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A quick summary of our season to date: 28 points ,19 Games, 3 managers, 0 loaned players (OK maybe a half for Helguson…).  Sound like a good time for a team report blog… 

Goalkeepers:

After a slow start Cerny has proved to be a capable keeper.  His catching of crosses and control of the penalty box has improved, and whilst his still punches too much for my liking, he gets good distance.  Whilst I feel sorry for Lee Camp, I’ve not really missed him.  What worries me though is lack of depth if Camp goes permanently. 

Full backs:

For me this is the area of greatest concern.  Delany hasn’t lived up to last years level of play, Ramage is adequate at defending but poor going forward.  There is no depth so Matt Connolly usually ends up covering, which isn’t his best position.  I did think Legs was a revelation at right back the game and a half he played there, but we need to get competition for places. 

Centre backs:

OK hands up who thought Damion Stewart would be our best central defender this year?  He and hall have developed a good partnership and with Gorkss and Connolly as back ups, I am more than happy with our centre back squad. 

Midfield:

I’ve lumped this lot together, as Im not sure on what formation we are playing and, therefore how to split them up.  We have three defensive midfielders, which seems one too many, but they are at least decent enough.  We have lots of wingers, but not enough crosses, Rowly looks jaded, Cook looks like he needs more games under his belt, Ladesma has gone off the boil and Parejo never got there.  The injury to Buzz is a great concern.  So much for the “best midfield in the league” chant… 

Forwards:

I feel sorry for Dex, he gets so much jip, yet he is on target to be a 20 goal a season striker (despite everyone banging on about how we need one – we already do FFS!!!!).  His biggest problem is that he hasn’t had a settled partner, he often plays on his own, and the service from the wings he thrives upon (look back at how he scores his goals) hasn’t been coming.  Di Camine could come good, but needs to get more strength from somewhere and maybe some pace?  Dave is a useful impact sub but doesn’t do it for 90 mins.  We need a striker to partner Dex IMO. 

So with the January transfer window approaching I would suggest we need to go out and get 2 full backs, a striker and Ben Watson.  If we do that we can easily make the playoffs.  We are only 1 point off them now – and yet it feels like we’ve been in turmoil all season.  This has been an improvement on last season but we need stability right now.  Im just not sure that is guaranteed.

We’ve all been a little down lately, laughed at, outplayed, humiliated and generally a disgrace. The balanced view is that we should look to a year ago and see what we have now. This is sensible and shows a maturity and clarity of thought that has no place in the common football fan.

We are angry, we have a right to be angry and we have a right to stop being angry for no good reason other than 3 points at home! That is why we are football fans. So we’ve boarded the pessimista express and are hurtling towards our perceived oblivion (or mid table obscurity as we sometimes know it).

But are we missing something here? Yes we have tradition, years of loyal service, a sense of righteousness and hearts that are hoped, but are we in danger of missing out on our one opportunity for a ticket to the top table? Whose to say Mr Briatore isn’t embarking on the correct path?

Fundamentally we had stalled as a club. We were living off a vague memory of life at the top some ten years back, even then it wasn’t great, you have to go back to the eighties for our last decent team. We are not being run badly now, we’ve been run badly for a long time, the laughing started way back.

From his penthouse suite overlooking some lake or other, Mr Briatore pulled his cashmere kung fu style gown tighter to his corpulent belly, lit a cigar the size of a healthy cucumber and ecided…enough! Now we do it my way.

Who is to say that this isn’t going to work, sure it’s not been a great start, but surely this is just a beginning. If a new stadium is out of the question for now, then why not maximise the revenue from the old, 15,000 corporate ‘guests’ all paying ten-year debentures. Season tickets rising to a point where only those using them as tax write offs can afford to go. The newly imagined crest eventually resplendent with Flavio’s likeness in the middle and the white in the current kit replaced by green.
Polite applause will replace those that once booed their own players, pigbag will be replaced by the classic penny whistle and teapot Italian national anthem, supermodels will parade along the touchline before kick off replacing whatever that current mascot is supposed to be.

Why not, nothing else has worked for years. Let him pick the team; let any of us pick it. We’d probably end up in exactly the same place.

The alternative is…? Exactly! No one is rushing to invest in football clubs now. The likes of Steve Gibson only come along once in a blue moon (or maybe even just once!). Let’s give the man his head, lets tell him he looks great, that everyone believes his girlfriends are attracted to his killer personality and the that super new crest will eventually grow on us. Lets go get deluded.

It can’t be any worse than the excruciating slow death we are currently ‘enjoying’.

So lets embrace the ‘project’, enjoy our ‘boutique-ness’ and hope for seventh…can you imagine this shower giver the oxygen of Premier League publicity?

Time for another drink!

 We have just taken 6 points off two clubs that are in the promotion and play off spots on our last two home games.  We are in 7^th place, only goal difference separating us from the play-off place.  And yet, if you read some of the comments on here and other message boards you’d think we were worse off than this time last year (think back and try not to shudder). 

Was Saturday’s game a good one?  No, but let’s consider two things before we criticise.  Firstly the weather was pretty awful; the field was and the wind was howling around the stadium greasy which makes passing difficult.  Secondly, lets give some credit to Cardiff.  They went down to 10 men but organised themselves very well.  When we got points against Birmingham, Norwich and Brizzle C after going down to ten men, we congratulated ourselves on a job well done.  But because the shoe is on the other foot, it’s all doom and gloom from our supporters. 

Don’t get me wrong, I have a few issues about Saturdays game – I didn’t like the way we effectively “declared” at 1-0 as opposed to going for a second.  I didn’t like the way that neither winger got past the opposing full back on the outside and put a cross in.  I didn’t like the way that Buzz was left on the bench, but then again I like it even less if is forced to play on the wing.  I don’t like the way we have an unsettled side (its noticeable the most impressive section of our team – the defence – is the most settled with Hall, Cerny and Stewart regulars.  So yes I have complaints, but I find it odd that words like pathetic, awful and shower of sh… are the first things I read when I get home after we’ve won. 

Where’s our sense of perspective gone?

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 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 12^th 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…

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.

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.

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.

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.