QPRnet Blogs

Rangers were in The Financial Times this week, the last time they mentioned us was because we’d gone into administration.

Yes the Lotto kit deal has really made waves and, at the risk of repeating myself every bloody week, isn’t it great to see us getting nothing but good press at the moment.

Briatore only seems to have to open his mouth and the media flock to him. Can you remember the last kit deal that was covered every half an hour on Sky Sports? Their twenty four hour rolling news thingy bellowed out that this was the biggest kit deal in Championship history, which probably isn’t so impressive considering The Championship is only three years old and not many teams have changed kit supplier in that time but still…

The figures quoted just sound crazy, twenty million over five years is a fantastic sound bite and, whilst it might not quite work out to that considering it’s performance related, it just goes to show how seriously this club can be taken with the right people in charge.

Flavio has been quick to shoot down any mega spending rumours though, and any chances of “doing a Chelsea” have been given short shrift by Briatore and De Canio this week.

As exciting as it is having all this wealth at Loftus Road I am really pleased with the level headed, baby steps approach our new owners seem to be taking.

Taking the steady and sensible route might not be the most pulse racing approach to running a club but surely it bodes much better for the future that we are keen to build slowly and surely rather than go for boom and possible bust.

Evening folks here we go with another “Ron around” the weeks news, see what I did there? Enough of the cheese, let’s blog…

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It has been a strange old week of transfer talk with Rangers starting the week being linked with the galactico, Luis Figo and ending it being linked with the less glamorous Peter Ramage. I know which one my money is on!

The Figo thing has been fascinating, he has brushed it off of course but it can’t hurt us to be linked with players like this.

My old mucker Mr Skinner likes to remind me that the Chelsea revolution kicked off when they signed Ruud Gullit and it will take us doing something similar to kick start the new Rangers era in earnest.

I have no idea how good Figo would have been, is he past his best? Yes. Would he have the heart for it? No idea, but Christ it would have been good fun finding out.

The number seven shirt wouldn’t have known what hit it, from Matthew Rose and Adam Bolder to bloody Figo!

I have little doubt Flavio made enquiries, and I expect the story got planted in the Daily Mail on purpose but why not, stories like this may or may not pan out but they make the football world sit up and take notice and if it’s not Figo that ends up being our Gullit it will be someone similar and soon.

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I floated the idea in last weeks Ron Around that we would be pretty high in the table if the season had started from the day De Canio took over. It perked up Simon’s interest and out of boredom he prepared a table for me to talk about this week.

However before I could write it up someone else on our message board did the same thing (although in much more detail!), then before you know it they are talking about it on Sky Sports. Does George Gavin read this site?

Anyway turns out we would be fifth which just goes to show what a turnaround Gigi has achieved in his short time here and it gives me a lot of hope for next season.

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Talking of next season, everyone is talking about next season! From De Canio to Blackstock the excitement is building already but with that comes the pressure.

We are already hot favourites to gain promotion next season and I even read that one bookie was quoting odds of 20-1 for us to qualify for the Champions League within the next four years. Staggering.

We have put up with years of bizarre stories and all for the wrong reasons, things don’t get anymore sensible on the Rangers news wires but at least the gossip it positive for a change.

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The day we leave Loftus Road might be a while off but it’s certainly on the cards, even De Canio has been talking about the possibility this week.

He told the official Rangers newspaper, The Daily Mail, “If QPR were to reach the goals which the directors have set, the idea of a more spacious and comfortable stadium would be guaranteed.”

It will be a sad day that we don’t play games at LR, it’s seems more and more inevitable though and I only hope that when it is done we are kept as local as possible and a ground is built that retains some of Loftus Road’s charm and character.

I wonder if Bernie switching the Grand Prix back to the BBC has anything to do with the soon to be available Television Centre?

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Finally a quick good luck to the Youth Team as they get ready for their Youth Association Cup semi final match against Colchester on Good Friday. It’s an away fixture that somehow we are playing at home which should help.

If you want to attend and cheer on the boys the game kicks off at Harlington at 2pm and we’ll have news of the game on the main site later in the day.

Since the Petrol heads took over the column inches surrounding the bizarre juxtaposition off little ol’ run down QPR and the glitterati of the Formula one circuit has threatened rainforests.

Perhaps the most illuminating and most disturbing was the recent Observer Sport Review article where a Rangers supporting journalist was given open access to the world of Briatore’s QPR. Not a combination design to perhaps fully critique this new dawn, but it had its insights none the less.

One was struck by the way Briatore had bought into the whole shoebox Loftus Road thing. He appeared, and I accept that his sense of personal PR may be more acute than messes Thompson, Wright, Davis, Power and Paladini, to intrinsically understand what made us QPR.
In stark contrast was the reaction of ‘the son in law’, his barely disguised contempt at the facilities showed that this director was not likely to put up with it for very long. Any man who’s father in law had lavished £30 million pounds on his wedding and bought him a fifth of a football club is thinking Ashburton Grove not Shepherds Bush.

I suspect that those of you living out towards the M4 will soon find your journey to the R’s improving.

That wasn’t the disturbing part mind, the Home dressing room at Loftus Road proved to be an enlightening section of the piece.
I’d seen it before, a cold, cramped, damp space, usually with Olly gathering his charges and dispensing a mixture of West Country homily and foul expletive. Lots of shouting and bouncing followed, usually, by a drab nil-nil.

Not anymore, now the scene is one of bacchanalian splendour, toga clad figures, wreathed in mud and sweat idle in conversation, muscled frames posed statuesque in languor. Dressing Room or Turkish bath? A modern day Roman Emperor swans around the room, dispensing fine words, an occasional pat or ‘European’ caress. A carefree indulgence that only the truly rich can get away with.
His troops, to a man in awe of this god like figure, display gratitude and insouciance in equal measure. Delicately balancing pasta in one hand and their manhood in the other. What greater display of their prowess, their importance to the team…I eat and I am potent!

Now, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t need to know any of that. Not only am I struggling to cope with the idea of having your tea in the bath (I had a mate who tried to save time by having his Spaghetti Hoops on toast in the bath before he went out, it all went wrong…nightmare), but the unsightly observance of Akos, absent mindedly toying with ‘little Akos’ was at best unnecessary.
We even got photographic evidence…some of those towels seem to be staying up too easily, I know it was a good win, but even I don’t get that carried away.

I know football is constantly changing, media access is all encompassing, but I reckon some things are best left behind closed doors.

Welcome back to another, albeit a little shorter, Ron Around.

It has been a hectic couple of weeks with Rangers playing six times in the last twenty days but hey we made it to the top half of the table! Well for twenty four hours anyway.

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The last couple of games have been both strange and worrying, why is it we fall to pieces as soon as we concede a goal? Luigi De Canio must be tearing his hair out on the training ground at the moment.

Normally I get over a bad game fairly quickly, especially this season when I’ve seen so many positives but Sheffield Wednesday really pissed me off. You could excuse the collapse if it only happened every now and again but it’s happening all too often. What’s more annoying is you can see it coming a mile off!

We tried our best to throw things away against Blackpool as well, how you can end up clinging on for a win with eight defensive minded outfield players on the pitch after being three nil up is beyond me but that’s QPR at the moment.

We have such a soft underbelly it’s untrue, it isn’t like teams carve us up for a period of time then make the breakthrough, they score, we fall apart.

When you watch us play so well for long periods then try and commit football suicide it’s bloody annoying and something we have to sort out because we can’t rely on getting three up just to be sure of winning a game.

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That said what an achievement it has been to get up to twelfth in the league. Gigi has taken us from rock bottom to the top half and if it hadn’t been for some dodgy results we would be right up there scrapping for a play off place.

It’s all the more amazing when you consider we were the last team in The Football League to win a game this season!

It would be interesting to see a table based on games played since Gigi took over, I might try and work that one out for the next edition as I’d love to see how we compare against the rest of division under De Canio.

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I was sad to read on the official site that Frank Sibley has retired from football and is suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Sibley spent so much time at Loftus Road through the 60’s to the 90’s he became part of the furniture. Always an unsung hero he has made a massive contribution to the club on and off the pitch across four decades and I wish him well for the future.

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Performance manager Joe Dunbar has left the club today giving credence to the rumours that Gareth Ainsworth has now been installed as De Canio’s deputy.

The Kilburn Times reported that he has signed a new contract in a player/coach role although there has been nothing official said on that yet.

If true that can only be good news, Wild Thing seems like an infectious bugger to be around and hopefully that’ll rub off well on the players. Good luck to him.

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Finally I’ve had to disable the comments section on the blog site for now, it seems there is no stopping crazy Chinese Viagra sellers whatever you do!

If you want to get in touch the email remains the same, ron@qprnet.com

‘Till next time….