Archive for October, 2008

fifteen games, eight wins, four defeats!

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Oh well-done, brilliant…what a piece of fantastic forward thinking. It turns out we are exactly the kind of club I‘ve always hated.

  

I couldn’t have written this two hours ago, so disgusted with he club as I was. While being calmer now I still find it so disheartening to read people whose opinions I rate, comfortable with this decision, happy to discuss the next mug to take the job.

  

Well I’m sorry but I’m not ready for that, I’m not ready to contemplate anything other than vilification for Flavio and the other turds that have taken a decision that you’d normally associate with Ken Bates or Peter Kenyon.

  

We all understood that Flavio was a clown, that he had no taste and without money we wouldn’t urinate on him if he caught fire. But at least he was our clown. This season has been one PR disaster after another, what next? Burning down Loftus Road for the insurance money.

  

But its all part of the lesson isn’t it, you don’t need integrity, you don’t need loyalty and if you can’t afford platinum…Fuck off!

  

Tomorrow we go to the form team in the division and in charge, the cheerleader and what was his rally cry… ‘We are, as always QPR together’, really Gareth, is that what we are? Well I‘m glad you are prepared to bend over and take it and I hope when you get shafted you retain your marvellous positivity.

  

I won’t be watching tomorrow, a small and meaningless protest I know but right now supporting QPR is nothing to be proud of!

As supporters do we actually support?

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

As supporters are we ever happy?  Reading this and a couple of other message boards, it appears we are only truly happy when we have something to whinge about.  This was most in evidence on Saturday, where several people around me were moaning and groaning about players, management and owners, despite the team winning, the sun shining and, as far as I’m aware, they were all season ticket holders and thus not affected by the recent ticket price rises.

Now I know that when it comes to my team I am probably a glass half full person, rather than a glass half empty person, so I had a tendency to disagree with much of what was being shouted out by these guys.  But what effected me was the vitriol and hatred that went along with it.  This wasn’t just “geddim off” (although that was shouted about 10 times by one bloke at Peter Ramage even though I thought he had a half decent game), it was the full spittle at the corner of the mouth anger.   

I thought the Paladini regime had divided supporters and that our new mega rich owners (even if they are slightly less rich than they were last month) would help reunite us – our future being secure, money being spent on and off the pitch and for the first time in years there was optimism about.  It has taken less than 2 months of the new season for that to change. 

We seem to be very divided supporters, and that division is obviously coming across to the players as Ainsworth and Rowly as the two senior players have both called for us to get behind the team, and more recently Tim Flowers has repeated that call.  As supporters we have to take some of the blame for ruining Zesh Rehman’s career.  Are we now trying to do the same with Ramage and Cerny?  3 minutes into the latter’s is all it took for some morons to chant Lee Camp’s name.  To my mind we should 100% support the players in hoops (or proxy hoops in the case of the keeper) once they cross the white line.  Others seem to go with the attitude that our new found wealth means we should be playing the Champions League in 18 months time or it’s a failure, and we’ll boo loudly if we don’t get there. 

Don’t get me wrong – Im not denying our right to boo – especially at the odious Cashley Hole, but the events of Saturday were not like that.  Was it a great performance? No, but it certainly wasn’t bad either, and not one player deserved booing, and yet that’s what we got from some sections of the crowd. 

Like them or loathe them, you can’t deny that teams like Liverpool have a 12th man in the stands – they get behind their team, sometimes even more so if they have just conceded.  Our bunch tend to react to what is on the field rather than influence it.  Then whinge about it on the message boards when they get home…

Wait a minute…

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

I’d like to get down to head quarters more often than I do. Last season I managed only one trip down and that was before the arrival of Rogue junior who despite being photographed sporting the hoops (just in case there’s any argument at a later date) is already curtailing a lot of activities I once considered an inalienable right.

  

My one and only game last year was a midweek game where the clock was well and truly turned back. For 45 minutes saw the R’s produce football that I haven’t seen in twenty years and in truth I’m not sure I’ve ever personally witnessed. Committed, aggressive, slick, controlled and above all intelligent. Buszacky and Rowlands gave a master class in midfield artistry and after 44 minutes a 2-0 lead flattered our opponents. While it’s frustrating that the whistle didn’t blow there and then it shouldn’t detract from the sheer quality of what I’d witnessed.

  

That final minute saw the start of what I can safely say was as good a performance from a forward as I can remember, the fact that it was the seemingly ‘over the hill’ Andrew Cole that produced it was only surprising for that fateful first goal. A dangerous but defendable free kick struck the wall and dropped to the thus far immobile striker…not for long, the blur of movement hurled a missile of a shot post the helpless Camp…in truth I had to watch sky sports news frame by frame to work out how he’d managed it. Notice had been served.

  

The second half was as one sided as the first, shorn of a comfortable lead and Rowlands we retreated into a previous guise and the Cole show took over. We were treated to a master-class of economy of movement, efficient use of the ball and a world-class eye for goal. In the end we were lucky to lose 4-2. Driving back I was, possibly for the first time, amused by Steve Claridge. Hosting that nights phone in, he’d witnessed the first half and having left at half time couldn’t believe we’d been beaten.

  

It wasn’t a classic, bustling centre forwards performance, but it proved once and for all that Cole was a great player.

  

I’m marking by Loftus road debut on Saturday, Home to Forest and guess who’ll be leading their attack…

  

…Andrew Cole!

  

Couldn’t happen again…could it?

  

Rogue Male.

Is this the kind of club we want to be?

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Less than two weeks on from a famous League Cup victory at a premiership ground, one that was considered in most quarters including this messageboard, a triumph of tactics by Ian Dowie.  There is a ground swell of opinion growing that he should go!

 
You can’t be surprised that there is impatience at Loftus Road; football is notoriously quick to jerk the knee. I’m just taken a back by the fact that the fans are leading this little revolutionary act.

 
The past year has seen momentous change at the club, a glance at the table a year ago ought to be enough to quell mutinous thoughts. But where we were once led by desperation we are now mastered by ambition and that’s why I expected one of Flavio’s big dogs to be fermenting the dissent. Maybe they are, but subtlety seems not to be their first weapon of choice.

 
We are rapidly descending into becoming the kind of club that’s easy to dislike. The new owners may be oblivious to criticism but I’m not and it hurts to be considered mean and money grabbing, just as much as it exasperates to be always called ‘moneybags QPR’ when week in and week out we are playing teams that have dug deeper in the transfer market.

 
I don’t think the club is being run badly, in fact I’d welcome a regime that costs everything and demands full value, if this is the price of premiership football then so be it. I won’t be able to go, but I’m sure that given the right product, someone will.

I’m pleased we are not breaking the bank for big names, but even loan signings are not necessarily the answer. Neither Parejo nor Ledesma played in the home game against Burnley last year. For 45 minutes I saw football that I’d not witnessed at Loftus road for 20 years. No matter that we lost, the future was there to see. Is it really Dowie’s fault that the main architects, Rowland’s and Buszacky have yet to flourish this year?

 
I think loan signings; particularly those from a big club like, for instance, Real Madrid come with certain proviso’s…something along the lines of ‘yes you can have him, but not to keep the bench warm’. Parejo has been basically playing where we’d all like to see Buszacky. Ledesma made his own case for inclusion by playing well, but ideally I’d like us to have Rowly and Buzz at the helm.

 
The central midfield problem has never really been sorted out. Mahon looks whole hearted but somehow short of what’s needed and while Legs will always look dangerous it’s sometimes too near his own goal.

 
I think the attacking side will sort itself out, but we’ve got to stop giving away easy goals, especially at set pieces. Fourteen points isn’t bad, only one point off the playoffs, but we should be grinding draws out of games we are losing. Only uninformed pundits and probably the board think we are favourites to go up. If Dowie gets us to the playoffs I say job well done, but will he get the chance.

 
The type of club that makes itself unpopular by hiking up prices and getting too big for its boots will almost certainly be the type of club who will sack their manager every few months.

 
Lets have a bit of patience, give Dowie time and stop dicking around with people’s money. Lets be QPR for a while.

Rogue Male.

Is this the kind of club we want to be?

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Less than two weeks on from a famous League Cup victory at a premiership ground, one that was considered in most quarters including this messageboard, a triumph of tactics by Ian Dowie.  There is a ground swell of opinion growing that he should go!

 
You can’t be surprised that there is impatience at Loftus Road; football is notoriously quick to jerk the knee. I’m just taken a back by the fact that the fans are leading this little revolutionary act.

 
The past year has seen momentous change at the club, a glance at the table a year ago ought to be enough to quell mutinous thoughts. But where we were once led by desperation we are now mastered by ambition and that’s why I expected one of Flavio’s big dogs to be fermenting the dissent. Maybe they are, but subtlety seems not to be their first weapon of choice.

 
We are rapidly descending into becoming the kind of club that’s easy to dislike. The new owners may be oblivious to criticism but I’m not and it hurts to be considered mean and money grabbing, just as much as it exasperates to be always called ‘moneybags QPR’ when week in and week out we are playing teams that have dug deeper in the transfer market.

 
I don’t think the club is being run badly, in fact I’d welcome a regime that costs everything and demands full value, if this is the price of premiership football then so be it. I won’t be able to go, but I’m sure that given the right product, someone will.

I’m pleased we are not breaking the bank for big names, but even loan signings are not necessarily the answer. Neither Parejo nor Ledesma played in the home game against Burnley last year. For 45 minutes I saw football that I’d not witnessed at Loftus road for 20 years. No matter that we lost, the future was there to see. Is it really Dowie’s fault that the main architects, Rowland’s and Buszacky have yet to flourish this year?

 
I think loan signings; particularly those from a big club like, for instance, Real Madrid come with certain proviso’s…something along the lines of ‘yes you can have him, but not to keep the bench warm’. Parejo has been basically playing where we’d all like to see Buszacky. Ledesma made his own case for inclusion by playing well, but ideally I’d like us to have Rowly and Buzz at the helm.

 
The central midfield problem has never really been sorted out. Mahon looks whole hearted but somehow short of what’s needed and while Legs will always look dangerous it’s sometimes too near his own goal.

 
I think the attacking side will sort itself out, but we’ve got to stop giving away easy goals, especially at set pieces. Fourteen points isn’t bad, only one point off the playoffs, but we should be grinding draws out of games we are losing. Only uninformed pundits and probably the board think we are favourites to go up. If Dowie gets us to the playoffs I say job well done, but will he get the chance.

 
The type of club that makes itself unpopular by hiking up prices and getting too big for its boots will almost certainly be the type of club who will sack their manager every few months.

 
Lets have a bit of patience, give Dowie time and stop dicking around with people’s money. Lets be QPR for a while.

Rogue Male.