QPRnet Blogs

I really don’t know what to make about the ticket fiasco, other than to recognise it as a big one.  I really really want to believe that everything in the QPR garden is rosy and that Dennis Wise and his mates won’t mistake ours for the BBC’s garden down the road and try to dig it up.  But right now, I’m bordering between confused, worried and angry.

When the season tickets went up, I was pissed off, but could see the logic.  I’m in the Upper Loft, so I had to take the brunt of the largest percentage rise, but I figured that the £400 I had paid out in 2007/8 was quite cheap for what I consider a bloody good seat; I’m just to the right of the goal and in row E, and my view of the adverts on the big screen is second to none.  £600 is expensive, but compared to not watching what I hope to be an exciting season, was well worth it, even if I tend to miss 3-4 games a season due to family/holiday commitments (did I tell you I had a good seat?).

Now I’m lucky – I have a good job, I’m pretty well paid and Mrs Tonto’s income helps a bit too.  The £200 extra I had to find was a little difficult, but that’s because I’ve just done up my house and over spent on that.  But what seriously worries me is that these new increases will be reflected in next year’s season ticket.  Yes I could probably afford it, but the value for money element has diminished even further (even though I have a good seat).  If the season ticket goes up above £700, that’s it – I’m a lost customer.  And they say to bring in a new customer costs 10 times more than keeping your old ones.

Sport in general has got too expensive.  They were asking £75 to go to the test match this year – god knows how much that will be for the ashes next year.  Tickets for Wimbledon, The Derby and the British Grand Prix can cost over £100 (hmmmm I wonder where the idea cam from). It costs £49 per month to have the Sports channels on Sky and now, thanks to the EC I have to pay an extra £7.50ish to get Setanta to watch the games I used to be able to.  In the old days sport was run by rich people and enjoyed by the masses.  Now only the rich can be involved at all.

I haven’t given up hope yet – maybe the owners will realise after this fiasco that the supporters are the life and soul of the club.  Without us, you don’t have a club. From being saviours, the new owners are now being questioned, not just mild gripes either, but large out loud complaints.  I don’t have another club to support, and the owners know that, but I do have limits, and I’m reaching mine.

S’alright, I’ve not suddenly geeked out; I’m still one of the good guys. My focus this time out is the ever-changing role of our self appointed mascot. No, not that drippy Tiger, nor the binned Jude, I’m talking Gareth Ainsworth.

 
Wild Thing, as he is known (probably at his own behest) has had a stop start career. Injuries have wreaked havoc through the years. But fans up and down the land have warmed to his dogged determination to get off the treatment table again and again and again.

 
At QPR he’s become a symbol of our dragging ourselves out of the mire of the third tier. His thirty-yard thunderbolts, tireless determination and dedication to looking like a member of the 75-76 team have afforded him legendary status.

 
Personally, my favourite Ainsworth moment was during a home game where we were dominating but not scoring, with 20 minutes to go he got the hook, rather than sloping off, looking at his boots, shaking his head and half heartedly clapping the crowd, he immediately broke in to a sprint towards the dugout. Not only was it as fast as he’s ever been in the hoops it was the kind of sprint that was last seen in Chariots of Fire, all high knees and pumping fist, head held high as if balancing a champagne flute…both ridiculous and marvellous at the same time and stayed with me for ever.

 
As one who has suffered a number of cancelled contracts and non-renewals, he’s developed a keen sense of positioning during these uncertain times. Always back in action at the end of a season and always a whirlwind of action. Extra years are tacked on to his contract almost as a habit, but when the new money arrived he must have thought the writing was on the wall.

 
Every appearance last season was treated as his final, applauding the faithful, waving, signing autographs…all during the game! But Gareth Ainsworth is a survivor and not as daft as he looks. Come 2008 he’d developed a permanent place on the bench under Luigi De Canio, it was difficult to find adequate football reasons for this given the many new faces popping up at Loftus road. But if you watched the bench at the end of the game…every game mind, there you saw the genius of the man. Win, Lose or draw, who was first to hug, console or celebrate with the boss, Gareth Ainsworth.

 
The limpet like winger has again survived a regime change. His role had developed, even to the point of securing a coaching position. But the real value to Rangers is again seen on the bench, during games.  He’s become Dowie’s stress buster. During Sundays live outing against the hapless Saints, every goal or major incident was the subject of a close up of our bench as Dowie, punched, patted, hugged, squeezed or playfully mussed up the hair of our hero, who reacted pretty much the same way that the six month old Rogue Junior does to such attention.

 
I don’t begrudge him this Indian summer; indeed, if we continue winning the sight of Dowie absent-mindedly battering him will become a focus of much mirth and jollity amongst the regulars. Lets hope things don’t go wrong though…I’d hate to find the camera panning round to catch the lifeless form of Ainsworth, dragging along the cinder track, as a frustrated Dowie wrings his neck in frustration!

Flooding the midfield

No sooner has the transfer window slammed shut (copyright Sky Sports News) than Rangers go and make a signing, the free transfer of Italian international Damiano Tommasi.

On the face of it he might turn out to be a decent acquisition but Christ how midfielders do we need?

Even Iain Dowie seemed underwhelmed about his capture. Actually maybe underwhelmed is too strong a word, he certainly wasn’t overwhelmed. Can he be just whelmed? Let’s go with that.

Even Iain Dowie seemed whelmed about his capture, telling the official website “He’ll complement what Gavin Mahon and Martin Rowlands provide in that area.” Or in other words, what in the hell am I going to do with another one?

Earlier in the week when the Newcastle saga broke I said something on the message board along the lines of at Newcastle Keegan would ask for a left back and get given a striker whilst at Rangers it seems Dowie asks for a left back and gets given options to choose from by the board. I start to wonder if that is actually the case now.

I just cant see Iain Dowie banging down Flav’s door saying, “yes I know we only have one left back at the club, I know from our first choice centre back pairing we’ve one constantly injured and one who’s not been up to much yet and yes I know Blackstock is playing on his own upfront because we’ve not got much to put alongside him but if you’re going to strengthen one area can you please scour the globe and bring me a 34 year old midfielder.”

One person surely screaming from the sidelines must be Adam Bolder, in fact he’s probably screaming so high now only dogs can hear him.

As if the Tommasi wasn’t a kick in the teeth enough this week Dowie made it clear where he saw Captain Craps future, telling the Kilburn Times how important it was for the kids to play alongside experienced pros like Bolder in the reserves.

One thing the flood of midfielders and lack of strikers has bought us though is our new formation and personally, I’m sold.

There’s been the odd occasion where Blackstock finds himself nodding the ball down to Johnny X but overall I think it’s worked out well and I hope the suspension of Ledesma on Sunday doesn’t tempt Dowie to revert back to 4-4-2.

Teams just can’t seem to handle our attacking quartet and even without Ledesma a simple swap for Rowlands or Buzsaky will keep things ticking over.

I think it’s important to persevere with a system, aside from the fact this one seems to work for us and makes the best use of our squad it’s also good for players to get used to a style of play. On top of that I’d hate for us get a couple of results with a 4-4-2 and end up with a Mahon-Leigertwood midfield and see players like Parejo and Ledesma marginalised as wide men. The pair of them can do so much damage when given the freedom and watching them play in that way has been the highlight of the season for me.

Briatore – sense one minute, boutique the next

If you scrape around for a justification of the crazy season ticket prices we’ve been lumbered with this year perhaps the only one you can make is that the board are trying to make the club self financing. For years we’ve balanced on the brink of collapse and for years we’ve had cheap season tickets. There is a chance that they looked at the revenue coming in and decided the only way to balance the account year on year was if we put more into it.

I don’t agree it’s the best tactic but if you look for the silver lining then maybe it is that if our collection of millionaires and billionaires bugger off one day we might still have a solvent club for someone else to take over rather than one living hand to mouth and desperate for another tycoon to keep it going.

Briatore’s interview this week with Sky Sports seems to back up this prudency somewhat.

“We are following a sensible business model because the Championship is a dangerous league in which it is very easy to see large amounts of money leave the club unless it is invested wisely,” he said. “In the short time myself and my partners have been involved in English football we have realised that we must be very careful about our financial responsibilities.”

Frankly this is good to hear, I’d much prefer our mega rich owners to play the game sensibly and move the club forward step by step. As much fun as it is for Manchester City fans right now, I’m only 32 and with Flav and Mittal knocking on 60 and Bernie nearly an octogenarian I’d like to think I’d outlast them all and more importantly I hope QPR will as well.

Mind you he then he goes and ruins it all by gibbering some nonsense about making us a boutique club. These days boutique basically means something that’s niche and expensive. Not to worry Flav, I’d say we’re pretty much there on that front already.

I believe the current owners have just passed their one year anniversary of getting involved with the club.  I say getting involved rather than bought, because the official announcement didn’t happen for another couple of weeks, but the £1m we paid for Legs just before last year’s transfer deadline had to come from somewhere, so lets not nit pick this time.  So waddya think of it so far then?

Firstly let’s start with the positives.  

• The main one is that we are still here, a definite big tick for the F1 boys and Mittal jnr there.  
• On the subject of money, it is obvious that they have got their little black books out and got some seriously good money from their connections in the form of sponsorship deals, kit manufacturer and “financial partner” what ever that is.
• The £5m spent in January (on top of the £1m for Legs) turned our team from a bottom half team struggling to compete into a top half team with some style and flair.
• The ground improvements have generally been well received.  Ok there have been some niggles like the removal of the bar in one part of the ground, and the betting shops from all of them.  Also not everyone can see the telly, but I’m in the Upper Loft with a perfect view and I think it is great, although I do keep forgetting to check it after we have scored for the replay.

But there are some negatives:

• The away kits are pretty awful, of the shelf numbers with very little thought.  However, the home kit looks great so maybe we shouldn’t complain too much.
• The season ticket price rises were spintastically bad.  I expected a price rise, but not 50% of my ticket.  Then they tell us sales are unprecedented, but attendances in the two league matches to date have been poor (both less than 14k).
• Some people will point to few signings in the off season.  We have spent less money on transfers than last year (although I suspect we are paying a few bob for Parejo).
• The loss of LDC was regrettable, and Dowie isn’t everyone’s first choice as a replacement

Generally speaking, the positives have outweighed the negatives.  Most of the negatives are either associated with “running the club as a business” rather than a toy thing like Chel$ki, one that I don’t mind as its keeps us as a real football club rather than a fantasy one.  Some of the other things can be learnt from – more supporter input into kit designs would be a good start, and don’t put the season ticket prices up even mope next year, or at least cut the spin and treat us like adults, informing us of how things are going rather than presenting a fait accompli.

There is more positivity about HQ than for many a year – expectations are sky high, perhaps too high, but with these guys on board we have a potentially positive future, even if some of the “Champions League” statements are pretty crass.  I’ld settle for promotion.