QPRnet Blogs

QPR: Hello God.  Got a bit of a crisis, can you help?
God: yeah sure, I’m God; should be no problem, what can I do for you?
QPR: We have this loan… its costing us an arm and a leg, but we don’t know how we can pay it off.
God: Hokey dokey, who’s it with?
QPR: ABC
God: Good luck with that – see you later…

I should point out I made up this conversation.  I also know that no similar conversations involving any other sporting team are also made up.  How do I know?  Because God doesn’t like sports.  FACT.

It never ceases to amaze me how many sportsmen and women thank god for their abilities by crossing themselves before then enter their chosen arena.  How many times do you see team mates looking to the skies as a penalty shootout takes place as if the big guy is gonna help them.  Have they not notices that the other folk are doing it as well?  If it worked, Italy would be world champions at everything (including snooker which they don’t play).

God obviously hates cricket, otherwise he would have waited 5 minutes before letting it rain at the end of the first test match and he would have let England win the toss for the second (he surely supports England out of the two teams, after all the other lot don’t believe he exists).

I say this because I’m beginning to fear that we will need some sort of divine intervention at Loftus Road.  Just when the optimism was rising, more and more rumours of more and more crises get published in the media.  Since God doesn’t care, who should we turn to?  Can we make a pact with the bad boy downstairs?  If so does anyone have a spare soul hanging about the place.  We might attract an American Evangelicalist or a Russian Orthodox representative, but these are still on earth spokespersons for the one we know doesn’t give a rat’s arse.

All I want is a sign…

Ah! The deluge has begun…this isn’t a bit of spleen about the weather, it doesn’t make it any better to have somebody moaning about it, it’s just a case of getting wet!

No, the deluge I’m now focusing on is the pre-season friendlies. For some the prelude to a season of hope and expectation, for others, the harbinger of doom and gloom.

For me, it’s always a bit of a surprise when the R’s get their season rolling, yes, the official site will have mentioned fixtures in exotic locations, usually Aylesbury or Penge! But by the time the players have returned from their two-week caravan holidays in Norfolk, I’m generally heading off somewhere myself, or at least thinking about it.

These fixtures do tend to be fairly familiar, some non-league or lower division fixtures and a couple of home money spinners against a big European Club (Celtic?) and a premiership game, which we usually do ok in and bowl into the season with crazed optimism…wholly misplaced.

These old friends have recently been supplemented by adventures in Europe, our finest hour (recent times) the glorious Ibiza cup triumph, a victory which came at the cost of a number of disruptive injuries and the shambles of the Italian job on the Amalfi coast, which, though we didn’t know it at the time, proved to be a very accurate indicator of the season to come.

Much has been made of the disappointing pre-season we waded through last year and we’re all keen for this season to get off to a flyer. There’s been a lot talk about the performance of our suspiciously dark haired leader so far, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s judged from July the First. So far he seems to have had an ok time in the market and (frantically searches for wood to touch) we’ve had no real media disasters in the first two weeks of this season.

Celtic is out of the way. There’s no real way of judging the result, we’re likely to react just as pessimistically as we might have been wildly optimistic when beating Chelsea 3-1…wither Leroy Griffiths? What we do know is that we desperately need the next three games and frankly at least one more until Wycombe.

Ideally you’d want any new faces to be in and playing before we hit Bristol, but a club like ours, living off scraps, will perhaps have to wait until well into August before we know who’ll be joining us and, indeed, leaving. The squad feels a bit more manageable, although one would hope that we can get some success in the loan market, otherwise we look a bit light on quality.

Obviously a goalkeeper is due at some point and you’d like to think that we’re looking at a raft of young wide players…if anybody at the club expresses shock, surprise or a lack of preparation for the sale of our one asset then heads should roll.

As I type, footballing genius Lawrie Sanchez in looking to tempt Cookie into the Premiership wonderland that he hopes to infest with his ‘little Irelander’ mentality. Having committed wild figures to West Brom for the admittedly effective Koumas and perpetually disappointing Kamara, he’s clearly attempting to save a little with his bid for the left wing wizard. This shows more insight that you’d expect of Sanchez, our reputation of lying down and having our bellies tickled as potentially millions of pounds are knocked off transfer fee’s has not escaped his attention. Paladini’s potential 10 million bonanza will most likely end up as just under Two Million and a pitiful sell on clause.

The only way to squeeze the fee is to hold out until the end of August or January, football’s vultures are well aware that we can’t afford to do that.

With or without Cook, the friendlies will rumble on and we’ll be non-the wiser as to where we are come August 11. It would be interesting to know what Gregory expects of friendlies. Are they mere fitness exercises, or as he constantly moaned last year, this is his chance to mould the team into his own shape and pattern. No excuses for our denim clad maestro now, the team that steps out at Ashton Gate will be playing Gregory-ball…my mind is boggling!

Without wanting to necessarily raise the Rowlands in the middle flag again, if we assume a keeper and hopefully wide cover are coming, wouldn’t be nice to see a passer in central midfield? How much of Cook’s fee would secure Idiakez?

Roll on Wycombe…

Rogue Male

Welcome to a new season on QPRnet.com and a belated official welcome to our new blog site that has been up running for the last few weeks.

As you will have noticed we totally revamped the site this summer, it’s now complete and hopefully will be good enough to see us through a few seasons now. The new design has enabled us to incorporate most of our current features and give us the flexibility to add more that we have planned as we go forward.

Our interviews will continue to be a key feature of the site, the Tony Thorpe interview has already been online and we have three more in the pipeline over the next few weeks with some very familiar names. More on that nearer the time.

The fixtures wallpaper proved popular last season and this will be back for the coming campaign with the first one available in the first week of August plus we’ll obviously have match reports from all the pre-season games and the usual service once the season gets going proper.

We’re resting the predict-R-thon for now but Fantasy Rangers will return for a sixth season very soon (or at least as soon as we sign a bloody goalkeeper!)

We have three bloggers signed up for this section but we are happy to take on more so if anyone fancies regularly posting their thoughts and opinions over the course of the season drop me an email and we’ll set it up.

As for my blog, I’m aiming to post up my experiences following Rangers over the course of the season, the emotions we go through, the funny moments we come across and all about the dodgy away experiences we will no doubt enjoy/endure!

I’ll also keep you up to date with any site news and changes as we go forward so if you have any comments, suggestions or questions please feel free to post them below and I’ll answer them in the next blog.

There’s nothing like a few weeks without football to make you yearn for the simple things in life. It’s actually got quite pathetic how much I’ve longed to go back to Loftus Road so I was pretty excited by the time Sunday rolled around.

Personally I prefer trawling round the little clubs that you generally face this time of year so I’m a little disappointed there isn’t much of that to enjoy this year. I find it much more enjoyable to yomp up to someone like Worcester than face “giants” like Celtic and Fulham at home but that’s what we’ve got this year.

However it is always comforting to see nothing has changed at Loftus Road since the last game although I must say in the Upper Loft literally nothing had changed! The floor was still covered in fag butts and litter which I guess had been there all summer. There was even a little deposit left from Jude the Stadium Cat which looked big enough to have actually come from the one on the pitch! Would it have killed anyone to run a broom round?

I know most people don’t give two hoots about friendlies but I love pre-season. The game itself was a bit of a let down but it had everything I’ve grown to love about this time of year, new players, surprising trialists and plenty of confused fans trying to suss out who was who!

Most of all though I love the relaxed optimism that you feel. A new season stretches in front of you, there are new teams to face, new grounds to visit, and the whole campaign is filled with possibilities. Plus you know that there are months and months to go before your dreams are cruelly shattered once again. See you all at Wycombe!

Feel free to post any comments or questions below and I’ll pick up on them on the next blog.

I post on two boards – this one and Rivals.  I post on this one because you usually get some considered opinion (yes even with Gripper) on more serious issues and the vast majority of posts relate to QPR (with the obvious exception of the film thread, which I bloody started!)

You can but help laugh at some of the actions over on Rivals.  Yesterday was a classic case in point.  The Beeb says Cook is on his way for £1.5M.  Immediately there are posts calling for GP’s head, preferably on a plate with a side salad.  This morning, GP states on the radio that he rejected the bid for Cook (in fact he laughed at it).  So that’s OK then – GP isn’t an idiot after all, and yet no apologies over on Rivals.  I would hate to see what was written on IndyR’s or the LSA sites, but I suspect that the Rivals threads were tame in comparison.

There is no doubt that GP gets a bloody hard time form most fans.  The reasons are unclear to me.  At the beginning there were rumours he was going to sell the ground, that he was only interested in sell off our prize assets and that he was going to run the club into the ground.  All of these have been unproven to date, and his actions of yesterday suggest that this will continue whilst he is at the helm.  I wonder where the continued venom comes from?  I have asked some folk to explain it to me, and the best they can come up with is “he’s just dodgy isn’t he”.

I have spoken to GP twice.  Once at the players sponsor’s do (where he was more interested in my female companion!) and once when he phoned me – yes he phoned me!  I had sent him an e-mail about my thoughts on the Sponsor’s do and how I thought it could be improved.  Within half an hour he had phoned me back and thanked me for my constructive comments and he said he would take them on board.  He then went into lots of stuff about the club and proved to me one thing – he DOES care about the club.  I don’t agree with everything he’s ever done, and I don’t expect to in the future, but I genuinely believe he has the clubs best interests at heart.

One thing that is for sure is that he has divided opinion amongst QPR supporters more than any other person associated with the club (even George Santos!).  That’s not a good thing, because the best way forward is for everyone to pull together.  I think that’s what Gallen was trying to say last week, but he’s a footballer, therefore, wont be very eloquent, plus I suspect the journos twisted things a bit.  In these troubled times, working together for a change might make the club more attractive to a richer chairman, to whom £20M is nothing and our debts can be written off.  But this is one reason why I stick to only two message boards.  The more I see and hear about what is happening on the other ones the more I realise how far we are from working together.

I cannot blame them. After all one doesn’t need a telescopic sight to shoot boar or bear; so when they came on to me watching the terrace at a range of one hundred and fifty yards, it was natural enough that they should jump to conclusions. And they behaved, I think, with discretion. I am not an obvious anarchist or fanatic, and I don’t look as if I took any interest in politics; I might perhaps have stood for an agricultural constituency in the south of England, bur that hardly counts as politics. I carried a British Passport, and if I’d been caught walking up to the house instead of watching it I should probably have been asked to lunch. It was a difficult problem for angry men to solve in an afternoon. They must have wondered whether I had been employed on, as it was, an official mission; but I think they turned that suspicion down. No Government- least of all ours- encourages assassination. Or was I a free-lance? That must have seemed very unlikely, any one can see that I am the type of avenging angel. Was I, then, innocent of any criminal intent, and exactly what I claimed to be- a sportsman who couldn’t resist the temptation to stalk the impossible? After two or three hours of their questions, I could see I had them shaken. They didn’t believe me, though they were beginning to understand that a bored and wealthy Englishman who had hunted all commoner game might well find a perverse pleasure in hunting the biggest game on earth. But even if my explanation were true and the hunt were purely formal, it made no difference. I couldn’t be allowed to live. ‘Rogue Male’ By Geoffrey Household (page one) I cannot blame them, one doesn’t need a sharp nib to prick the bloated ego’s that run English football; so when they found my blog secreted on QPRnet it was natural that they should jump to conclusions. They behaved, I think, with as much discretion, as a bunch of bored blokes in faceless offices could muster. I am not an obvious anarchist or fanatic and I don’t have the reputation of an ‘insider’; I may have added a barbed comment or two on the boards, but that hardly counts as informed. I may have worn a QPRnet t-shirt and had I been caught in the Bush Ranger I should probably have been asked my opinion on John Gregory. It was a difficult problem for opinionated men to solve on a football club message board. They must have wondered whether I had been employed on, as it were, an official mission; but I think they turned that suspicion down. No moderator- least of all ours- encourages character assassination. Or was I free-lance? That must have seemed very unlikely, I f you could see me you’d see I was hardly an avenging angel. Was I, then, innocent of any agenda, and exactly what I claimed to be, Rogue Male, outsider, and infiltrator, stalking whatever took his fancy? After two or three answers to the initial thread, I could see I had them shaken. Was it Varc? No, the word ‘doomed’ had yet to be mentioned, was it Simon? No, no referee had suffered. They didn’t know who it is, though hey were beginning to believe that a bored and continually skint Englishman who had kept himself to himself, might find a perverse pleasure in blogging the biggest game on earth. But even if my explanation were true and the blog was truly innocent, would it make any difference. Would I be allowed to live? ‘Rogue Male’ by ?

A bit harsh you might think…and what is it to me if he’s taken his ball and run off to Spain. But that’s where I’ve been, latterly in Barcelona (well near enough) and I was amazed by the fuss over there. All the rip off tourist shops have got their Henry 14 shirts in evidence and the papers are going mad…although they’ve gone pretty potty over Eric Abidal too…you know Eric…no! Oh well, maybe French Left backs are a Barcelona only obsession.

Thierry is linking up with his great mate Samuel Eto’o…who he famously described (along with the rest of his new colleagues) as a woman in a very un-Henry like fit of pique after Arsenal had succumbed in the Champions League Final. The same Henry who acted like a ‘woman’ in the World cup Quarterfinal to win a free kick from his new team mate and presumably new friend Claude Puyjol, a free kick that resulted in a goal. Thierry Henry is a woman!

This was revealed to me after I’d finished reading a rather brilliant book. Given what I do and the sport I chiefly follow, I ashamed to say that despite having owned David Conn’s ‘the Beautiful Game’ for a couple of years now, I’d not got round to reading it.

For those of you unacquainted with the book it’s a trip through the murky world of the modern game, how we ended where we are and the winners and losers. David Conn is football’s foremost investigative journalist and he set himself the task of getting to grips with how a floundering game ended up being awash with millionaires, both on and off the pitch and footballing debris left behind by the success stories.

From one man and his dog at Glossop North End to one man and his yacht at Chelsea, Conn’s professional odyssey, inspired by his own distaste for his beloved Manchester City’s wheeler and dealer Peter Swales, charted the games decent into and phoenix like rise out of a self dug desperate hole.

The game likes to present the post 1990 upturn in fortunes as a series of masterstrokes by thrusting young Turks, visionary businessmen who wanted to save the game they loved. Fortunately those that run football in this country are as successful at PR as they were at preventing Erickson’s wandering hands. Not many average Joe’s on the terraces trust the Premiership, the FA or the Football League, but if you really want to know why it happened, where it happened and just how many opportunities to regain a semblance of control were squandered by the FA, read this book.

You’ll be aware of many of the central characters, David Dein’s recent travails at Arsenal should evoke no feelings of Sympathy, having read of his exploits over the last 15 years we ought to expect him to resurface, financially improved, very soon. Noel White was a key figure in ensuring Venables England reign was brief, that wasn’t his only contribution.

I very clearly remember the whole creation of the premier league, it seemed fundamentally wrong at the time, Graham Taylor was probably already a ridiculed figure by this time, but for the England manager to vociferously oppose the big clubs was remarkable…could you imagine Steve Mclaren doing the same?

At the point when the FA should’ve been at their most belligerent…they caved, Conn shows how easy it would’ve been for those who purport to be the guardians of the national game to block the clubs and prevent the premier league. Sky’s money was coming one way or another; seventy clubs might just have seen a bit more of it.

More than anything else, considering the national obsession with the game, I’m amazed that there are so few books that tackle this side of the game. There are lots of titles on the shelves that celebrate the great and the quirky, lots that cater to our natural obsessions and prejudices. But so few that investigate, inform and educate without becoming lazy or personal.

I’ve recently read a couple of books on American sports, Next Man Up by John Feinstein and MoneyBall by Michael Lewis. One is on American Football, the other on Baseball. I’ve no particular interest in either, other than the average male’s ability to watch any sport. Both are really interesting and very well written, both reveal much of what blight’s those particular sports and how individuals can divert the interest of the game for their own ends. It’s very clear in both games that their Governing bodies, however flawed they may be, have an overriding sense of their sports place in the nations conscious. They recognise the need for a moral certainty and clarity. Yes, both sports are multi-million dollar industries, both are driven to create more and more dividend, but both appear to understand that if their public perceives their Sport to be corrupt or morally bankrupt, the game will quite literally be up!

There’s nothing in Conn’s book, or my own personal experience to suggest that Football has anybody who is interested in looking after the game itself, anywhere near the seat of power.

The Beautiful Game was originally written in 2003 and updated in 2005, since then we’ve had an influx of foreign ownership, Ken bates at Leeds Utd and the Steven’s report…no sign that anything’s getting better. Prices are going through the roof and middle ranking second tier clubs can’t afford to buy a player for the equivalent of Michael Ballack’s weekly wage.

We all moan about it, we all rail against the injustices we see week in week out, but I think it’s the duty for all right minded football fans to arm yourselves with the facts and read this book.

For those of you who have sat through this thinking ‘why doesn’t he use this blog to mention QPR a bit more’, well here’s something for you all to chew on…when the then big 5 came up with the premiership, ensuring the cash boom for the elite and damning the rest to uncertainty and possible oblivion, you have to remember that not one of the other 17 clubs stood up to it, raised objections or thought for a moment about those below and the effect it would produce.

Well one of those 17 was Queens Park Rangers…currently a byword for ailing clubs.

Rogue Male.