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If you look at the history of QPR over the last 50 years, you can see what kind of club we are: a small to medium sized club that has often punched well above its weight. Our location in West London gives us a big advantage over the majority of clubs in the league because London is glamorous, its adds something, and West London, as far as I'm concerned, is cool. It also means that we've attracted players and investment that other clubs in less salubrious locations are unlikely to get. We have a loyal, hardcore fan base of around 13,000 fans and a large catchment area that means overall we can pull the big crowds for the grand occasions like cup and play-off finals.
We're lucky to have seen some of the greatest players in the game grace our pitch and in our squad - Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Gerry Francis... you know the names. This has added to the glamour and the sense that we are a cut above the rest. There's always been a touch of magic and swagger about Rangers - or so we have believed. Sometimes it's been true. From the glory days of the 75/76 team, to the swashbuckling championship title in 2011, we've had some very special times. But the reality is that we've often flattered to deceive. And in recent years, we've become he plaything for billionaires - the first bunch of whom treated us fans with contempt, called QPR a 'boutique club', but nevertheless achieved what he we hadn't done in fifteen years, and got us promoted. Then they promptly doubled ticket prices, hamstrung the manager Neil Warnock with barely any transfer kitty and quickly sold up to Tony Fernandes and Lakshmi Mittal.
Fernandes had all the right attributes as a chairman, or so it seemed. He related to the fans, was a proper fan himself, and started to pump in the funds. But he was not a football man, and it soon became apparent he had a terrible knack of not knowing when to stick or twist. Fernandes rewarded Warnock with the sack and brought in Mark Hughes. We avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth.
But the following season, Fernandes' foibles started to work against us: instead of seeking to consolidate our position in the top flight with astute buys and creating the right blend of youth and experience to take us forward, he funded a Hughes/Joorabchian panty-raid on some of the most highly-paid yet surplus to requirement players from across the premier league and beyond: Bosingwa, Park, Cesar, Jenas to mix in with the already rag-bag of players Warnock was forced to scramble together at the start of the previous season, and Hughes first acquisitions: Barton, Wright-Phillips, Hoilett, Mbia.... along with loans such as Fabio....
Despite talking the talk, Hughes was unable to get this squad to gel and after a dismal run of defeats and draws, he was sacked. Fernandes turned to Mr Football: Harry Redknapp. Many knowledgeable football people looked on and said 'he'll #### you up, he'll do a Portsmouth on you..' and so, in many ways, it proved. Redknapp's solution to a depserate situation was to throw more money at it, and Fernandes duly obliged, with more eye-watering transfers and high wages, for players like Christopher Samba and Loic Remy. Remy of course proved to be some player, but he alone could not keep us up. Samba proved to be the opposite. We were relegated.
Back in the Championship, many of us saw the need and hoped for some sanity to prevail, and for prudent squad strengthening and getting rid of some of the dross. Redknapp did do this to some extent, and he brought in the fantastic Charlie Austin. But on the pitch, it soon became clear Redknapp had almost no tactical nous and his safety-first approach led to some of the most dire, dull and wince-inducing football we'd seen for some time.
In the season after Redknapp's eventual departure - following a wonderful play-off final win that was in truth, a poisoned chalice, because it meant Redknapp stayed - I spoke to Les Ferdinand about Harry. I asked him why he thought Harry hadn't worked out, when so many of us thought he would be a good, if not great manager. Les's view was that Harry was old school, and rather than work on tactics and game plans, he relied on personalities. In a nutshell, his managerial method was to find the 'right sorts' who would run the game on the pitch. We saw powerful evidence of this in Clint Hill. It was the estimable Hill who told a flapping Redknapp what to do in the play-off final after O'Neil was sent off early in the second half, telling him to substitute himself for Henry, to go to 3 at the back and start to press Derby in midfield. It was an astute move that subsequently paid off big time.
You know the rest and I've probably bored you already. My point is that we've been flattered by the amount of money that has been poured into our club over the last 5 years, and subsequently we've lost sight of who and what we are. Or at least some of us have. When I read the daily quota of moaning and complaining threads I wonder what happened to some people's sense of reality. When I see what is now, finally, 4 years late, being put into place, I feel like the lessons Fernandes claimed he'd learnt in 2013, but clearly hadn't, when he went on to fund yet more superannuated players like Rio Ferndinand, have now finally sunk in. The adage is once bitten, twice shy, but in Fernandes case, it seem to be about five times bitten. However, it looks to me like he's finally got it right. Lee Hoos is an excellent appointment as CEO (IMO), with a proven track record in football. The thing is, as with all such projects, turning things round, restructuring, rebuilding, takes time. Many, many other clubs have had similar journey - from boom to bust - and some have never recovered - or not yet at least. Some have followed the plan we are following now. But this plan does not produce overnight results. For teams like Leicester and Southampton (both places Hoos worked), it took a few years to right the ship and get everything into place. For other teams, it still hasn't paid off. There are no guarantees in football, and look at the clubs who languish in lower leagues, or are a shadow of their former selves: would we like to be in Leeds' position? Or Bolton's? Or Portsmouth's?
In the not too distant past, Nottingham Forest won two European Cups. They're a big club. They are currently one place above us in the league. We have no divine right to win this league. The restructuring that is taking place inevitably means disruption, as the team is weeded out and re-seeded - it can often look pretty threadbare during this process. It can often mean wins are hard to come by and flair and swashbuckling performances are in short supply. It's a process. It takes time. We are not going to get relegated this season, and we're definitely not going to get promoted, so why not let go of expectations, which only lead to disappointment, and simply accept what's taking place? In the grand scheme of things, we're in a far better place than we could be.
I feel far more optimistic now than I did at the start of the season. Why not give the board, the manager, the squad, the chairman, the DoF, the CEO a chance? What point is there harping on about where we could have been or what could have been done? This is where we are, so let's get on with it. As I said, we could be a lot worse off. Maybe we should see the glass as half full for a change.
We're lucky to have seen some of the greatest players in the game grace our pitch and in our squad - Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Gerry Francis... you know the names. This has added to the glamour and the sense that we are a cut above the rest. There's always been a touch of magic and swagger about Rangers - or so we have believed. Sometimes it's been true. From the glory days of the 75/76 team, to the swashbuckling championship title in 2011, we've had some very special times. But the reality is that we've often flattered to deceive. And in recent years, we've become he plaything for billionaires - the first bunch of whom treated us fans with contempt, called QPR a 'boutique club', but nevertheless achieved what he we hadn't done in fifteen years, and got us promoted. Then they promptly doubled ticket prices, hamstrung the manager Neil Warnock with barely any transfer kitty and quickly sold up to Tony Fernandes and Lakshmi Mittal.
Fernandes had all the right attributes as a chairman, or so it seemed. He related to the fans, was a proper fan himself, and started to pump in the funds. But he was not a football man, and it soon became apparent he had a terrible knack of not knowing when to stick or twist. Fernandes rewarded Warnock with the sack and brought in Mark Hughes. We avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth.
But the following season, Fernandes' foibles started to work against us: instead of seeking to consolidate our position in the top flight with astute buys and creating the right blend of youth and experience to take us forward, he funded a Hughes/Joorabchian panty-raid on some of the most highly-paid yet surplus to requirement players from across the premier league and beyond: Bosingwa, Park, Cesar, Jenas to mix in with the already rag-bag of players Warnock was forced to scramble together at the start of the previous season, and Hughes first acquisitions: Barton, Wright-Phillips, Hoilett, Mbia.... along with loans such as Fabio....
Despite talking the talk, Hughes was unable to get this squad to gel and after a dismal run of defeats and draws, he was sacked. Fernandes turned to Mr Football: Harry Redknapp. Many knowledgeable football people looked on and said 'he'll #### you up, he'll do a Portsmouth on you..' and so, in many ways, it proved. Redknapp's solution to a depserate situation was to throw more money at it, and Fernandes duly obliged, with more eye-watering transfers and high wages, for players like Christopher Samba and Loic Remy. Remy of course proved to be some player, but he alone could not keep us up. Samba proved to be the opposite. We were relegated.
Back in the Championship, many of us saw the need and hoped for some sanity to prevail, and for prudent squad strengthening and getting rid of some of the dross. Redknapp did do this to some extent, and he brought in the fantastic Charlie Austin. But on the pitch, it soon became clear Redknapp had almost no tactical nous and his safety-first approach led to some of the most dire, dull and wince-inducing football we'd seen for some time.
In the season after Redknapp's eventual departure - following a wonderful play-off final win that was in truth, a poisoned chalice, because it meant Redknapp stayed - I spoke to Les Ferdinand about Harry. I asked him why he thought Harry hadn't worked out, when so many of us thought he would be a good, if not great manager. Les's view was that Harry was old school, and rather than work on tactics and game plans, he relied on personalities. In a nutshell, his managerial method was to find the 'right sorts' who would run the game on the pitch. We saw powerful evidence of this in Clint Hill. It was the estimable Hill who told a flapping Redknapp what to do in the play-off final after O'Neil was sent off early in the second half, telling him to substitute himself for Henry, to go to 3 at the back and start to press Derby in midfield. It was an astute move that subsequently paid off big time.
You know the rest and I've probably bored you already. My point is that we've been flattered by the amount of money that has been poured into our club over the last 5 years, and subsequently we've lost sight of who and what we are. Or at least some of us have. When I read the daily quota of moaning and complaining threads I wonder what happened to some people's sense of reality. When I see what is now, finally, 4 years late, being put into place, I feel like the lessons Fernandes claimed he'd learnt in 2013, but clearly hadn't, when he went on to fund yet more superannuated players like Rio Ferndinand, have now finally sunk in. The adage is once bitten, twice shy, but in Fernandes case, it seem to be about five times bitten. However, it looks to me like he's finally got it right. Lee Hoos is an excellent appointment as CEO (IMO), with a proven track record in football. The thing is, as with all such projects, turning things round, restructuring, rebuilding, takes time. Many, many other clubs have had similar journey - from boom to bust - and some have never recovered - or not yet at least. Some have followed the plan we are following now. But this plan does not produce overnight results. For teams like Leicester and Southampton (both places Hoos worked), it took a few years to right the ship and get everything into place. For other teams, it still hasn't paid off. There are no guarantees in football, and look at the clubs who languish in lower leagues, or are a shadow of their former selves: would we like to be in Leeds' position? Or Bolton's? Or Portsmouth's?
In the not too distant past, Nottingham Forest won two European Cups. They're a big club. They are currently one place above us in the league. We have no divine right to win this league. The restructuring that is taking place inevitably means disruption, as the team is weeded out and re-seeded - it can often look pretty threadbare during this process. It can often mean wins are hard to come by and flair and swashbuckling performances are in short supply. It's a process. It takes time. We are not going to get relegated this season, and we're definitely not going to get promoted, so why not let go of expectations, which only lead to disappointment, and simply accept what's taking place? In the grand scheme of things, we're in a far better place than we could be.
I feel far more optimistic now than I did at the start of the season. Why not give the board, the manager, the squad, the chairman, the DoF, the CEO a chance? What point is there harping on about where we could have been or what could have been done? This is where we are, so let's get on with it. As I said, we could be a lot worse off. Maybe we should see the glass as half full for a change.