Resolutions and revolutions, one year on — preview Tuesday, 31st Dec 2013 19:33 by Clive Whittingham As QPR prepare to welcome Doncaster Rovers to Loftus Road on New Year’s Day, LFW looks back 12 months at the unhappy situation surrounding the club at the end of 2012 and charts the progress since. Queens Park Rangers (4th) v Doncaster Rovers (21st)Old First Division, Old Old Second Division >>> Wednesday January 1, 2014 >>> Loftus Road, London, W12 >>> Kick off 15.00 It’s the time of year when doing this job can be a bit of a ball ache. One match after another requiring reports and previews that, relatively speaking compared to the rest of the year, nobody reads when really I’d rather be out on the lash with an extensive network of (shut up you) friends who have put up with me this long. It’s usually at this point that I vow to make it the last season of LFW and look forward to jacking it all in during the summer, before realising that it’s been going so long and getting so much traffic that the meagre revenue the adverts from it generate has become quite important to my ongoing quest to continue watching QPR every week, eat twice a day and buy too much chunky knitwear. Safe to say, site isn’t going anywhere any time soon. The Christmas and New Year period in 2012 was particularly tough as QPR were seemingly on a quest to embarrass themselves at every turn. A pre-Christmas home win against Fulham was the first of the season at the seventeenth attempt — club and league record — but had been followed with a trip to Newcastle that several players, Julio Cesar chief amongst them, didn’t fancy in such cold weather and so close to the holiday season so came up with spurious injuries to avoid it. Throw in a 3-0 demolition by Liverpool at Loftus Road where the R’s were out of the game at half time and having to make defensive substitutions just to hold their losing position to three goals and it’s perhaps not hard to understand why I cracked. A lot of the content of that http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/19005/suarez-inspir match report and the subsequent http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/19024/resolutions-a preview for the Chelsea away game remains an embarrassment and a source of regret. I had personal issues with the club at the time that shouldn’t have been brought onto a site that at least tries to run itself in a semi-professional manner and having done so I quickly found that it dropped a number of people lower down the food chain at Loftus Road right in the sticky stuff at a time of year they could well have done without it. Still, a subsequent fans forum at Loftus Road showed that I wasn’t the only one nursing personal grievances with QPR — LFW was my forum to give them a bit of a blast, and that night at Loftus Road several supporters stood up with very specific complaints about failed school visits or moved season tickets. It wasn’t a club that was communicating properly with its supporters, or functioning very well at all on and off the pitch. So at the risk of raking over old graves I thought it would be interesting to dredge up the New Year’s resolutions I suggested for QPR ahead of that Chelsea game and see what sort of progress has been made in the meantime. - Implement a wage structure. To have Jose Bosingwa at QPR on £65,000 a week, more than any of the Tottenham players that Harry Redknapp had under his charge previously, is astonishing. A strictly adhered to wage cap is required immediately — both for the financial security of a club with an 18,000 capacity stadium that’s about to go into the Championship, and for the harmony of the squad which has clearly become split between the haves and have nots. If that wage cap means a player is unaffordable then don’t sign him — he’s probably not the sort of player that’s going to be a good fit for QPR anyway. Hmmmm. QPR appear to have become more sensible — but that’s relative to their previous behaviour rather than the way other clubs conduct themselves. Shorter contracts are now offered, and the board balked at Harry Redknapp’s attempts to sign Wayne Bridge in the summer given his age and wage — shrewd move looking at his injury record since he moved to Reading instead. But QPR have still added players this season — Charlie Austin and Matt Phillips for two — on transfer fees and wages far in excess of anything any other Championship side could afford. - Appoint a technical director. Somebody with experience of the game and clubs of a similar size, independent of the manager, to properly oversee the vast amounts of work that need to be done at QPR over a long period of time. Nope. Rangers remain totally at the mercy of whoever the manager is at the time for their football direction and knowledge. Many of the long term problems and infrastructure issues remain and Harry Redknapp’s notoriously short term view of football isn’t going to help greatly with that. - Stop talking yourself up. If you’re great, people will say lovely things about you of their own volition. If you’re dreadful, the Comical Ali routine makes you look stupid to the wider footballing world, and annoys the support base. Communicate with the support base. Stop mistaking communication with supporters as Tweeting interview clips from players acknowledging how dreadful they are and how much better they’re going to be. Stop referring to supporters as “haters” when they respond to that sort of dirge with criticism. It’s wonderful that Tony Fernandes is so accessible via social media, but again that is not proper communication with the supporters. A fans forum every six months would be an easy place to start. QPR’s communication through the official website, social media and meetings with supporters has improved three million percent over the past 12 months. The way the club’s media team uses Twitter and YouTube is not only a vast improvement on how it was a year ago, but is also a good deal better than most other clubs in the country — fine achievement considering the size of the team at Loftus Road compared to other clubs. The Comical Ali routine has been abandoned and QPR are no longer the first ones to come out and say how brilliant QPR are. There’s a much more humble, professional approach to the whole thing which is to be welcomed. In the last year regular fans forums, meetings with the supporter groups, and informal meetings between the media team and the various unofficial websites and podcasts have been initiated and had a positive effect. - Stop trying to solve every problem by signing a new player. If you’re bringing in five or more players in every transfer window then you’re not doing it right. Coach the players you have, work on their weaknesses, don’t be so quick to cast them aside. If you get to the end of the transfer window and you have half a dozen senior professional players who aren’t even in the 25 man squad then, again, you’re doing it wrong. There needs to be a change in mindset among supporters on this one as well: stop saying that everything will be fine once we’ve signed yet another player. Turn Sky Sports News off and stop getting all moist over the transfer window because the last three of them have actually been bloody awful for QPR — we’re safer when the damn thing is shut. Hmmmm. Yes. - Sign players for specific positions with a team and a system in mind. Always spend money with the mindset that the position then won’t need to be addressed again for three or four years. Do not sign players you don’t actually need simply because they’re a big name, or even because they’re a wonderful player and the opportunity is too good to turn down — the Cesar and Granero signings haven’t exactly proved to be runaway successes have they? Harry Redknapp deserves great credit for the way he quickly reshaped a squad in free fall during the summer. I was surprised that Julio Cesar was the only one of the big earners we failed to shift, I expected a lot more to be hanging around — although admittedly a number only left on loan deals, but that was inevitable. A solid team has been shaped that has stopped the rot and prevented a Wolves-style free fall which looked a distinct possibility. The problem the side has had has mainly been in attack, where a substantial amount of the wage bill is tied up in Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora, neither of whom are fit enough to contribute regularly. It’s left Rangers reliant on Charlie Austin and they’re paying the price for that now during a quick blast of Christmas fixtures. This season really should have been one of consolidation and rebuilding ahead of a proper push for promotion next season. The financial situation at the club, the amount of television money available now in the top flight, the wishes of the chairman, Harry Redknapp and the start the team made to the season make that a bit of a fantasy now — QPR will no doubt sign more players and push on for the top flight for better or worse. They’ll probably arrive there undercooked and requiring major surgery once again. If we were still seeing this as a season of consolidation and rebuilding, then it’s been a tremendous success so far. - Scout players carefully and perform due diligence on them so you know what you’re getting and where they’re going to fit into the team. As a general rule, if QPR are signing a player everybody has heard of then it’s probably not going to be a good signing for them. Stop signing players over 30, stop signing players for whom QPR is a step down and/or the smallest club they’ve ever played for. Look for players with points to prove, with potential, with future sell on value. Rangers are still signing ageing players with zero sell on value — Richard Dunne, Gary O’Neil etc — but it’s been done with a ship-steadying brief in mind. The purchases of Charlie Austin and Matt Phillips were expensive, but have proved excellent additions at a really good age. It will be interesting to see how this “right sort” rhetoric stands up to a losing run — it’s very easy to all be friends when you’re winning every week, and that Assou-Ekotto v Austin spat in the Leicester game didn’t bode well — but so far so good. Slightly disheartening to see Rangers still turning to the likes of Javier Chevanton, Yossi Benayoun and Oguchi Onyewu as stop-gaps to cover injuries rather than promoting from within. - Practice set pieces — both attacking and defending. At the moment QPR very rarely visit the opposition penalty box, so when they do get there it’s important to make it count. To pass up the opportunity to put six or seven players in there and deliver a reasonable cross to them as often as Rangers do from their corners and free kicks is not acceptable. At the other end, given that the experts on our game make out that you could basically train a group of monkeys to defend set pieces and any goal conceded from them is a crime, perhaps the R’s might like to do a spot of work on that side of the game as well. See Watford match report. - Learn to take throw ins. If you had a right full back who conceded possession every single time he received the ball to his feet he would quickly be dropped, it would not be tolerated — so why is it acceptable for QPR’s to give the ball away within two touches of every single throw in they’re awarded simply because they’re using their hands? They do it every time without fail. Every single throw in is back with the opposition within two touches. See Watford match report. - Without fans, there is no club. It is completely out of order for the club to be charging season ticket holders £28.50 to go to this Saturday’s game with West Brom, so soon after paying £60 at Chelsea and shelling out for numerous other matches over Christmas all of which were dreadful. The £3.50 booking fee is scandalous anyway. Supporters are very easy to lose, and very hard to win back. Going to the football is a habit and once out of it people often find they don’t miss it. The West Brom match should be a tenner all in (if that) by way of a reward for the faith people continue to show and an apology for what has happened this season. Charging £28.50 each is scandalous, shameful and shows a total lack of awareness of the support base and what it’s thinking. A free coach to Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day was a decent, overdue gesture. The club seem to be getting how important the supporters are — although a cynic would suggest that has only happened once the Premier League television money has been taken away from them and will quickly be abandoned again should it return. The season ticket and matchday prices for this campaign were sensibly reduced following the relegation, and again that owed much to the consultation with supporters previously mentioned. The original plans at the back end of last season were substantially different and would have been deeply unpopular by all accounts. - Know your history. David Bardsley, born in Manchester originally and somebody who turned out for half a dozen different clubs in his career, loved his time at QPR so much that when he set up a youth coaching academy in Florida he named it after the club and turns the teams out for their matches in blue and white hoops. Bardsley wants to affiliate this academy with QPR officially, and bring his best prospects to Rangers once a year for them to have first pick from, but says nobody at the club has returned his calls on the matter. Similar stories about total lack of acknowledgement have been told in the past by Dave Thomas and others. This is not only an easy PR opportunity, but it’s the right and proper thing to do for players who gave their best for this club when the money was poor and the medical treatment for injuries sustained in a far more physical sport didn’t stretch much further than a bucket of water and an old cloth. Reunions on the pitch for the 1982 cup final team and the 2004 promotion winning side suggest the club is moving in the right direction, and the reaction from the supporters to those two events should have highlighted the value and importance to them. A recent Guardian article on Alec Stock slated the club’s work in this area though and there is lots more that can and should be done. - Walk a mile in our shoes. Have somebody ring the box office every now and again to see what it’s actually like when that call goes through to a Ticketmaster call centre in Manchester — a call centre that 50% of the time won’t actually be able to help you with your query and advise you to call the box office, which you do only to then be put back through to Ticketmaster. Sit in the home ends at the big matches and see how pleasant it is to find yourself parked next to some Liverpool fan from Wimbledon Common wearing his red shirt and celebrating the goals with a ticket he bought from Viagogo. Ideally, tell Ticketmaster, Viagogo and Lotto to kindly fuck off — all three of them are doing a lousy job for Queens Park Rangers supporters. Lotto are gone at the end of the season. TicketMaster, sadly, remain and are just as incompetent as ever. The QPR box office staff are unfailingly brilliant and cannot do enough for you but when your phone diverts through to the lobotomised gibbons in that Manchester call centre you’ve had it, and there is no way of circumnavigating the drones other than waiting a few hours and trying again. The Viagogo problem has vanished, but then it was always going to in the lower division and will immediately become an issue again if the club reaches the Premier League. - Spend some money on a website development team. The official website is a window on the club for the world, and a first port of call for information for supporters, but the new design is awful, doesn’t work on most mobiles, and is often impossible to navigate. Some of the QPR Player features are really excellent, but they’re hard to find on the site and behind a pay wall in any case. How much is that subscription making for the club? Why not use it as a marketing tool and make it available for free on YouTube? Substantial money has been spent by QPR — who appealed to the other league clubs to help split the cost and received no offers — to make the official website better. It’s still lousy, but it’s a lot better than the others that run from the same platform. Again, the effort is to be applauded. ****** Of course after that mental meltdown, Rangers promptly went and won at Stamford Bridge. A thumping good win against Doncaster tomorrow won’t have quite the same effect, but it would be a much needed boost all the same. As ever, Happy New Year everybody and come on you R’s. Links >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/33686/antonio-germa >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/33684/scott-in-char >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/33687/takeover-ques Profile
On loan Arsenal striker Jay Simpson lashes home at the Loft End to beat Doncaster 2-1 back in 2010, shortly before the arrival of Neil Warnock as manager. Flavio Briatore had resigned his position as chairman of the club the night before. This WednesdayTeam News: Having fielded no striker at all for the first hour of the Watford game on Sunday, it remains to be seen what tactic Harry Redknapp employs for this home match. Andy Johnson will almost certainly start if Charlie Austin remains out with a hamstring injury. Nedum Onuoha will continue at centre half with Clint Hill battling to recover from illness to fight for the remaining spot with Richard Dunne. Doncaster, with no wins in six matches, are stretched to the limit by a series of injuries. In attack strikers Chris Brown and Billy Paynter are both out with ankle injuries and winger James Coppinger has a heel complaint. At the back Jamie McCombe and Rob Jones are both long term absentees, removing substantial height and presence from the back four, and James Husband is sidelined with a shoulder complaint. Elsewhere: Hooray. No sooner had the last lot finished, but here’s another glob of Championship goo to be spunked directly into your face by way of a hangover cure on New Year’s Day. Not quite the same as Boxing Day this is it? Everybody loves the Boxing Day match as an excuse to escape from the in laws — nobody likes a New Year’s Day match by any stretch of anybody’s imagination. Expect the atmosphere at some of these classics to be comatose. The league don’t seem that fussed either, pairing teams up based on the alphabet once again with Birmingham at home to Barnsley and Brighton taking on Bournemouth as conflict over who has the better beach returns with a vengeance. With a vengeance I say. Champions Elect Bolton host Middlesbrough. I wonder what new Udinese boss Guiseppe Sonnino will make of the quaint Yeovil setting for the Saturday evening game? Tune in live on Sky, ignoring Man Utd v Spurs on the dark side, to find out. Or don’t. I wonder what Nigel Adkins will make of the sack? Defeat for his Reaidng side against Nottingham Trees might help him find out. Sheffield Wednesday say Stuart Gray has two more matches to pitch his case for their permanent manager position, starting at home to Blackpool. What they actually mean is the only CVs they’ve had are from Goals on Sunday sofa dwellers like Peter Reidy Reid and the people they are actually interested in have stopped returning calls. In the middle of the list the Globetrotters go to inform derby whose run of 372 consecutive wins since Steve ‘Schteve’ McClaren took over has catapulted them into second place. Leeds are climbing too, and they host Blackburn, while Leicester are top and it’s their turn for a dose of plinky plonky piano music and we’ll awwwlll go daaaghn to the Den at Millwall this weekend. Ipswich v Charlton is also taking place. Apparently. Referee: Graham Scott from Oxfordshire is the man in the middle for this one. It’s the third QPR appointment of his career, but first since he took charge of the R’s 2-0 away win at Leicester at the beginning of the 2010/11 promotion season. He refereed Doncaster last year in League One — a 1-1 draw at Hartlepool when the home team’s goal was scored from the penalty spot. He’s already sent nine players off this season in just 17 games. Please http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/33684/scott-in-char here for his full list of stats and QPR case history. FormQPR: Just four wins from the last 13 matches isn’t exactly promotion form and with games coming thick and fast Rangers have moved from a point where they could have gone six points clear with a win against Leicester on December 22, to fourth place and five points off the pace at the turn of the year. Rangers have lost two and drawn two of the last five and failed to score in four of those games, including the last three. Their home record remains impressive despite a 1-0 defeat by Leicester here last time out — they’ve won eight, drawn two and lost just that one game at Loftus Road so far, and conceded just three goals in the process. You have to look down as low as nineteenth placed Charlton to find a Championship side that has scored as few as the 24 goals QPR have managed thus far this season. Doncaster: Rovers haven’t won since beating QPR at the Keepmoat Stadium in the last weekend in November. Four defeats and two draws have followed dropping Paul Dickov’s side to fourth bottom, just two points above the relegation zone. They’ve only scored twice in those six matches, with four shut outs and no goals in the last two outings. Overall away from home this season Rovers have won just once and lost six of 11 trips — the victory came at Sheffield Wednesday in September, however they were 3-1 up at Charlton when a waterlogged pitch saw the game abandoned and they lost the rearranged match 2-0. Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding says… “Well it’s been a less than entertaining Christmas period so far for the QPR faithful: two games, one point, zero goals. I’ve been involved in compiling odds for football matches for a long time now, and this week we have seen something that I have seen a number of times before: a classic Harry Redknapp 'message' to the board that he 'needs' a new player through his team selection. True, he may have had his hands tied to a certain extent but it’s a move I’ve seen a number of times before from the 'wheeler dealer'. You can guarantee a striker is on his way to W12 shortly - who that will be, remains to be seen. “The first game at the Keepmoat last month was a sign of what was to come and what we have seen over the past few games. A first half in which QPR barely stepped out of first gear against a poor Doncaster outfit, but only amassing one shot on target, resulting in a goal (that should have been avoided). Anyone watching that game could see an air of arrogance amongst the QPR ranks in which the majority of the Superhoops players knew they were superior in almost every department. Doncaster came out second half, and played to their strengths - pressing the casual and often cocky Rangers side, and turned it around for a famous win for Donny. That arrogant swagger has been far too prominent in the Rangers performances since then and without Austin, QPR look toothless. “From a betting point of view, a low scoring affair looks on the cards seeing as both teams have failed to score in four of each of their last five games. QPR are 1/3 to win the game with Doncaster a massive 11/1 to repeat their victory last month. At first glance, the 11/1 looks a massive price but when you look at Doncaster a bit closer, if you thought QPR were toothless, Donny have only scored 18 goals all season and it’s been nearly 500 minutes since a Doncaster player last found the net. QPR have been poor in recent games but it’s very difficult to see Rangers not scoring against the porous Doncaster defence. With Austin still doubtful and Krancjar continuing to play further forward and also possibly be penalty taker, the offer of 7/2 on Krancjar to score anytime at Corals is definitely overpriced.” Recommended bet: Krancjar to score at anytime — 7/2 (Corals) “Elsewhere my bet of the day comes in League One. Tranmere have a massive injury crisis spreading through their defence. Already without Ian Goodison, they now look likely to lose Liam Ridehalgh as his loan expires, Jim McNutly is currently ill and Jon Otsemobor is also injured. An unfit Tom Hateley may be rushed back to help out and all this is not ideal against a Wolves side expected to win the league. Wolves have come out of the blocks fast in recent games and have scored in the first ten minutes of each of their last three games. It may take them a little longer to break down the makeshift Tranmere defence but the 7/5 Paddy Power offer for Wolves to be leading at half time looks much too big.” Bet of the Day: Tranmere v Wolves - Wolves to lead at Half Time - 7/5 (Paddy Power) Big Price Goal scorers: Sean O Hanlon Crewe v Carlisle - 20/1 Anytime (Coral) Danny Batth - Tranmere v Wolves - 12/1 Anytime (Coral/PP) Jason Puncheon - Crystal Palace v Norwich - 5/1 Anytime (Coral) “A Happy and prosperous New Year to you all.” Prediction:Reigning Prediction League champion Mase tells us… “The first day of 2014 and the first reverse fixture of the season; it is strange how quickly sentiment can change in football. When we travelled to Doncaster last month we went as overwhelming favourites and there was a mood of genuine surprise in Paul Dickov's post-match interview that his side head managed to prevail that was matched only by a week-long outpouring of discontent on our own message boards. If this season is going to end in failure (read: not promoted) history may record the Keepmoat as the place the wheels became wobbly. “And so, we face Donny again, but this time few among the supporters are expecting us to win at a canter. I don't think this is a rational response. We have had a quickfire run of difficult games and had to do without key players for some or all of them (perhaps, on reflection, Harry is agitating for the quick fix of "a couple more in the window”). But Doncaster have struggled this season consistently and been thoroughly out gunned by many teams who have much more modest ambitions than our own this season. I see the current downturn in our results as a temporary glitch that will be remedied, and can see no reason that can't start now. We still have the players to create chances and sooner or later they will start to come good. That said, there certainly seem to be tensions in the squad -- reports of Andrew Johnson's of the cuff remarks to fans about his inclusion in the team and the on-field handbags we saw against Leicester near this out. “I'm sure of a cold January afternoon and hopeful of a good start to 2014.” Mase’s Prediction: QPR 2 Doncaster 0. First scorer, Matt Phillips LFW’s Prediction: QPR 2 Doncaster 0. First scorer, Niko Kranjcar Tweet @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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