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I've been working on producing this video to help surprise a Rangers fan for a little while. We found the perfect fan in Steve Williams and his son Owen. Steve's had a terrible time over the last year with getting seriously ill, almost losing his life, spending time in intensive care and then getting COVID. His son has found it incredibly tough.
Being a QPR fan myself it was something I was really passionate about, I've embedded the tweet for the short version but the real joy is the extended cut on QPR's YouTube. Charlie's amazing, his stories are amazing and to be so giving with his time is very rare.
Take a look, hopefully, you'll enjoy it as much as I did putting it together!
Two lads I work with Bradley Spencer (Middleweight) and Jack Hughes (Flyweight) are both fighting on the 3rd March - the same day we play Villa away. The fight is at the famous York Hall which can be easily accessed from Bethnal Green tube station.
If you're into your boxing please show these lads some support, boxing is a tough old game with your career only progressing if you can sell tickets. If you don't sell over a certain number come fight night you are pulled from the show but even a message on social media means the world to them.
These also aren't like your Olympians in Anthony Joshua, they are working class QPR lads that work full time around their training without any sponsors.
A bit of background on them both, they train out of State Of Mind Gym in Hammersmith. Bradley is trained by QPR fan Barry O'Connell (former coach of George Groves and Head Coach of SOM), Jack is trained by Barry's number 2 Brian Gee - another Notting Hill lad and QPR regular.
If you are on Twitter, please feel free to follow them both;
Those interested in coming along, please leave a comment on here or drop the boxers a tweet - they get their own URLs to help sell tickets so if there is two of you coming one from each would be great.
Hopefully they should be on the QPR Podcast at some point and Tony Fernandes has mentioned about helping them out but we're yet to see what that brings!
Thanks for reading up till here, hopefully the second half of the season brings us something to cheer about!
Fantastic pieces on here from Antti and Clive, couldn't agree more with both. The thing that gets me the most about the whole Ramsey-out-brigade is the 'clueless' comments.
On Saturday after the substitution, the hoards of fans off their seats screaming with such venom about how clueless he was. This is a guy that has worked in nearly every age group with England, before he came in at Spurs they had only really produced Ledley King. Now admittedly, not all of them still play for Spurs, but to see the likes of Harry Kane, Andros Townsend, Tom Carroll, Jake Livermore, Steven Caulker and Nabil Bentaleb. King and Bentaleb have both said he's one of the best coaches they've worked with in football.
Most of the players brought through are internationals now let alone club regulars. He has a masters degree, holds his UEFA pro license along with 10 other diplomas and qualifications. He was a scout for Kevin Keegan when he was England manager and he's even one of the assessors to get your pro license coaching badge - in other words he sets the test! (He failed AVB at the first time of asking).
I'm all for people having an opinion, it's what makes the game so good. But perhaps there's a way to voice opinions.
For instance Fat Dave in R block, who used to get the odd run out for the Dog and Duck and has taken Bognor to the Champions League on Football Manager, screaming in anger about Luongo coming off instead of being dropped into a holding midfield role and therefore Ramsey is out of his depth. All this fantasy football and FIFA has gone to people's heads.
Sometimes, you've got to think maybe the manager does know more. If he had taken Henry off instead and Rangers had won but conceded he would have been bollocked for that. No one, unless I'm mistaken has seen Luongo play a holding midfield role, in my eyes he isn't cut out to play in the Championship yet in that role.
Just to go back on what others have said on JET, he was released from a L1 club, blew hot and cold etc. But he also wasn't a forward, certainly not a lone striker, the change in him since the start of the year is astonishing. He's the main focal point of attacks now, he works hard off the ball, wins his fair share in the air and can drop deep or pin defenders. Nowhere near enough credit has been given for this. Before his goal on Saturday Rangers were trudging along a bit going through the motions, but not for the first time this year a moment of individual genius (Phillips v Wolves, Chery v Bolton etc) has given Rangers momentum. Not many managers in the Championship encourage attacking players to play with such flair.
Don't normally post threads, but have seen Ramsey getting absolute dogs abuse from all angles on social media so thought I'd throw my two pence in for good measure. Firstly the reaction to JET being brought off for Fer, I'm not sure what else could have been done? JET was tiring and had hardly set the world alight - he's never been an out and out striker anyway. Fer needed to come on being our most attacking option but you couldn't bring him on for one of the three attacking midfielders as they were looking fairly lively — the two wide players had come the closest to scoring and Luongo’s legs and energy gave Sheff Wednesday something else to think about as he can run in behind. To bring off Sandro or Tozser would have been suicidal bearing in mind Fer's performance and how we conceded the second against Birmingham. If he had come on for one of them and lost the ball or lost his runner and it ended up in Rangers conceding a goal and eventually losing it would have been a poisonous atmosphere. Had he been left on the bench fans would have been in uproar at the end about how we didn’t gamble. On the face of it, I can see how it looks, but Fer has got the ability at this level to play up front. He’s got a great leap, wins a lot in the air and brings others into play — he’s levels above Polter in that role and it’s not even his proper position. In my opinion there’s been a complete overreaction.
At the other end of the scale, I can’t quite get my head around the clamour for Hill. He did what was asked of him, played Nuhiu at his own game fairly well but did far more wrong than he did right. He should have been sent off when he was caught in possession by Sougou, was caned for pace when caught square by Lucas João and spent most of the second half playing aimless long balls. If Henry had put in that type of performance he would have been lynched.
Just seems Ramsey is getting hammered for anything and everything - perhaps I'm wrong but that's the way I'm seeing it.
On a more positive note, a clean sheet at last whatever way it comes is brilliant bearing in mind the form at the minute. Also Jamie Mackie doing comms was a really great gesture by the club and he seemed to offer honest and intelligent comments. Think the game last night was crying out for Mackie, it needed a tackle or something to try and get the crowd going but unfortunately it just didn't come.
I have toyed with the idea of writing this blog for a while, but never seemed to have enough time or could really be bothered with all the hassle bearing in mind some may not read it anyway. But alas, here it is.
At a time when QPR are battling to stay in the Premier League, their neighbours down the road are fighting to get in it after a whirlwind first season in the Championship. Brentford, whom have often been a joke to many in the past, are making people sit up and take notice. I’ve been convinced for a while that if Rangers were to adopt a loose version of ‘Moneyball’ they would see a huge turnaround in fortunes. I am probably wrong but if done well, it can be very beneficial to a club.
Mathew Benham, the Brentford FC chairman and supporter is a huge fan of Moneyball. The phrase was originally coined by Oakland Athletic’s Billy Beane in Major League Baseball. Beane and Oakland had a tiny budget and with this realised that by copying the methods of the bigger and better teams he and the side would never really progress as he wanted. Instead he relied heavily on a scouting network that focused on statistics and undervalued players that could be acquired very cheaply whilst selling players in their squad that they felt to be overvalued (fairly common sense I’m sure you’ll agree).
If you haven’t read Soccernomics by Kuper and Szymanski, then I’ve written out their ‘rules’ for a successful Moneyball approach. I think it makes for fascinating reading and if you haven’t read the book then I would highly recommend it. I’ve added the page numbers for those that do. Anyway, the rules are here:
1. Net wage spend is more important than net transfer spend (pp. 14-21) 2. Don’t needlessly splash out on new players or sell old ones when you take over a club — the New Manager Syndrome (pp. 21-22) 3. Don’t recruit players who impressed at international tournaments: they’re likely to be overvalued and past performance is no indication of future performance, especially when they’re playing with a different team (pp. 22-24) — there are different incentives and a different tactical set-up at tournaments, and it’s a super small sample size. 4. Some nationalities are overrated, like Holland, Brazil, and England (pp. 24-25) 5. Sell your players at the right time: when they’re around 30 years old, goalkeepers aside (p. 29) 6. Use the wisdom of crowds: ask all your scouts and a Director of Football if you have one (pp. 43-44) 7. Buy players in their early twenties, which avoids the problems with not developing properly, and means previous statistics have greater value (pp. 45-47) 8. Centre-forwards cost more than they should (p. 47) 9. Sell any player if a club offers more than they are worth and try to replace them before they are sold (pp. 48-49) 10. Don’t buy players if you don’t need to: develop a youth network and try to develop your own players (pp. 49-51)
Of course, it’s fairly hard pinpoint each and everyone one of them to Brentford, but they do make a frightening amount of sense in general.
One of Brentford’s signings last year was pacey non-league forward Andre Gray. The 23-year-old had scored 30 goals whilst still being something of a creative force for his team-mates with 8 assists in 45 games for Luton Town, before Brentford pounced to sign him for £550k (Transfermarkt). I covered Brentford in preseason and was impressed with Gray, he had all the attributes even if he was a little raw. I know he had a bit of a culture shock with the transition into full-time football, even admitting to me that he would often go home to bed after preseason training as he was so exhausted. At the age of 23, he has hit 15 goals in the league and assisted his team mates eight times. He’s quick, strong, clinical and like many of the Brentford team unselfish. I’m sure he’s worth far more than the half a million they paid for him now.
Another look at The Bees’ recruitment process shows an emphasis on young players. Last summer Warburton signed one 18-year-old, five 20-year-olds, three 21-year-olds, four players between the ages of 22 and 24, and one 27 and 28-year-old each. There was an anomaly however, Tommy Smith (35) signed on a short term deal. Whilst perhaps more experience would have held them in greater stead, the vast majority of the signings have hit the Moneyball points straight on the head. (point 7)
Depending on positon, injury history and a few other factors peak age range can differentiate but the general consensus is that it falls between 24 and 30. The majority of Brentford’s first team this year were made up of players between the ages of 20 and 24. Whilst three of the four players (Jonathan Douglas, Alan McCormack, Tommy Smith and Kevin O’Connor) that are older than the peak age range have played less than 40% of games this year. The one anomaly to this, Jonathan Douglas has been a mainstay in the side with an array of competitive and energetic performances.
So not only are they attracting young players, they are giving them game time and allow them to progress. They’re also likely to be on a vast amount of money less than their older counterparts and they can continue to develop together. When the time is right, they could be sold on for profit or kept with them all hitting their peak ages together.
When a club is run like this, it also becomes less irrelevant in comparison to other clubs of whom the manager or head coach is. Saying that however, I do really like Mark Warburton though.
He’s got a philosophy that he sticks too and always wants to play the right way. Brentford are playing teams off the park at GP this year, but even when things aren’t going right he still expects the ball to be played on the floor and berates his side if they start launching it long.
He’s very analytical, very honest and has an in-depth knowledge of European youngsters having started the NextGen series (Player of the Season Alex Pritchard first came to his attention when he played in this a few years back).
He likes to play 4-2-3-1 with two industrious midfielders protecting a back four made up with two athletic, attacking minded wing-backs and two commanding centre halves.
The lone striker doesn’t need to be good in the air and he isn’t the best, he pulls the two centre halves all over the place creating space for the three attacking midfielders — who whilst being technically gifted, have a very high work rate. The often play a counter attacking game and the keeper will be asked to drop the ball quick into the attacking third for the front four to cause havoc.
The future is very bright for Brentford, Benham and Warburton. I’m sure everyone involved is destined for the Premier League in the not too distant future even though they won’t be all at Brentford.
How it would be implemented at QPR now, I’m not sure. However, with a huge summer coming for Rangers a philosophy needs to be laid down and I’m sure there are a few Moneyball advocates that would be pushing it in the direction of W12.
Interested to hear all views as ever, I haven't read it back as I'm on lunch but apprecite there will be typos galore!
Firstly, hello! I've been looking for a QPR forum for a little while and for some reason I've been sending emails back and forth between the Fans Network team about not being able to logon.. but finally I have arrived.
To mark my arrival I wrote this on Reece Grego-Cox last night when I was feeling slightly worse for wear, it's not great but it might give those who haven't seen him some insight.
I'm on twitter too at @JordanJFoster so feel free to follow me on there... Always keen to hear everyones views on QPR.
I first noticed him on a freezing cold Tuesday night in November 2013. The QPR Under-21’s, then managed by Marc Bircham, were playing AFC Wimbledon in the Under-21 Premier League Cup. As agreed with the owner of West London Sport — David Mcintyre — if I was going to cover them, I would have to cover them properly and for every game. This meant getting two trains and buses to Woking FC’s Kingfield Stadium after a long day of pointless lectures.
Tom Hitchcock stealed the show that night, as he so often did at that level. A stunning hat-trick, one of the goals being an absolute peach. Popping the ball up in the air first-time with his chest before spinning 180 degrees and bicycle kicking the ball past the beleaguered AFC Wimbledon keeper — who had already conceded three that night. Hitchcock was hauled off with about 10 minutes remaining and replaced by a diminutive figure, who judging by his body language was a little nervous and his face was rather young.
Within minutes of coming on the big, bullish centre-half had taken a bit of the substitute when going for the ball. That was to be expected though, the defender had been embarrassed by the class and guile of Tom Hitchcock all night, he certainly wasn’t going to be made a fool by his young replacement.
A few moments later the ball was punted away from the Rangers goal and was being collected by the brute of a defender. Out of nowhere, at 100mph, the pint-size forward smashed him sending him sprawling across the floor with a fair but whole-hearted shoulder barge. I remember sitting up thinking “I like that, I like that a lot!”.
The name Reece Grego-Cox has stuck with me since then and I’ve been following his career closely. Another substitute that night was a little known right-back by the name of Darnell Furlong who replaced Samba Diakite for one of his first run-outs. The Under-21 leagues can have a lot of big egos in it, these are players that probably won’t make it, but are still paid vast amounts of money. To see a 17-year-old come in and not be phased by any of it shows you a lot about the type of man Reece is. Those that were there on Saturday would have seen Jan Vertonghen hurl abuse towards the youngster after he was nearly caught by one of his challenges. From what I know, that wouldn’t have bothered him at all. That’s his game.
For those that haven’t seen Reece Grego-Cox play, he’s a small but stocky forward and I mean really stocky. Despite being one of the youngest in league, he doesn’t look out of place at all and the physical aspect is a massive part of his game. He also happens to be lightning quick.
Last year I compared him to Wayne Rooney on Twitter in the way he played, he’s got so much energy and strength he is a nightmare for defenders. He won’t give them a moments rest and those 21 or 22-year-olds who want to just turn up and put on an impressive display for the plethora of scouts certainly don’t want to be up against Grego-Cox — he’s clincal and deadly when given the opportunity. The energy and competitiveness he plays with is very unique.
He was given far more chances to progress once Peter Skapetis left the club, remember the uproar? Well Reece, who replaced him in the Under-21’s has gone from strength to strength whilst Skapetis has done nothing of note. The club took a lot of criticism for that, but the difference between the two players is now astronomical.
I’ve watched Grego-Cox play on the wing a number of times too and he looks more than comfortable there. He isn’t just a “full effort, limited ability” player that tears around after the ball, he’s got fantastic technical ability for his age. His touch is very good and he’s got more than enough skill to give a full-back a torrid time — which he did fairly often.
It says a lot about him that he never hides on the pitch either, it can be easy for a young player to let the game pass him by but even when things aren’t going his way, he demands the ball. He always wants to make things happen and is very positive.
The only thing negative I would have would be his aggression. Or would have been his aggression. By his own admission it was something he needed to curb and over the last couple of years he certainly has done that. But you don’t want to take too much of that side out of his game, that’s what sets him apart.
Having been picked up at the age of 13 from Bedfont Sports after scoring 70 goals in one season and collecting the club’s first ever Golden Boot award, he’s impressed every coach he has played under at the club. Reece has also represented Ireland from Under-17 level and is on course to be picked for an Under-21 squad in the not too distant future. His current contract with QPR runs until 2017.
Current Under-21 boss Steve Gallen thinks there are comparisons to be made between Reece and prolific first-team forward Charlie Austin. So much so, Gallen and Grego-Cox have sat down together to study the runs Austin makes in a game so Reece can try emulate them.
“Reece is a lot like Charlie,” he said.
“They are tenacious, they cause problems for defenders and they can score goals. They won’t give you a moments rest.
“Like Charlie has done at times for the first team, Reece creates a goal out of nothing.
“Both of them play off instinct, look at Charlie’s goal at Southampton. That was instinct; he just did it without thinking.
“Reece does the same, he can win you games that you don’t deserve to win just by playing off his instinct.
He’s been looked after very well by the club and is held in extremely high-regard by the coaching staff, he’s from a brilliantly supportive family and I have often seen his parents at the games at the EDS game, which take place on the middle of a weekday.
Reece continued to be a credit to himself, family and the club when he spent the night before he was due to fly to Dubai with Jac Rush, a 17-year-old supporter who suffered a stroke recently. He gave Jac a signed ball on behalf of the club and spoke football with him at length.
He’s young and he’s raw but he’s also supremely gifted. The best thing Rangers’ fans can do is to give him time, he might need to go out on-loan next year and get some more first-team experience, he might need two years.
But say it quietly, QPR fans might have a gem in the ranks. Someone they can be properly excited about.
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