to the top-flight English record for most consecutive away losses. The rumours that began to surface about Tim Sherwood. The gutless display at West Ham. The January transfer window damp-squib, with not a player bought in except Zarate, and even that was farcical, with a last-minute attempt by Harold to loan-swap him for Jarvis, except that wasn't actually allowed and thank god it didn't happen anyway.
And then the resignation and knee-Gate. And then the shortlist of 3, which apparently included Tim Sherwood, T. Sherwood esq. and Timmy S. Followed by reports of ludicrous demands by Sherwood and the current managerless limbo we find ourselves in. And here we are, 2/3 through the season, in the bottom 3, our main striker out injured with an apparently clueless backroom team in charge....
Perhaps this is the nadir. Perhaps, from here, the only way is up. Joey made a level-headed point after the last game:
“There’s a long way to go and there’s almost no pressure on us – everyone sort of thinks we are going to go down so I’m quietly confident. There’s a long, long way to go and it would be very foolish to isolate anybody and that includes Leicester who are below us in the table. “If we roll our sleeves up at Sunderland on Tuesday night and get something there and all of a sudden the perspective changes a little bit and then hopefully we have some definite news on who is going to take this club forward and we can start to move in the right direction.”
If Joey and his will to win can save us from relegation, maybe he should be knighted along side our other knight, whom I forgot to add into the farcical equation I've just relayed - Sir Les. Who knows, maybe Tony finally has woken up and smelt the coffee and his refusal to fund Harold was the first sign of a properly steely determination. You'd expect Mittal to be steely, maybe this has finally rubbed of on our Tone.
One thing is sure, we can look forward to the rest of the season in a more relaxed state (is that possible??!!), because anything better than relegation will be a crazy bonus, and even if we do get relegated, so what? There's no shame in being a yo-yo club, and maybe, just maybe, Tony Fernandes has finally learnt the right lessons.
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