QPR's latest limp-wristed, under-committed, unprofessional, shambolic away defeat came at West Ham on Sunday, and must surely leave manager Harry Redknapp's future in doubt.
A chill October wind, and first crisis of the season at QPR, sure signs of a long winter ahead.
Rangers have already run a full gambit of emotions less than two months into the season. Optimism from an eye-catching summer recruitment drive, relief and reassurance from a home win against Sunderland, anger and worry from meek surrenders on the road, concern that an improved performance at Southampton still brought a 2-1 defeat that could have been more severe... And then, at West Ham on Sunday, a familiar despair.
QPR held 52% of the possession against the Hammers, had as many shots on target as the hosts and a further ten off. That absolutely amazes me because from where I was sitting — admittedly in a £45 seat that was below pitch level and offered an earth-worm's eye view of proceedings — they looked pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
For chairman Tony Fernandes, a West Ham fan who could have been perched in the Upton Park director's box in very different circumstances had a cheeky bid for his boyhood club succeeded before he bought QPR instead, this must be mind-blowingly frustrating. In fact, there's no 'must be' about it, a quick glance at the Malaysian's Twitter feed today tells you everything you need to know.
QPR spend more money on wages and transfer fees, and buy more players, than the likes of Swansea, West Brom, West Ham, Sunderland, Stoke and others in the Premier League they presumably see themselves competing against and eventually overtaking. And yet those clubs consistently outperform Rangers in every department, particularly on the field of play. How and why is something Fernandes assured supporters they'd got to grips with last time they were in this league, when QPR finished dead last with just four victories all season. "Lessons learnt, never again" was the rhetoric, and the age, ability and quality of the summer signings suggested this was more than just words. Performances like this, and the chairman’s comments afterwards, show that they still haven’t got the foggiest idea what they’re doing.
This latest loss at West Ham was QPR's fifth from five away games in all competitions in which they've scored once and conceded 14 times. There was no heart to the performance, no obvious signs of ability, no shape, no passion, no tackling. QPR looked to be going through the motions. West Ham — beaten at home by Spurs, Sheffield United and Southampton already this season — won at a canter in third gear. That's being generous actually, at times they turned the engine off completely and coasted along to save fuel.
The home side scored after four minutes from a corner — the fifth time Rangers have conceded from a set piece already this season. Park teams start with their attacking and defensive set pieces. You don’t need to be a good team to defend and attack set pieces competently.
A corner from the lift by Stewart Downing flicked on by Enner Valencia at the near post with an outstretched hand, was turned into his own net at point blank range by Nedum Onuoha, making a first start of the season out of position at right back. Only Robert Green appealed for the handball — possibly because, whatever manager Harry Redknapp and Fernandes said afterwards, Valencia's hands were only raised because he'd been shoved in the back by Charlie Austin and had a goal not been scored referee Anthony Taylor would have possibly awarded a penalty instead.
Rarely can a goal on this ground have been met with such a muted reaction. Only four minutes played, but it already felt inevitable. The away end had been mostly silent before, and was mostly silent afterwards. The West Ham fans cheered with an intensity that should accompany an opening goal in a pre-season friendly against a lower league opponent. There was almost a pitying tone to it.
The second goal was equally as shambolic. Again, a set piece caused the initial problem, but the way James Tomkins — not exactly a fleet-of-foot centre half — was able to drop a shoulder to create space and then hook a ball back over the head of Rob Green and into the net via a touch from Diafra Sakho should embarrass and shame his marker, one Rio Ferdinand. Game over after an hour, although in reality it was done long before.
Ferdinand was the one summer signing that looked like the sort of mistake QPR made two years ago — old, injury prone, with all his achievements behind him, and money in the bank, with nothing to prove and nothing to work for, winding down into retirement with a final pay day. Players who come from Manchester United and Chelsea, where they're surrounded by world class players, often find it tough scrapping out points at QPR but Redknapp and Fernandes were convinced Ferdinand would be different.
QPR fans who got within earshot of the spent former England international at the weekend angrily asked for signed copies of his book, mocking his current schedule which seems to be based rather more around self-promotion, autobiography sales, and telling everybody else in the game what they should be doing with their time and lives rather than working on his own game and helping the club that currently employs him. To be honest, the QPR faithful shouldn't be complaining about his extra-curricular activities because on current form he'd be of much more benefit to the first team if he moved his book signings to clash with the matches.
Ferdinand off signing books, doing television punditry, talking about ambassadorial roles, stirring up controversy. Joey Barton saying Arsenal — who QPR still have to play twice this season — are spineless and lack character. Where's the discipline at this club? Where's the person telling them to shut up and get their own houses in order? Fernandes seems starstruck by the rich footballers and Redknapp doesn't seem arsed. "I don't go in for all that Twitter nonsense," he'll say when asked about these comments, missing the point entirely. There's a reason Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and others only started mouthing off after they finished playing. The tail wags the dog at QPR - the players do as they please, and get paid very handsomely for it.
Many would like to see Onuoha picked at centre half, and wonder why Danny Simpson was sold in the summer. Redknapp was finally asked that question at his weekly steam bath and rub down/press conference with the nation's media on Friday and dismissed both immediately, saying that he believed Onuoha would serve as cover for Mauricio Isla, who has struggled badly since a summer arrival from Juventus. No surprise therefore to see Onuoha picked at right back from the start here — not his best position, in an away game, after no action for months, he predictably struggled. Redknapp will no doubt see it as vindication. To me it looked like he hung him out to dry.
There was enough in the game for the happy clappers to cling to. Charlie Austin found space in the left channel of the penalty box in the first half but could only draw a tame save from the home keeper Adrian when he tried to cutely bend the ball around him into the far corner. In the second half he missed a better chance, firing wide with a snap shot when substitute Bobby Zamora had hammered a low cross into the near post — Zamora, slung on for Junior Hoilett at half time as Rangers tried to fight a Sam Allardyce team with direct, long-ball football. Oh how we laughed. Eventually Redknapp summoned Adel Taarabt to add some craft, but the ball wasn’t being provided to the forwards nearly enough for it to make a difference. QPR had all the tactical awareness and plan of an epileptic gnat trapped under a cup.
Adrian made the save of the game with 20 minutes remaining as Niko Kranjcar's free-kick-masterclass recorded a third, stylish entry after a foul on him by Alex Song. Sadly, 25 yard free kicks remain QPR's best hope of a goal by some distance.
So Harry, and Tony, and those who — aggressively at certain points in certain away games — believe you must be positive and only say positive things about QPR at all times have things to cling to during a two week international break. What if the first goal had been disallowed? What if the Austin chances had gone in? What if Kranjcar had scored? QPR have been reasonably good in their home games and taken four points from three fixtures, it's in W12 where salvation lies, not away from home in a difficult league.
On this evidence, they're clinging to wreckage.
QPR are lethargic. They don't tackle anybody. They don't put up any resistance. They don't hurt anybody, with or without the ball. Sandro, Harry Redknapp's star summer signing, who he'd worked with before, and came with the nickname 'Beast', currently cannot complete 90 minutes, or get near the ball, or tackle anybody. He's a powder puff. Totally unfit and irrelevant. Totally bypassed. Again, manager and chairman seem perplexed why such talented players come to QPR and immediately regress.
The answer, in my opinion, which I've voiced once or twice, is there is no plan, ethos or pride in QPR. It's an advertising vehicle for Air Asia, throwing money at a collection of individuals. The signings this summer were far better than before, but that ethos, plan and strategy just isn't there for them to fit into. Harry Redknapp said he was going to play three at the back this season, and bought accordingly, only to abandon it two games in. That’s as near to a plan as QPR have got. Rangers look rudderless.
The teams that do well in the Premier League, other than the minted Champions league regulars, are not the ones who buy nine players and spend £30m every transfer window, they're the ones with plans, and long term strategies, who only sign players and appoint managers who buy into a style of play.
Which is why Harry Redknapp’s future is largely irrelevant. Stay or go, it’s not going to make a great deal of medium or long term difference.
Redknapp looks like he's half interested - half listening, motionless on the bench, never on the touchline, rarely on the training ground. He looks bored. He was taking calls on his mobile phone in the first half here. Ordinarily a manager leaving is an unsettling time of great upheaval, but apart from removing Bondy Bond's nameplate from the car parking space what exactly would QPR have to do if Redknapp left? He's shown no interest in the youth set up, the facilities, the backroom staff, the medium or long term future of the club, or anything really other than signing players, and selling players. Those asking for stability overestimate the instability that would be created by losing four old men here for themselves, at the end of their careers.
You'd usually say that another manager would struggle coming in between transfer windows to work with somebody else's players, and that should be particularly true of the QPR squad which is populated with Redknapp signings who he's worked with multiple times before. You can place little stock in the PR-influenced quotes from new signings, but the club is at pains to say that every new arrival has come because they want to work with Harry again. Fire him, and presumably you risk them downing tools.
But, in this case, how much different would it really look if they did down tools? QPR are already jogging back into defensive positions rather than sprinting, already failing to concentrate at corners, already giving possession away lazily. Maybe Redknapp's presence is all that stands between this group of players and 6-0 defeats every week but as it stands it's hard to imagine how this team could look like it gives less of a fuck than it did at West Ham on Sunday.
Sky's studio guests Graeme Souness and Gary Neville were scathing in their remarks afterwards, showing a good deal more anger and passion about how awful QPR had been than Redknapp has done all season. Neville called it "diabolical" and ran long video clips of West Ham being allowed to stroke the ball around unopposed, or race into the wide open spaces in front of the QPR defence with hooped midfielders jogging back casually further down the field.
Redknapp says the players aren't fit, the club's pre-season tours and friendlies were a shambles, and the worst summer of preparation he's ever been involved in. At a club where Redknapp is the most senior employee with any football experience, one wonders who else is responsible for this if it's not him? "All bollocks," says Danny Simpson, a QPR player until two months ago. Quite.
But then how much different would it be under a new manager? The clubs' with the plans and strategies make left field appointments which surprise the press and bookies — Ronald Koeman, Mauricio Pochetinno, Michael Laudrup, Brendan Rodgers when he first went to Swansea . QPR don't understand why it's not working, as plainly seen by Tony Fernandes' reaction to this latest defeat, and therefore will almost certainly make the same mistake again.
Redknapp's replacement would be a flavour of the month. Tony Pulis is most people's choice, when a year ago many would have threatened to return their season tickets if he came anywhere near the club. It's likely that the job he's since done at Crystal Palace means his stock is high enough for him to wait for something better than QPR. I'd be amazed if it didn't end up being Tim Sherwood, another who a year ago wouldn't have crossed anybody's mind but now has a mediocre spell in the hotseat at Tottenham, a column in the Independent and an overactive agent on his side and is therefore likely to talk his way in.
Probably not yet. Tony Fernandes sacked Neil Warnock too soon and seems to have been stung by it. He held onto Mark Hughes too long, and his claim that he was "star struck" by Harry Redknapp when he first took over at QPR would suggest he's no intention of jettisoning his manager just yet. That quote is going to be filed alongside his claim that Hughes "interviewed us rather than the other way around" which also looked more stupid with every passing surrender.
In the end it boils down to a change of manager possibly giving QPR enough 'bounce' to stay in touch and stand half a chance of staying up. They'll be in the same situation again in 12 months if they continue to behave and run the club in the same manner, but that bounce may just be enough to keep them among the television money for another 12 months at least. Hell, sacking a manager every three months just to enjoy the potential short-term new manager syndrome is more of a plan than the club currently seems to have for forward progress.
If we're going to continue as we are, the least we could ask for is some enthusiasm from the players and management. Redknapp sat on the bench and said nothing to anybody about anything for the whole of this game as if Rangers were 5-0 down from the first leg. One goal, even five minutes from time, would have put the thing back in the balance, despite the poor performance. Where's the drive and energy from the bench? Some managers seem to know when the time is right to be on the touchline, or in the stand, or in the dug out. When to be loud and animated, when to let the players get on with it. Redknapp sits and does nothing regardless of the score or circumstance. Sometimes it's about sending a message rather than yelling one.
And the least the players could do is run, concentrate, tackle and hold positions. They're jogging around at the moment, and the manager is making excuses for them. How long can Harry Redknapp continue with this "poor fitness" line without somebody asking him what he's doing about it, or how long it's going to take them to get fit, because surely three months of Premier League football should have helped?
I think the moment that summed it up best was midway through the second half when Robert Green was awarded a free kick for a high challenge on him as he came out to claim a corner. He took the free kick himself, rolled it calmly to Enner Valencia standing six yards in front of him, and the West Ham man punted it straight back into the empty net. Green, and QPR, were saved by a little known rule that free kicks, as well as goal kicks, must clear the penalty box before they're touched when awarded inside the area. The peculiar rule, and West Ham's reaction to it, attracted the attention and discussion, but of more interest and concern, was surely what on earth Robert Green was doing with the free kick. Who was he aiming for? Who was he looking at? What was he thinking? Where was the plan? Where was the picture? It was an unfathomable piece of play.
A microcosm if ever you needed one. Heart breaking. Soul destroying.
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West Ham: Adrian 6; Jenkinson 6, Tomkins 7, Reid 7, Cresswell 7; Song 8, Zárate 7 (Nolan 76, 6), Amalfitano 6; Downing 8; Valencia 7 (Jarvis 85, -) Sakho 8
Subs not used: Jääskeläinen, Poyet, Cole, Burke, Lee
Goals: Onuoha own goal 4 (assisted Downing), Sakho 59 (assisted Tomkins)
Bookings: Tomkins 48 (foul), Cresswell 82 (foul)
QPR: Green 5; Onuoha 5, Caulker 6, Ferdinand 4, Traore 5; Henry 5, Sandro 4 (Taarabt 67, 6); Hoilett 4 (Zamora 46, 6), Fer 5, Kranjcar 6 (Mutch 78, 5); Austin 5
Subs not used: McCarthy, Isla, Dunne, Vargas
Bookings: Sandro 13 (foul), Henry 88 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Steven Caulker 6 Looks like he cares and he’s trying. Therefore, man of the match.
Referee — Anthony Taylor (Cheshire) 6 Here’s something I seem to be saying a lot — nothing to referee, because QPR were so uncompetitive, but he was ok dealing with the bits and pieces that came along. The first goal isn’t something he’ll look back on fondly.
Attendance 34,907 (2,000 QPR approx) All the atmosphere of a pre-season game. The West Ham fans knew they’d won from the first minute, and didn’t rub it in too much. The QPR fans were mostly silent. Less of the aggro than we saw at the Southampton game, a blessed relief. Stewards asking people with £45 seats below pitch level to sit down, offering a view of a concrete wall in front of them, raised noise and hackles more than anything else on the pitch.
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