QPRnet Blogs

Last weekend saw the first taste of the big time since the arrival of the big boys on the board. The weekend papers were full of the ‘two richest teams’ guff and were particularly enjoying the tables being turned on the Village Hotel XI.

Very enjoyable it was too! In some cases illuminating…we have the same GDP as Croatia! But, as with the game which i suspect went with a whimper, this honeymoon period isn’t going to last and i think we should be bracing ourselves for a long and sometimes undignified backlash.

There are lots of teams who deserve help, there are lots of teams that could manage a fraction of the money at our disposal, very well and with good grace. They are all going to look at our good fortune with no little envy and find it hard to swallow.

We were one of those teams, for most of us the decade that has just past has been long, desperate and humiliating. I for one had begun to question whether i’d ever see us compete again. While i doubt our recent set ups could manage any budget with good grace or sense, we are now very comfortable and appear to be commited to spending whatever it takes to get back with the big boys.

But no one is going to like us for it.

Rightly or wrongly we built up a reputation for being a nice little club who played good football and competed with bigger teams with more resources, our neat little ground was known a great place to go (even though you wouldn’t be able to see properly) and a good day out. We’d produce or develop the occasional gifted player who we’d eventually see achieve their full potential at a big club or grace the national side. We toddled along quite nicely.
A decade of dysfunction has put paid to that.

We are about to re-emerge as a putative behemoth, possibly in a faceless stadium out towards the M4 and prepared to buy success with a mercenary bunch of players. Thats what its going to look like anyway.

Chelsea deserved all the crap that was thrown at them. They bought success and often use their wealth to stop others from competing (do you think Mourinho really wanted Ballack or Essien?) Their profile under the odious Kenyon has disintegrated. They are the chinless nobodies who pay the biggest boys to hang around to ensure they rule the schoolyard. They are an example a to how not to behave.

It won’t stop the stick from coming. On saturday evening, on 606, a Chelsea wag rang in to talk about the giant killing his team had performed…ho ho!
It reminded me of the first thing we have to avoid. Yes we will get a bigger stadium, yes we’ll have to attract new fans to fill it, yes i might be priced out of going eventually…but please, please, please, whenever you or i talk about being a Rangers fan, whether its in a pub or on the radio or wherever. Don’t do what every Chelsea fan i ever hear does…don’t start whatever you are going to say with the words ‘been an R’s fan for thirty years’. No one who does not know you believes you!

Hold on to your dignity, you and i know how long we’ve been here, waiting for these times, doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks…FORZA QPR!

Rogue Male

Im confused. Those that know me will probably say “that’s not too difficult”, but this time, Im really confused. The team I love is in danger of becoming what I despise “a money orientated, dont give a toss about the fans, marketing machine akin to Chel$ki and Manure.

Now I am prepared to give the new guys a chance and see what happens, rather than lynch them before they’ve even got their feet under the desk (Ill leave that to the Ingham and Finney types of this world). But there has to be a concern that prawn sandwiches will soon be outselling thr Balti Pies and hotdogs, whilst multi-millionaire mercenaries strut their fancy dan stuff over a manicured pitch. Exactly the sort of thing I detest (see my money money money rant for more details).

So I am in a paradox. Do I continue to support the team I have loved for 30 plus years, or stick with my principles. I never expected us to become billionaires, particularly so close to being in administration, and I will continue to applaud GP for his efforts but have we become a “if you cant beat em join em club” chasing the premiership gravy train and once there doing everything possible to stop others joining us?

Time will tell, but if you ever see me eating a prawn sandwich at LR please slap me in the face and call me a sell out (but thats the ONLY circumstance you can do that for).