Harry Redknapp — short term solution for long term problems?
Friday, 31st May 2013 19:03 by Greg Sangwine

As the odds on Harry Redknapp becoming the next Brighton manager crash through the floor, Greg Sangwine wonders whether his departure could be a blessing.

Last time QPR were relegated, in 2000/01, very little of the blame fell upon Ian Holloway. The team was already obviously broken long before he arrived two thirds of the way through the season and with the administration that followed what was required was slow building after relegation with a long term focus. No short term fixes were expected and I don’t remember anyone calling for him to be sacked early on – despite him failing to save the club from relegation from the First Division, or spending most of the first season in the lower tier in lower mid-table. We all bought into a long term goal.

When Holloway left after the Queens Park Strangers incident up at Leeds in 2005 Rangers replaced him with Gary Waddock, who I think they believed was a long term solution. They then replaced him with John Gregory (who I loved), Luigi De Canio (who I also liked), Paulo Sousa (yawn….), Gareth Ainsworth (twice), Jim Magilton, Paul Hart and Mick Harford before we saw sense. I said to my long suffering dad at the time that long term plans appeared to have been abandoned. It wasn’t until I travelled to a QPR home game against Doncaster that I began to believe that we were thinking a little longer term. The fans had turned up to celebrate that we’d got our Rangers back and Flavio Briatore had stepped down from most of his involvement in the club. I delighted in seeing QPR’s first win in what felt like around 20 games but in reality was probably more like 12. Antonio German was brilliant and we won 2-1 and it felt like we won the league.

In stepped Neil Warnock the week after with a very honest short term goal - to get promoted. I think he was probably given two full seasons to achieve this which would have made him our longest serving manager since Holloway and he performed miracles with QPR winning the league. He got the best out of so many of our players that I won’t even bother to name them all. It was, however a short term game that Rangers were playing and the harsh sacking of Warnock underlined this short term plan further.

I believe Tony Fernandes tried to change this culture when he hired Mark Hughes and I’m now a little ashamed to say that, despite my love of Warnock, I was excited by the Hughes appointment. I saw him as someone who would build the club steadily like he’d done at Blackburn and build a decent team in the short term too. I was, like many others very surprised how badly Rangers did under him.

Now I admit to not travelling to QPR matches this season. I’ve lived in Zimbabwe since August but I’ve seen 34 of QPR’s 38 games live on TV out here, just missing the Swansea home game, both Southampton games and the most recent Liverpool match. It’s because of my TV watching agony that I don’t believe Harry Redknapp is the man to take us forward. I was aware we needed a fire-fighter in November and was pleased he was coming in. In fact despite an awful Christmas period up until half time of the Aston Villa game I completely believed we’d stay up under his management. But in my opinion now we’ve dropped to the Championship short term is not the way to go.

We need someone who will build a club, play some decent football and bring back a little bit of pride in our shirt. I already worry what’ll happen next season. I worry it’ll be a little like Magilton’s reign: sign a few decent players, win a few big games, score a few goals and look pretty decent, but then drop away to briefly flirt with relegation after an outlay on more over-paid players who care little for what QPR really stand for. We’d be back to square one. Let’s be honest if that happened we’d be back where we were when Ian Holloway left all those years before. I don’t know about anyone else, because I no longer walk in QPR circles, but I’d prefer to see so-called sub-standard players who really care about the club playing regularly next season. I’d happily not even sign one player. I wouldn’t expect them to win the league, achieve promotion or even to reach the play-offs but we’d be able to expect them to have pride in the shirt and not be short of effort or commitment.

What’s the solution? Give someone the job to establish a team, club, and strong fan base who’d bring Premier League football in the next two to four seasons. I’d choose a young manager who can build the club and who cares about QPR’s long term future.

There are two options for me. Firstly to keep the players that have only won four games all season and 14 in two seasons and add to that squad that apparently isn’t good enough to push for an immediate return with Harry in charge and hope they can play together to get us up before embarrassing us even further. Or secondly change the broken formula and build the club around players who do care and a try a proven QPR formula.

Originally Holloway built his team around Kevin Gallen. Then came Marc Bircham, Paul Furlong, Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook and Gareth Ainsworth - players who really cared and always did their best for the club. Warnock built his team around Paddy Kenny, Kaspars Gorkks, Clint Hill, Shaun Derry, Ale Faurlin, Jamie Mackie, Adel Taarabt and Heidar Helguson. They had a similar formula - talented players who actually cared. Both managers bought success and both managers were QPR favourites for it. We’ve failed recently because we’ve built teams around players who can only celebrate decent looking CV’s and past glories - not talent that has been shown at Rangers, and certainly not heart. What do Julio Cesar, Jose Bosingwa, Chris Samba, Anton Ferdinand, Stephane Mbia, Esteban Granero, Junior Hoilett, Ji-Sung Park and Bobby Zamora really say? Is it effort and commitment?

Do I trust Redknapp? No I don’t. I hope I’ll regret asking Clive to publish this and I hope to be reprimanded for it come next May but my main worry is that nothing good is likely to happen at Rangers with Redknapp in charge. If we’re doing well come November then he’ll leave to a struggling Premier League team who ‘need him more’ and if we’re not he’ll leave anyway.

I have no solution but the vibes of past Rangers successes do not correlate with Harry. If he’s going to do it for us, like we all hope he does he’ll create a new legacy that Rangers fans of my generation are yet to see.

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Roller added 22:45 - May 31

I'm completely with you Greg. I'd argue that our best chance of bouncing straight back to the Premier League is with Redknapp as manager, but our best chance of re-building our club and re-finding our soul would be under a different manager. Who is the tough question.

If we are lumbered with the egotistical players we currently have we, unfortunately, need a manager to match; a Gareth Ainsworth (for example) would struggle to manage some of the "mega stars" we currently have.

Personally I'd love us to appoint a manager to build a team and re-establish a philosophy at our club, but I can't see that working without a) pretty much clearing the decks and b) being allowed time (which I don't see Fernandes having as an option).

My biggest fear is that Redknapp cliches promotion in the coming season and we start this cycle all over again.

ShotKneesHoop added 23:18 - May 31

My biggest fear is that we carry on drowning, not waving.

We have no solid base, no soul. We have been run by R-souls for the last 20 years.

We are basically a championship club that very occasionally punches above its weight.

Why don't we have a plan to stay as a Championship club for the next four years, firstly proper seat pricing, then establishing Warren Farm, then pick a long term manager, then develop the Academy, then select where the new ground will be, and then start to build it.

Otherwise, we will get a succession of 'Arry to Hughes to Hart managers. All short term brown envelope merchants.

ShotKneesHoop added 23:19 - May 31

rrrspricey added 23:35 - May 31 Completely agree with the article & above comments. Until we get rid if the egos and build a squad containing 30 Jamie Mackie/Clint Hillesque players we'll get nowhere. Add a manager of Karl Robinson's ilk to a squad like that and we have a real chance of building a sustainable future in the top flight. Onwards & upwards :-)
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rrrspricey added 00:16 - Jun 1 Completely agree with the article & above comments. Until we get rid if the egos and build a squad containing 30 Jamie Mackie/Clint Hillesque players we'll get nowhere. Add a manager of Karl Robinson's ilk to a squad like that and we have a real chance of building a sustainable future in the top flight. Onwards & upwards :-)
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ozexile added 02:59 - Jun 1 I was all for Hughes, and all for Redknapp. But I believe Redknapp made a massive mistake in not tackling the apathy amongst the squad back in Nov. he went for the arm around the shoulder method but it was too engrained. It's gonna be tough to implement it now.
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Ranger78 added 08:57 - Jun 1

I also have to admit that I thought Hughes was going to be a great appointment for us, I feel really sorry for TF because I can see why he did it.

I've never felt the same about HR but I stillI feel sorry for TF because I can see why he hoped HR would be the man to keep us up.

The problem is that I don't think HR cares about QPR one iota, in my opinion, he would have left even if he had of kept us up... Everton maybe???

Even taking into consideration the mess he inherited, I think he has failed miserably. The fact he escapes crtisicism baffles me and the way he palms the blame off onto anything other than himself is not a good quality.

I also hate the fact hell happily alienate players such as Tarrabt, Faurlin, and DJ, all proven Championship players with a genuine affinity to QPR (exactly what we need) in order to get in his good lads.

Having HR in charge scares me, I can only see bad things and like the article, I'm convinced hell be off in a heartbeat.

I too crave some stability but if we do have to go with a short term fix, I expect that short term fix to at the very least.... pretend to care about our Football club!

Kaos_Agent added 23:13 - Jun 1 I agree with all of the above. Harry won't look for "quality" in any but the highest priced markets, and he has proved to be unable to motivate the current lot or to produce a united dressing room. Not to mention his baffling selections. Move on mate.
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RonisRs added 14:04 - Jun 2 for me , right now we need stability, and if Harry is staying, he should come out and commit, or P... off.
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blacky200 added 13:10 - Jun 3

I agree about the comments regarding isolating players. We need to keep players like Faurlin. He had a couple of decent games when he first came back but to expect him to carry on in that vein of form after the injury he had was madness. And then to completely freeze him out after that was nothing short of criminal in terms of the players that were being picked. OK he wasn't going to save us by himself but he should of been kept here and given a chance to rehabilitate properly.
HR is not going to be a manager that is going to be looking at the long term. He will want a promotion to add to his CV and a last pay day from a Premier league club come January.