Goodness me, it's tough being a QPR fan isn't it? You approach the start of the season with boundless hope and enthusiasm, and then look what happens. Melanie Crew laments…
In that first game against Swansea our club was shockingly unprepared for Premier League football once again, despite its raft of expensive players. Of course, at the time, lots of us were incredibly excited about Ji-Sung Park and Junior Hoilett and all those other new signings.
Back in those heady summer days there were even wild predictions of a top half finish. When a Chelsea fan at work gleefully told me that Jose Bosingwa was fairly hopeless, I refused to believe him. “What, a man who played in the Champions League final isn’t any good?” I scoffed, “you’re having a laugh, mate.” But, as it turned out, Mr Bosingwa – along with various others – came to the club to bide his time on a big fat pay check.
I know we can look back on this with the benefit of hindsight, but QPR really would have been better off signing a few ambitious players from the Championship. Look at Swansea; they’ve been doing so well (damn them) because they've made a few astute signings here and there without spending an obscene amount of money. Michu cost £2.5m. £2.5m! Sometimes, when I watch QPR, it feels like I'm observing a random collection of individuals playing entirely for themselves, with no sense of understanding between players or any kind of consistency or balance within the squad. Of course things have improved under Redknapp, with impressive clean sheets against Tottenham and Man City, but there are still many things to keep QPR fans awake at night.
On transfer deadline day, QPR signed Chris Samba; an excellent – if lavish – acquisition. Getting a decent centre back was essential given the recent departure of the wonderful Ryan Nelsen. But, worryingly, not a single striker was signed. I was rather hoping to see Peter Crouch photographed in blue and white hoops by the end of the night, but frankly any decent striker under the age of 30 would have been sufficient. With Remy injured, Zamora only fit to play about 45 minutes, and the only other natural striker being Jay bloody Bothroyd, the club is now reliant on goals from either Taarabt or Mackie. Because really, who else is going to score? I’d love to say SWP, bless him, but I fear his legendary goal at the Bridge may have been a one-off, considering it was the first time he’d hit the back of the net in 969 days (not that I’m counting or anything). I’d also love to say DJ Campbell, but he's been shipped off on loan to Blackburn in what is quite possibly the worst decision made at the club since that lovely Icelandic man Heidar Hegulson was sold to Cardiff - an upsetting day which culminated in me sobbing “but he won so many balls in the air!” into my pillow.
If you’ve got a good striker, keep them, cherish them, never let them go – don’t send them into the depths of the Championship where they’ll no doubt score week after week while you can barely muster up a draw. It’s nonsensical. Thankfully, DJ is on an emergency loan so Redknapp can haul him back pretty damn sharpish if things get even worse.
Now, I apologise in advance to those QPR fans who remain relentlessly positive (are there any of you left, you lovely but misguided people?), but I fear there will be very little to celebrate for the remainder of the season. Obviously I would love to be proved wrong (and if I am wrong, I'll buy pints and pints of beer for everyone - I promise), but it feels more likely that the following things will happen: the defence will be fairly strong, Redknapp will favour a very defensive formation, QPR will keep some clean sheets, get some draws and accumulate a few points here and there, but we won’t be watching MOTD with any great pleasure anytime soon. Why? Because the team doesn’t possess enough of a goal threat and the competition is too fierce, with Reading and Southampton picking up points all the time (damn them too, by the way).
QPR have suffered by being just a little bit too ambitious. The Four Year Plan was a success – eventually - but it’s tough to survive in such an unforgiving league. All this talk of the club being A Long Term Project is meaningless when players either can’t be bothered or simply aren’t quite good enough to play at this level. You can blame Mark Hughes for signing all the wrong players, you can blame Tony Fernandes for letting that happen, you can blame individual players for not caring enough, you can rue the countless missed opportunities and individual errors. These are things you could debate in the pub for hours. Essentially, it’s down to 11 men on the day to play with a bit of confidence and to demonstrate the same passion that’s shown by the club’s fans week after week.
Someone on the Open All Rs podcast pointed out that while QPR currently have the same number of points that Wigan had last season, the difference is that Wigan subsequently started playing Champions League standard football to stay in the league. They were incredible at the end of the season. And while I admit that QPR bizarrely discovered some amazing form against the top clubs at the end of 2011/12 (who would have predicted wins against Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal?) I’m not sure the same thing will happen again. It’s too big an ask. Yes, the board got rid of Mark “this-will-never-happen-again-while-I’m-in-charge” Hughes and yes, Harry Redknapp is an excellent manager, and yes, yes, yes, I know, QPR were unbeaten in the league in 2013 until Saturday’s ill-fated trip to South Wales – all of that is true, but a mere 17 points from 26 games is dreadful.
Sitting at the bottom of the table six points adrift; sometimes I wonder whether it would be better to slit my throat now and be done with it all. I’ve certainly heard others say they’ve had enough already; that relegation can’t come quick enough. Equally, I’m sure others will argue that we are the Pride of West London and it doesn’t matter which league we’re in because we are QPR and whatever the season, we’ll follow our team etc etc, but I don’t want to go to fucking Millwall ever again; I want to see Clint Hill overpower Fernando Torres; I want to see Adel Taarabt nutmeg John Terry – I want to see something good that we can all cheer, because aside from that glorious win at Stamford Bridge, there haven’t been many good news stories.
If QPR could have just one more season in the Premier League, one more chance (*cue the Coldplay music and slow motion video of Taarabt demonstrating the only bit of skill we've seen from anyone all season) - one more summer to prepare - then 2013/14 could finally be QPR's season to impress in the Premier League. That's if the players follow the example of Clint Hill and Shaun Derry, act like they're proud to wear the hoops, make sure they mark the opposing team all the time, not misplace passes quite so much, stay onside and score the odd goal. Is it likely that all those things will happen? Probably not. We can but dream.
Pictures – Action Images