A season that began with the highest of hopes for Queens Park Rangers seems to have stalled. At least that is the perception of many observers. Is it a fair assessment? The club is in a solid top-half position, something it has been unable to achieve in the last five years. It is financially stable after last season’s unlikely buy-out from billionaires Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Laksmi Mittal. The squad has been bolstered with new signings and the first-team has produced some sparkling football at times. Certainly, quality signings like Parejo or Ledesma and Tommasi would have been unthinkable a year ago. It feels to me that the public perception of QPR has been fatally skewed since the takeover. Every article written about the R’s mentions the words ‘billionaires’ and ‘Premiership’ but fails to take into account the obvious fact that the club has only just been rescued from oblivion. The expectation that money equates to instant success has been proven wrong time and again. Take Tottenham as an example: they have spent £100m just on signings in the last 12 months. That is roughly 3 times more than it has cost Briatore and Co to buy the entire football club, pay off its debts, begin refurbishment and pay for signings. What is the net result of Spurs’ investment to date? A team that is described by David Bentley as ‘crap’ and by Jonathan Woodgate as worse than the Leeds side that was relegated a few years ago. For all the QPR Board’s smoke and mirrors, you can see that they had a plan for their investment. Firstly, don’t throw cash at players for the sake of it. Man City has just come into a few quid and best of luck to them, but is anyone seriously suggesting that this cash will make them into title contenders? They have bought Jo, a player that could only find work in European competition playing for CSKA Moscow and Robinho, a Real Madrid reserve player with a big reputation and precious little to support it. Neither player is in this for the long haul and both would ‘do a Berbatov’ if a bigger club came in for them. How much use would a Robinho or Jo be to QPR then? A stable, motivated squad is far better than a gang of mercenaries jealous of each others’ salary. Secondly, you cannot buy motivation. The best example of this is Chelsea’s Winston Bogarde. The man was paid £42k a week and played a total of 3 games during his 4 years at Stamford Bridge. I don’t know why this full international, formerly of Barcelona decided to play his football in Chelsea’s reserves but I would suggest that any player who has nothing to play for, won’t bother playing. Whilst the investment issue rankles with some QPR fans, I would contend that it is not the actual level of investment that is the problem. Financially, the fans’ grievances can be broken into two separate issues: ticket prices and who the club have invested in. Firstly, the pricing issue is always going to be difficult for a club in our situation. Using Chelsea as an example, their ticket prices are the highest in the Premiership, and they (until recently) have the biggest financial backing. It caused a great deal of annoyance to the rank and file Chelsea fans, especially those with children that wanted to go too, but the argument was made: people will pay more for a quality product. Two league titles, various cups and an absolutely hilarious near-miss in the Champions’ League (God bless you JT, comedy gold) mean that people have stopped focussing so much on how much the tickets cost. This argument has been floated by Briatore and Co in his ‘boutique’ comment and, over time, may well be justified. However, the second issue with investment is inextricably linked to the first. You cannot charge ‘boutique’ prices for ‘charity shop’ products. It is an insult to your customer. For those that have watched ‘Harry & Paul’, think of the boutique owner who ‘Saw You Coming’ and you’ll know what I am driving at. The underlying issue here is who they have invested in. You cannot move at Loftus Road for defensive midfielders, yet we are woefully short of full-backs. The squad is light up front and has been all season. The mooted loan move for David Nugent, therefore, feels like shutting the door 15 games after the horse has bolted. Who is accountable for this? We know Dowie has paid for it with his job, but is player recruitment part of his job description? If you were to compare Dowie’s contribution at Charlton over the 12 games he had in the Premiership with them, it would stack up well against either of the other managers they used that season. Compare Dowie’s record against that of De Canio, Gregory or the hapless Waddock and you’ll see that, for all his faults, Dowie wasn’t doing an awful job. In fact, he was doing a mighty sight better than his three predecessors. He has only lost 4 matches all season, winning twice that: if that had been Gregory we’d have been calling him a hero! I am not going to defend negative football, Dowie’s selection of Leigertwood and Mahon in the same side, or suggest that Ramage and Delaney are world beaters, but if he had players at the club that were doing a better job, don’t you think he’d have selected them? Parejo looks brilliant in patches but disappears for long periods and is often off the pace. Same can be said of Ledesma at times, though only when he’s not getting booked for petulance. Tommasi is not fit and do you really want Bolder in the middle again? The back line is actually my bigger worry: with two weak full-backs it won’t matter how good our centre-backs are. At the risk of the obvious joke, Dowie’s face did not fit. Which brings me back to my initial point: expectation. Today’s various paper reports (25th Oct) show that Dowie’s sacking owes much to Briatore’s (and by extension, everyone else’s) expectation rather than the reality of the situation. It’s all very well Briatore making the point that without him QPR would not exist, but it would be folly to assume that simply by purchasing a club you become a football expert. Put it another way, if you buy an F1 team, are you an F1 driver? Or just a dangerous liability? I rest my case. If Briatore wants success in F1 he employs experts and lets them do their jobs. Why not football? Well I think the best answer to that question is actually this article: what right have I got to criticise? What gives me the chutzpah to imply that a multi-millionaire businessman knows less about his business than I do? I am nothing more than a fan. I have an emotional investment in the club. I have never played the game professionally, but that doesn’t stop me from criticising a wayward pass or lousy shot. In short, every fan in the country thinks they can do better. I mean, how hard can it be? Briatore has fallen victim to the same hubris. The only difference is that he can back up his opinion by pointing to his signature on the manager’s paycheque. Briatore’s expectation seems to be that QPR will play sparkling football, lighting up the Championship and re-shaping the established order in English football. After 15 games, which include progress into the last 16 of the League Cup, we’re handily placed and well above last season’s position without spending extravagantly on players. With a little more cohesion and one or two signings that, quite frankly, should have been made in the summer this club is well on its way. Sacking Dowie at this point feels like kicking the cat: Briatore’s actual problem was with Bhatia and Paladini, but it is far easier to take it out on Dowie. So expectation then. Briatore expected to be obeyed to the letter in matters he was not qualified to comment upon. He expected a team that was in tatters and about to fold to turn into Real Madrid or Inter Milan simply through the loan signings of Dani Parejo and Manu Ledesma . He expected that people would pay ‘boutique’ prices for Happy Shopper product and be delighted to do so. For me, however, it is his expectation that the fans would respond positively to his handling of club affairs that has really damned him. I am grateful for his investment. I do buy into his long-term ambition for the club. I just fail to see how bullying his staff, insulting his customers’ intelligence and failing to understand his market position helps him achieve this. Quoted from the Sun, 25th Oct: ‘Briatore, 58, has said: "The first thing to remember is that
without us there was no QPR. I don't want everybody telling me what I
need to be doing. People believe the club is owned by the fans but it's only a few who put their money down. For the rest of the people it's easy to criticise when they maybe spend £20."’ Dowie was not the most popular manager, he certainly wasn’t my choice, but with this guy on his back I’m surprised he didn’t walk earlier. Amen. |