QPRnet Blogs

The advent of Rogue junior has certainly curtailed my visits to the keyboard and you can forget watching anything for longer than 15 minutes…unless its something that you don’t have to concentrate particularly hard and is easy to dip in and out of.

Hooray for Euro 2008!!!

Despite having to give up virtually every other viewing pleasure, both his parents have deemed Football, as ideal viewing fodder and as a result I’m fully engaged with the tournament so far.

The Holland-Italy game was great, the Spanish performance was inspirational and Croatia vs. Germany made me feel better as an England fan and ever so slightly worried for the coming World cup qualifiers. Even the Swiss in a paddling pool and the hapless Austrian attempts to score have been thoroughly enjoyed.

The dreamer in me has watched previous football tournaments half considering the possibility of unearthing a gem for the R’s. This was always unlikely in the past given our perilous grip on finances and league position, but now it seems like a worthwhile exercise.

During the World cup you are likely to find an Australian, Nigerian or American that might very well fit the bill. Young, raw and desperate to go shopping on the kings Road, more importantly he’ll be represented by a dozen different agents and once the lottery is played out he could easily end up at your club.

The Euros are trickier, less teams and less available talent. Here you are more likely to end up with an aging Swede than a young player of promise. It’s fair to say we’d end up with and Austrian who couldn’t score or a Swiss who couldn’t defend, neither of which will advance our cause.

While not completely dismissing the lure of West London, money is going to talk here. If, as we like to think, we are at least equal to the spending power of a middling premiership club then we have a chance of picking up a player or two. But is it worth the risk.

AC Milan, who I’m not comparing us to, recently balked at 10 million for Artur Boruc, Celtic’s bigoted and brilliant keeper. Last night he doubled that price with a fantastic performance against Austria. There’ll be no bargains here. Would you be happy with us spending 10 million on any player? Not this year I’m sure.

So maybe now is the time to make a few mental notes for future reference, let me start us off. Croatia’s left wing back, Nicola Pokrivac, 23 plays in France and was a surprise selection for their squad. I thought he was outstanding against Germany…I bet I’m not alone and I don’t for one minute think that he’d swap his current status for championship footy with us, but two years down the line lets see where he and we end up.

I think he’d allow us to forget Chris Barker

Last Wednesday night should’ve been a textbook evening. Despite my worst football fears being realised, Chelsea appearing in a Champions league final, there was every chance that the ultimate indignity would be realised too! Actually losing it!

I’m no fan of JT, as a player or a man. I’m sure he’s a great pro and missing an occasion like this would be heartbreaking for anyone, but I was only surprised that his injury was on the football field not some kind of metal pole/piss/electricity incident in a lap-dancing establishment.

Anyway he made it and I returned in good time from a long drive to Somerset to settle down and watch.

With me was Rogue Junior, hoping to nap through his first final. RJ will not be a regular feature of this blog, but he’s relevant here.

Everything seemed to be going to plan, Utd, as far superior team, swarmed over the hapless hotel team and should’ve been long out of sight by the time that Frank ‘no longer hated because he loved his mum’ Lampards pinball equaliser. It was getting uncomfortable.

At least, I thought, if They win after being so comprehensively outplayed, I’ll be able to find solace there.

But no. Chelsea dominated the second half, RJ slept on, I sank into the sofa. It seemed the tide had decisively turned…but I’d reckoned without the presence of one man! JT.

Again I reiterate, I don’t think he’s anywhere near the best centre back in England, but if you like your defenders cut in classical English cloth, obdurate, slow on the turn and usually in the way, then I can concede his worth. His header off the line from Giggs was nothing short of magnificent. I couldn’t believe it, just as the footballing gods were beginning to see sense, one man was going to drag them over the line.

His influence grew. A minor spat was escalated (his speciality) into a brawl that ended with his own player getting sent off. As a charming rejoinder Terry ’snotted’ on Tevez (who would later accuse him of spitting as I’m sure that the South Americans had never come across this most delightful of acts).

Chelsea hung on; penalties and they had a German…booo!

These were remarkably competent, of course Ronaldo missed and it was left to our hero to step up and consign Utd and my evening (and probably the whole summer to oblivion).

…And then it happened, it wasn’t fate, or the wet turf. Terry missed because he’d forgotten that he couldn’t really play. Rather than smacking the ball like he was clearing his lines or tackling a lap dancer, he decided to be clever…he’d seen others doubt, why not him.
As he planted his standing foot he opened it out, Van Der Sar expecting the rocket had already gone right, Terry had done him, like a Maradonna or a Pele he’d fooled the keeper, but unlike them he’s 15 stone of thud and blunder and all that weight going the wrong way had to buckle and so it came to pass…Jt on his arse, crying like a baby!

The inevitable happened and it was nice that a true mercenary in the new Chelsea tradition ambled forward to strike an indifferent Penalty to lose the Cup…drained, but happy, my night was complete.

Terry was inconsolable, I should’ve been delighted…but I wasn’t. Why? Because of the seven week bundle on my lap.

RJ had a difficult start, took a battering from the forceps and coupled with the usual stretched head look so fashionable with the newborn and a bizarrely tufty hairstyle…he actually looked like John Terry!!!

He’s settled down now…looks like a baby, but my gaze went from him to Terry I found I couldn’t laugh. I felt sorry for him…

…Having a child does change your life!

Taking a break from the nappy strewn front line of new fatherhood, Rogue Male takes a moment to wonder about the summer to come.

 
The last few weeks have passed as pretty much one long blur! Mostly this is because the machinations of Rogue Junior have taken precedence (for a while he held an un-beaten record as an R’s fan, the miraculous Preston come back was his debut and I really did think the gods favoured us). But to be honest, the club went on holiday early too!

 
Five minutes into the Norwich encounter the season came to an end. I generally have ambivalence to Norwich City, but I was mildly riled by the rather catty comments of Norwich fans over our display. Yes we lay down, but lets not forget how close they came to disaster and to be perfectly honest I can’t see much room for optimism for next years campaign in the flatlands!

 
The referee and to be honest, all right thinking deities conspired to ensure that West Brom were crowned champions at Loftus road. It’s bad enough that Stoke went up without them getting a trophy…in fact if they had to go up, then second was ideal, no championship, no big day out at Wembley.

 
What was missing this year was the huge sense of relief that the season was over. Usually, the avoidance of the play-offs, relegation or just the plain relief that the utter banality of mid-table aimless football was finished was enough to make the average R’s fan go rushing towards the summer with open arms.

 
This year I think we’d have quite happily carried on watching. With the advent of De Canio and the Italian way of life, Loftus road has seen, in patches, something that it was beginning to fear had gone forever…football! Outbreaks of intelligent, thoughtful and committed football!

 
Obviously this is no heralding of a glorious future, especially now Luigi has departed. This was still a team capable of total football and capitulating 4-2 at home, as the home game against Burnley proved. Despite the fact that were not going to run into too many Andy Cole’s, we’ll still manage to engineer enough defeats to happily keep our feet on the ground and in the championship for at least another season. But I did expect us to lose with style. I’ve no idea if that’s still the case.

 
Before that there is the pre-season to negotiate. Previously we’d have been looking forward to trips to Aylesbury, an ill-thought out tournament on a holiday Isle and a drubbing by Celtic. What’s going to happen this year? Real Madrid? Juventus? I’d have thought  we’d at least be looking at some kind of all-star Grand Prix XI involving Michael Schumacher!

 
We’ve also got used to failing to shed deadweight, vague rumours of transfers and then an unseemly scramble for a couple of decent loans before August begins. Is all that a thing of the past? A few weeks ago the club, without too much fuss, announced that five young players were surplus to requirements. Of these only Sefan Bailey had made much of a mark. But from the moment Flavio appeared on the Uxbridge road you knew his days were numbered. This new efficiency is rather thrown by Nardiello returning, it’ll be interesting to see how the club sorts him out?

 
What will be interesting is who’ll be coming in to the club…and who’ll be buying them.

Obviously we are being linked with everyone at the moment, though rarely anyone you’d want. How many of us are excited by the new arrivals Radek Cerny and Peter Ramage?

Now I’m not one to start shouting for anything other than prudent progression, but surely we can be looking at some more inspiring signings. Can we prise proven performers at this level away from lucrative contracts. Bobby Zamora, Kevin Phillips, Danny Shittu or Steve Sidwell? If we really are going to push for promotion surely this is the calibre of recruit that ought to be being mentioned.

 
As the departure of Luigi De Canio was announced my first thought was …who is going to be buying the players? On balance I’m sorry to see De Canio go. Under him we’d begun to play some proper football, and despite his inability to make any progress with his English I thought he was starting to build something of substance.

 
I’m sure the Billionaires know what they are doing!

They do, don’t they?

Wait a minute…Season tickets!

It’s the summer and normally, around this time, my attention turns to The Oval, planning the odd trip to Cornwall where my parents live and trying not to get too hot on the tube going to work.

This year, however, my attention is firmly on the goings on at Loftus Road.  Journalists bandy around superlatives far too much, but unless I’m mistaken, this summer will be a defining one for the next 5 years at Loftus Road.  Never in all my 30 plus years of supporting QPR has there been so much expectation and interest in the off season.

Maybe I’ve fallen for those superlatives, but expectation is high.  Am I wrong to anticipate 4 or 5 more signings (and by that I mean players who actually cost money)? 

Should I temper my expectations when it comes to the new kit we’ve been tantalisingly shown in the season ticket brochure (no I’m not going to comment on that!), whilst waiting for some mage-brand sponsor with 1 million times more kudos that Binatone or Car Giant? 

And then there is the new catering to sample in August – by Cipriani if the Flav interview on the BBC is to be believed.   Do I go for the scallops or roast truffles with my pizza?  Do they cook chips and burgers in Italy?

Ill admit to checking the Offish two or three times a day right now.  I’m excited to be a QPR fan – just broke after renewing my season ticket (damn I said I wouldn’t comment!).  I hope that doesn’t collapse under a Dowie inspired stupor as we start the season with worse results than our last two! (Is that possible?).  At the end of the day, all that I have written about here wont mean a thing unless we get off to a good start next year.

Two weeks ago I was going to write a blog about a various subjects, we changed our badge and made a right cock up of presenting it, the kids won their league again, we signed two players and let five go. Hardly groundbreaking news but all noteworthy stuff.

Then Luigi De Canio left.

So instead I wrote about my disappointment with that and hoped things wouldn’t get worse with the board making a poor appointment. Earlier this week I was going to sit down and revisit the lost blog and round things up for the end of the season.

Then we appointed Iain Dowie.

So instead I had to write about that, whilst it’s not a total disaster it certainly wasn’t the most exciting move the club has ever made and it didn’t exactly make me relish my season ticket renewal coming through.

Then I got my season ticket renewal through.

I think everyone was expecting a rise, we are paying high wages to attract players and the owners constantly stress that whilst they are rich the club isn’t. We all understand how close we came to administration and I’m sure we all accept that for the club to be a viable business they need to bring more money into it but nobody expected prices to rise to this level.

QPR have always had a small to medium loyal following, they are there rain or shine, come what may, they have supported the club through thin and thin and would be happy to dig a little deeper in order to see it move onto a level we all thought impossible but to hit people as hard as they have is heartbreaking.

Only a few weeks back QPR’s Deputy Managing Director Ali Russell was telling the AGM that they wouldn’t over the top with rises and that whilst there would be rises in all areas they would be “reasonable”. His idea of reasonable seems to be making us one of the most expensive clubs in the division.

To rub salt in the wounds the club are busy posting stories on the website about “unprecedented demand” whilst the phone lines ring off the hook with angry fans trying to make their point. Either they really believe this has been well received or they really don’t care. Either way it’s been the new owners first massive blunder and they could well pay for it for years to come.

We are all grateful for the new owners coming in and saving the club, we are surely excited about the potential they bring with them but it looks like they have seriously misjudged just how much our gratitude is worth.

Expectations for next season were already sky high, possibly too high and I believe we were already heading for disappointment. The club are at fault on this, they put out countless sound bites about new eras, global brands, don’t miss out etc etc. Add these crazy prices to this and you are going to be left with a pissed off, pent up fanbase who won’t just want success they will demand it. If we are going to be charged Premiership prices then we will expect Premiership quality.

As if to add insult to injury you have to pay £4.50 to have the book sent to you! Another nice little earner on Royal Mail prices there.

The first line of the season ticket story on the official site continues in the propaganda vein

“The 2008/09 Coca Cola Championship campaign promises to be one to remember for Queens Park Rangers Football Club”

At these prices it better be, it’s just such a pity so many will have to enjoy it via Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports.

No its not too bloddy early!  Just hang with me for a minute…

We now know the 21 of the 23 teams we will face next year.  Unfortunately Fulham wont be one of them.  I will admit to wanting either Donny or Carlise to come up automatically from the 1st as well, as that would mean one of the ‘big’ clubs in Forest and Leeds definately missing out.  I would put money on Leeds winning the playoffs, just to compund the whole thing.

In some people’s eyes, we are already fovourites, but this seems to be based upon fiscal opportunity rather than anything else, so lets look (or preview) the evidence… (see where Im going now?).

 I want to compare thios season to the potential next season, and Ill do it in a number of categories:

 1 - Our team.

At the momnet we have a decent startign XI, when all are fit.  ON its day this team can beat anyone.  But as was shown at the arse end of this season a couple of injuries and we start to struggle.  This is one area where our new found wealth will come in handy.  I expect at least half a dozen championship standard players to come in over the summer - a huge improvement on what we have had to scrape together in previous season and one which should improve our squad and provide compeition for places - which isnt usually a bad thing.

Verdict: Improvement

2 - The tactics.

We had three managers last year - and our tactics varied quite considerably from the sublime (mostly under De canio) to the ridiculous (the Hawthorns).  Even under the De Canio, however, there were issues, such as our inabilioty to hold onto a lead going into injury time.  We dont have a manager right now, and IMO the key thing is to get a decent tacticain - someone who understands how to play Blackpool away on a cold, wet and windy tuesday night in novemeber as well as at home in August when its 100degrees on the pitch and Blackpool have decided to turn up in black.

Verdict: Expect to be more consistant and probably imrpovement.

3 - Stability.

After the rollercoasters of the last few seasons, the one things i really crave is some stability on and off the pitch.  those people who say that off field shenannigans dont come onto the pitch with the players are talking crap.  In this respect we should surley see a massive improvement.  but then this is QPR…

Verdict: Improvement

4 - Opposition

I hoenstly beleive Derby will struggle big time - a team with no money, no decent players and no confidence will struggle next year - but I beleive that Birmingham and reading will be better teams than Stoke and whoever wins the playoffs.  Forest have the ability to spend a few quid, Swansea less so, but come up as champions and we saw what Brizzle did.  Certainly that coming up is better than Colchester and Scunny.  Add oonto that the strange years that teams like Preston and Cardiff have had.  This league will be tougher.

Verdict: Tougher next year.

We can all add more categories, but all I am trying to say is that its not a foregone conclusion we will go up next year - I think you should see a significant concl;usion, and I will be dissappinted if we are not in the shake up for the play offs as a minimum come the end of the season.

Whoever becomes manager will have huge (all be it unrealistic) expectations behind them, and that will create pressure; pressure they could probably do without.  I just hope they can cope with it, juggling 20 players who all want to be in the first team and Flav’s media profile.  Good luck mate.  Ill be there to roar you on.

Earlier in the season I worte we should give JG a chance.  he was fired in a week.  2 days ago I worte how De Canio should get the recognition for the seasons (relative) sucess, hes gone already.

 I will no longer comment on managers (unless we want him out).

 Yours Sincereley

 Chris Tonto Cole

“Life is a roller coaster” sang the girlie looking one from Boyzone. It certainly was for QPR this year. We very nearly hit the ultimate low - extinction, instead we’ve been given 3 rich sugardadies and the largest dose of optimism for 20 years.

The end of season reviews will, of course, be all about Flav, Bernie and Mr Mittal. Their spending power will make us a favourite for promotion next year. I have already written how much we should be thankful for GP for sorting the mess out, and finally the majority are realising just that.

Really the end of season reviews should concentrate on the achievements of De Canio. It is he who has taken a team which was at its lowest ebb and transformed it one that can compete. I suspect, however, that his achievements will be lost in the journalist’s rhetoric about Flav and co. I find it annoying that his achievements have essentially been under reported.

Maybe I should move on? Start thinking about the new season to come - and one of the most exciting off seasons (for the right reasons) that we have faced in a long time? Maybe I should be thinking which players we need to turn our decent team into a promotion chasing squad (yes there is a difference). My championship manager tactic for this year consisted of basically selling the lot and starting again, using the money raised in selling Camp and Dex to fund an entirely new XI (I did manage to buy Buzz for a pittance! I doubt I will be doing the same with the 2009 edition.

I am glad the season is over, its been emotional (should I be saying those words considering who said them?). I missed more games this season than the last 5 combined due to work commitments. Thats something I dont want to repeat next year, and I suspect Firebrace may have been shitting himself after our start to the season and 53 points looked a mile off (you still owe us all a pint BTW)

All I am saying is that it is one roller coaster I dont fancy riding again. Yeah sure, the highs were great, the lows were horrible, but its time to start new ride, maybe a bigger better ride, with different thrills and spills, and resign the old one to the been there done that column.

The rumour mill is already kicking into gear and we have been linked with three players this week alone.

Apparently we are interested in both of Plymouth’s Hungarians, Peter Halmosi and Krisztian Timar as well as Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

Any of these would be good signings but I expect to see us linked with almost everyone in the Championship and half of the Premiership before the summer is out so right now none of them are worth discussing in depth.

What we need by position for next season is worth a few thoughts though and personally I think we’ll be looking for at least five first team players.

Goalkeeper
The club needs quality cover for Lee Camp in case of injury and Campy himself can only benefit from much needed competition.

Right back
Assuming Michael Mancienne is not still here in August we will need to replace him, in fact we probably need two right backs!

Centre back
With Damion Stewart reduced to cover and Fitz Hall as fragile as an egg we need another solid centre half in the ranks.

Left winger
We have no natural player for this position and whilst Rowan Vine has done a fine job playing there we really need to get a left side expert in as soon as possible.

Striker
The missing piece of the jigsaw, the famed 25 goal a season front man, easy said, but not easily found.

What, and who do you think we should sign in the summer? You can leave your comments below.

****

Many congratulations to Aldershot on winning promotion to the Football League.

When the new club was formed out of the ashes of the old, the guy who lived next door to me was their first manager and got them their first promotions before moving onto league football so from a personal point of view it’s nice to see them complete what he started.

From the Rangers side of things it’s also fantastic to see them do so well under the guidance of Gary Waddock. Waddo was a legend as a player and I feel bad for him that things didn’t work out well in his short spell in charge of the club. He’s a fantastic, determined fella and it’s good to see him get a second chance in football and showing what he can do.

I had a feeling he would resurface again, when he was written off with the injury that temporarily finished his career he was determined to prove everyone wrong and play professional football again. He had quite a journey in doing so but he did exactly that and now he might just be doing the same in management.

****

What a brilliant atmosphere the Rangers fans created at Hull on Saturday. That new De Canio is song is infectious and was sung almost non stop for over twenty minutes!

It reminded me of when Forest came to Loftus Road the season they were relegated from the Premier League and their fans sung “Brian Clough’s Red Army” for the entire second half.

Fantastic stuff!

It was a terrible shame to hear about the injury suffered by Rowan Vine last week and I wish him well with his recovery.

We certainly felt his loss at the weekend’s game against Preston, not having a player of his quality in your side makes you realise just how good he is. He is someone that can suddenly make an impact, a rare breed of footballer that can have you on the edge of your seat in excitement and his absence was felt heavily on Saturday.

He gets his fair share of stick, I’ve heard him called lazy or unproductive, I prefer to think of him as mercurial! He is a classy player though and a real joy to watch and it’s a great pity we’ll be without him for the remaining games.

*****

Talking of the Preston game what a hilarious result that was! How often have we sat there and watched Rangers throw away leads over the years knowing exactly what’s coming? It’s happened time after time after time and it was brilliant to actually be on the other end of it for once.

As soon as that board went up for four minutes injury time I just knew we would equalise and when we did I couldn’t stop laughing! It was a travesty of justice for Preston, a thoroughly underserved point for us but good lord it made my night!

It’s a great sign as well that this team just will not give up no matter how poor they are playing. They always say the sign of a good side is to pull results out when you don’t deserve them. Based on that performance we’re on our way to being a bloody good side!

*****

So we move onto face Hull City this weekend, one of the season’s unlikely trio of promotion chasers. I’m a big fan of small clubs doing well but Jesus what an awful Premier League it’ll be if Bristol City, Stoke and Hull all went up, the other 17 teams would be over the moon I’m sure.

I quite admire Bristol City’s moxy and out of the three of them I’d rather like them to do it, Stoke are Stoke and Hull make such a girly fuss about us it’d be brilliant to throw a spanner in the works on Saturday.

It won’t be easy but it’s great to be going into games like this knowing we’ve got as good a chance as ever to get something out of them. It’s even better not having to go into it crapping yourself about getting to fifty points though!

*****

More doubts have been cast over Luigi De Canio’s future this week and frankly I’m starting to get a bit worried that he isn’t that settled here. Getting mugged on Saturday night wont have helped none either.

He hinted in an Italian interview this week that he would consider his future in the summer. Maybe he’s playing hardball, I hope so but I also heard reports from Italy early this week that we were sounding out former Cagliari manager Marco Giampaolo. I dismissed that as rubbish at the time but who knows?

Hopefully this will all turn out to be nothing more than a poorly translated article as whilst there would be a queue of fantastic managers a mile long wanting to get into this club I don’t think another change would help us right now. On top of that I’ve grown quite fond of the little fella and would hate to see him go.

*****

When Adam Bolder joined Sheffield Wednesday on loan he had the following to say

“I am quite an attacking midfielder, hopefully I can get box to box, get some tackles in and hopefully come up with a few goals.”

I cracked up at the time, an attacking midfielder indeed! Well who’s laughing now eh! Two goals in the Steel City derby must have surely earned him a some sort of place in folklore and probably secured a permanent move in the summer for him too.

Bolder’s exit seems imminent and, like many of the players we’ve said goodbye to lately, he played his part at the time but the club rapidly moved past their abilities.

Normally it’s quite difficult to work out who will go and stay in the summer, this year things look pretty cut and dried, Bolder will surely be followed through the exit door by Rehman, Barker, Walton, Bailey and Nardiello and with doubts hovering over Jake Cole and Damion Stewart’s long term involvement it looks to be another summer of change in the offing.

*****

A massive congratulations to Martin Rowlands on his return to the Irish international set up, Gigi promised to have a word in Giovanni Trapattoni’s shell like if he kept up his good form and it looks like he’s been good to his word!

Rowly still has to make the cut from the initial 40 man squad down to the final 28 but looking down the list of the other midfielders picked he must stand a decent chance of that. He’s in the form of his life right now and it would be richly deserved.

*****

And finally, I spent some time last week upgrading the blog site to an improved software package and hopefully this will work out better than the old one. Comments are open once again and fingers crossed the spam should be controlled so please feel free to comment on all our posts below and I’ll be back next week with another Ron Around.