The Ron Around - Midfielders, Briatore and Boutiques
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.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Tommasi does come with the reputation of a real pro, and a genuinely nice guy as well. He might be just the kind of locker room leader needed to help all of the starlets (Ledesma, Perejo, Ephraim, Blackstock) keep their feet on the ground. He will no doubt complement Ainsworth in that kind of role.
I think that I’d rather this kind of model of restructure and investment than that seen at Newcastle or (heaven forbid) Leeds. When the bubble bursts QPR can wave Chelsea as they drop down and we move up (hopefully)! That said, it’s easy for me to say it, because I’m on the other side of the world and don’t have to worry about finding the dosh for a season ticket.