| Thought's on this from Les on 18:06 - Oct 13 with 2541 views | E17hoop |
The comment in the episode about selling players when we were doing well is really interesting. He would have been slaughtered if that had happened but the additional spending and signings is what has hamstrung us now. |  |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 18:11 - Oct 13 with 2522 views | BrianMcCarthy |
| Thought's on this from Les on 16:54 - Oct 13 by Hayesender |
That's the BBC editing I'm afraid Brian. The only bit I typed is in the title bar |
Agreed, Hayes, but your own typed line says
"Les Ferdinand says director of football role criticism was because of colour"
and the article says:
"Some of the criticism that came was because of my colour," he said.
"I always say to people, 'If I was a bad director of football, it wasn't because of my colour. It was just, I was a bad director of football. If I was a good one, it wasn't going to be because of my colour. It was because of my abilities.'" |  |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 18:23 - Oct 13 with 2456 views | dmm |
The last quote from Les was interesting: He said if he could change anything about his role "it would be having the plan and sticking to the plan rather than changing the plan".
Shines a little light into recent years at QPR, although nothing we didn't know really. |  | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 18:47 - Oct 13 with 2398 views | mart_Goblin |
My initial reaction was ‘no it’s because you produced nothing in 10 years except Eze ‘.
But, I and those who were on Twitter over the years (I am no longer) would have seen that certain fans called Les out for hiring JFH , Furlong, Hall, Ramsey, Impey etc.
I read comments about “jobs for the boys” and “jobs for the brothers” which made my stomach turn. From then on there were a small portion of fans who criticised him primarily because of his colour rather than what he was actually achieving/ not achieving.
Headline is slightly misleading and ultimately, to people with half a brain he had to go and maybe should have gone sooner and the colour of his bloody skin is irrelevant.
But if you deny the bigotry isn’t there at all from a minority, then you are deliberately burying your head in the sand. |  | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 19:07 - Oct 13 with 2338 views | Hayesender |
| Thought's on this from Les on 18:11 - Oct 13 by BrianMcCarthy |
Agreed, Hayes, but your own typed line says
"Les Ferdinand says director of football role criticism was because of colour"
and the article says:
"Some of the criticism that came was because of my colour," he said.
"I always say to people, 'If I was a bad director of football, it wasn't because of my colour. It was just, I was a bad director of football. If I was a good one, it wasn't going to be because of my colour. It was because of my abilities.'" |
Nope, that line just popped up when I shared the link |  |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 19:10 - Oct 13 with 2328 views | Hayesender |
| Thought's on this from Les on 18:11 - Oct 13 by BrianMcCarthy |
Agreed, Hayes, but your own typed line says
"Les Ferdinand says director of football role criticism was because of colour"
and the article says:
"Some of the criticism that came was because of my colour," he said.
"I always say to people, 'If I was a bad director of football, it wasn't because of my colour. It was just, I was a bad director of football. If I was a good one, it wasn't going to be because of my colour. It was because of my abilities.'" |
Just clicked on the link again to prove I wasn't going mad, and it's the headline of the actual article Brian | |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 19:15 - Oct 13 with 2308 views | PlanetHonneywood |
Eight years, £200-250k per year and I'm sure we could and should have got someone better. |  |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 19:17 - Oct 13 with 2296 views | DejR_vu |
| Thought's on this from Les on 18:23 - Oct 13 by dmm |
The last quote from Les was interesting: He said if he could change anything about his role "it would be having the plan and sticking to the plan rather than changing the plan".
Shines a little light into recent years at QPR, although nothing we didn't know really. |
Well, a decent DoF wouldn't have stood for it because he/she wouldn't allow themselves to be undermined. When the sands first started to shift he should have stood his ground, or resigned, otherwise what was the point of him being there? If you're appointed to direct football operations because the owners had made such a hash of it and are under pressure, to allow them to carry on would be to provide a smokescreen for their continued ineptitude, no?
Football club aside, from a personal point of view, why would anyone allow their reputation to be tarnished by carrying the can for decisions being made by owners who have shown time and time again that they are clueless?
If he was making the decisions, he should be embarrassed. If the owners were making the decisions he should be embarrassed and ashamed.
So predictable. |  |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 19:43 - Oct 13 with 2237 views | GaryBannister86 |
I don't get this "unqualified" business. How many qualified Director of Football people are there? What's the qualification? Les had - proper legend status, international caps, coaching experience, wide experience of football generally. And a profile.
Warburton apparently is super qualified because? I love Warbs, but I don't see how he is any more qualified than Les.
And I agree with Les and some posters here - any criticism of him I found pretty uncomfortable and all that nonsense of "his mates" "PE teachers" and all that crap embarrassing and one-eyed. Hall, Ramsey and Impey are extremely well qualified in my opinion and a darn more so than "legend" hoofman Ainsworth and super "Dobbo". Doesn't he speak well, Dobbo, though? Oooh.... |  | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 19:58 - Oct 13 with 2208 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| Thought's on this from Les on 18:23 - Oct 13 by dmm |
The last quote from Les was interesting: He said if he could change anything about his role "it would be having the plan and sticking to the plan rather than changing the plan".
Shines a little light into recent years at QPR, although nothing we didn't know really. |
While I agree with him about that he should have stuck with the plan, we can’t be this shit in 2023 because of Johansen and Austin signing in 2021 surely! |  | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 20:08 - Oct 13 with 2183 views | ChrisNW6 |
I wanted him to stay but his position was pretty much untenable once GA came in and he had lost the majority of the fans support. I also found it difficult when some of fan base jumped on Les's support of the Rooney rule and stance on diversity/inclusion. Some of the illeducted comments were disturbing. Another bug bear are posters who viewed his entire 8yrs a total failure, that definitely wasn't the way I saw it. I thought he'd done the job he was brought in to do and 6yrs in he'd been a success. | | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 20:28 - Oct 13 with 2112 views | DejR_vu |
| Thought's on this from Les on 19:43 - Oct 13 by GaryBannister86 |
I don't get this "unqualified" business. How many qualified Director of Football people are there? What's the qualification? Les had - proper legend status, international caps, coaching experience, wide experience of football generally. And a profile.
Warburton apparently is super qualified because? I love Warbs, but I don't see how he is any more qualified than Les.
And I agree with Les and some posters here - any criticism of him I found pretty uncomfortable and all that nonsense of "his mates" "PE teachers" and all that crap embarrassing and one-eyed. Hall, Ramsey and Impey are extremely well qualified in my opinion and a darn more so than "legend" hoofman Ainsworth and super "Dobbo". Doesn't he speak well, Dobbo, though? Oooh.... |
On the "unqualified", surely you go and get some experience somewhere smaller and move up.
If Sainsbury's appointed their best Checkout supervisor to CEO or CFO, eyebrows would rightly be raised. Senior employees or Board members work their way up, do a good job, and get promoted. They do a job well, get a promotion, move to a smaller company in a more senior position, then move to a bigger company in a senior position.
LF went from some sort of coach at Tottenham to a very senior position, overseeing the core activity, at a Premier League club, seemingly because he was once a great striker. He should have started at a smaller club, lower down the leagues, or, heaven forbid, abroad, done a good job and the moved up. I accept it wasn't his fault that he was offered the job, but it was his fault that he hung around for years being bad at it.
Perhaps LF needs to take some responsibility and consider whether, perhaps, he was lucky to get the job in the first place, and lucky to keep it for as long as he did. | |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 20:36 - Oct 13 with 2082 views | OldPedro |
| Thought's on this from Les on 20:28 - Oct 13 by DejR_vu |
On the "unqualified", surely you go and get some experience somewhere smaller and move up.
If Sainsbury's appointed their best Checkout supervisor to CEO or CFO, eyebrows would rightly be raised. Senior employees or Board members work their way up, do a good job, and get promoted. They do a job well, get a promotion, move to a smaller company in a more senior position, then move to a bigger company in a senior position.
LF went from some sort of coach at Tottenham to a very senior position, overseeing the core activity, at a Premier League club, seemingly because he was once a great striker. He should have started at a smaller club, lower down the leagues, or, heaven forbid, abroad, done a good job and the moved up. I accept it wasn't his fault that he was offered the job, but it was his fault that he hung around for years being bad at it.
Perhaps LF needs to take some responsibility and consider whether, perhaps, he was lucky to get the job in the first place, and lucky to keep it for as long as he did. |
Football doesn't necessarily seem to operate in the same way as other industries and businesses. Look at Pep Guardiola - retired then became manager of Barcelona B for one season. That was his only managerial experience before he took over as Barcelona's head coach and the rest is history. |  |
| Extra mature cheddar......a simple cheese for a simple man |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 20:43 - Oct 13 with 2068 views | Hoopsie |
| Thought's on this from Les on 18:47 - Oct 13 by mart_Goblin |
My initial reaction was ‘no it’s because you produced nothing in 10 years except Eze ‘.
But, I and those who were on Twitter over the years (I am no longer) would have seen that certain fans called Les out for hiring JFH , Furlong, Hall, Ramsey, Impey etc.
I read comments about “jobs for the boys” and “jobs for the brothers” which made my stomach turn. From then on there were a small portion of fans who criticised him primarily because of his colour rather than what he was actually achieving/ not achieving.
Headline is slightly misleading and ultimately, to people with half a brain he had to go and maybe should have gone sooner and the colour of his bloody skin is irrelevant.
But if you deny the bigotry isn’t there at all from a minority, then you are deliberately burying your head in the sand. |
On an aside, JFH has said that the biggest regret the job he shouldn’t have taken up was QPR |  |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 20:48 - Oct 13 with 2049 views | DejR_vu |
| Thought's on this from Les on 20:36 - Oct 13 by OldPedro |
Football doesn't necessarily seem to operate in the same way as other industries and businesses. Look at Pep Guardiola - retired then became manager of Barcelona B for one season. That was his only managerial experience before he took over as Barcelona's head coach and the rest is history. |
Even if we were to agree on your first sentence, which I'm not entirely convinced is true in this context, do you think Guardiola would have survived eight years if he had performed at the same level as Ferdinand? If, on the other hand, Ferdinand had performed at Guardiola's level, I highly doubt he would feel the need to be doing these sorts of interviews. | |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 21:01 - Oct 13 with 2019 views | ChrisNW6 |
| Thought's on this from Les on 20:48 - Oct 13 by DejR_vu |
Even if we were to agree on your first sentence, which I'm not entirely convinced is true in this context, do you think Guardiola would have survived eight years if he had performed at the same level as Ferdinand? If, on the other hand, Ferdinand had performed at Guardiola's level, I highly doubt he would feel the need to be doing these sorts of interviews. |
Ferdinand survived 8yrs as he was doing a good job for majority of his tenure. I know you will not agree but that's the way I saw it. | | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 21:12 - Oct 13 with 1992 views | Wegerles_Stairs |
| Thought's on this from Les on 17:10 - Oct 13 by Antti_Heinola |
Ah, you mean an isolated opportunity for one person. Right.
Everything is fine then.
The amount of times people seem to wilfully misrepresent Les must be profoiundly irritating for him. |
I didn't say everything was fine but this is about Les and what he has said in this interview. He literally says he did not stick with the plan - and this guy was our DoF for eight years? Jesus wept. | | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 21:14 - Oct 13 with 1987 views | Wegerles_Stairs |
| Thought's on this from Les on 20:28 - Oct 13 by DejR_vu |
On the "unqualified", surely you go and get some experience somewhere smaller and move up.
If Sainsbury's appointed their best Checkout supervisor to CEO or CFO, eyebrows would rightly be raised. Senior employees or Board members work their way up, do a good job, and get promoted. They do a job well, get a promotion, move to a smaller company in a more senior position, then move to a bigger company in a senior position.
LF went from some sort of coach at Tottenham to a very senior position, overseeing the core activity, at a Premier League club, seemingly because he was once a great striker. He should have started at a smaller club, lower down the leagues, or, heaven forbid, abroad, done a good job and the moved up. I accept it wasn't his fault that he was offered the job, but it was his fault that he hung around for years being bad at it.
Perhaps LF needs to take some responsibility and consider whether, perhaps, he was lucky to get the job in the first place, and lucky to keep it for as long as he did. |
100% agree. | | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 21:33 - Oct 13 with 1956 views | ThGrimRanger |
image Les feels frustrated that he’s been given an opportunity at QPR to break down barriers and perceptions and then it’s not worked out.
it does feel harsh however that as a club QPR and fan base cops the criticism and accusations of racism when many clubs aren’t giving those opportunities in the first place |  |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 21:46 - Oct 13 with 1917 views | OldPedro |
| Thought's on this from Les on 20:48 - Oct 13 by DejR_vu |
Even if we were to agree on your first sentence, which I'm not entirely convinced is true in this context, do you think Guardiola would have survived eight years if he had performed at the same level as Ferdinand? If, on the other hand, Ferdinand had performed at Guardiola's level, I highly doubt he would feel the need to be doing these sorts of interviews. |
Your initial point was that LF lacked experience (which is true). I was just pointing out that in football, some people often get appointed to jobs for which they have little or no experience, Guardiola is just one example. | |
| Extra mature cheddar......a simple cheese for a simple man |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 22:28 - Oct 13 with 1815 views | PunteR |
BS thread.
Usual suspects coming out to play. Probably out of boredom. |  |
| Occasional providers of half decent House music. |
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| Thought's on this from Les on 01:19 - Oct 14 with 1684 views | SydneyRs |
Much of the criticism more recently was deserved, less so before that. And he's partly right, it happened more quickly because of his colour, you only have to look at the number of "jobs for the boys" type posts on social media to know it was a big factor for some. | | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 04:43 - Oct 14 with 1626 views | numptydumpty |
Awkward thread and some nasty responses.
Journalist headlines are generally often not what the story is about but they sensationalise one aspect of the piece so people read it.
Les is a decent hard working man who did a pretty decent job in often challenging circumstances.
We have stabilised in the championship and to be fair, that us QPR s level, we have had a few seasons where we have overachieved and a few where we have scraped by.
To be honest, it's fantastic that QPR have been leading the way with diversity in their employees and some have had great opportunities that they could not have got elsewhere even though their skills warranted this.
Look for instance what Sheffield Wednesday did to Darren Moore was released after getting them promotion and now they sacked his replacement. Tell me that's a decision not based with race ever so slightly tinging a very odd decision And karma has thrown that one back.
Les worked hard for our club. Some things he got right and some things he didn't.
He goes with my thanks and he was also honourable enough to know when it was time to go. Not everyone does that.
Ainsworth probably knows his time is up, but I doubt he will resign. But yes also i do agree with some that perhaps it would work if Ramsey moved on. And am saying that just purely based on the lack of players making the step up from youth being very limited. As Les knew himself it was time to give someone else a chance, be they black brown, yellow or pink with white spots !!!
Yes some feel need to be abusive for a variety of reasons, quite often it's based on the amount of money all staff at club get, players, administators, coaches, managers. But it's just the going rates for the football industry.
Les is and always will be a club legend.
And also he did the best he could for the club in a challenging role. He certainly wasn't just doing it for the money. We had some good years and he himself realised that it was time to step down.
Hopefully taking a well deserved rest.
The club has not appointed a new D o F and things not exactly gone well since.
He goes with my blessing and certainly many others I would hope.
Yes there will always be a few racists around but this club has proven with their appointments to be forward thinking giving opportunities to diverse backgrounds of people, some have worked, some haven't, obviously in a similar vein to many others that been employed and released.
But thankfully we not on the level of a Sheffield Wednesday sacking a manager who was a success and then almost instantly selecting someone who was clearly way worse. If anyone tells me that decision wasn't based on race then am all ears but there clearly is still a lot football in general has to do, to appoint people in managerial roles of different ethnicities.
We could do a lot worse than appoint Darren Moore than Ainsworth imo.
Les knew his time was up but I think a lot of people criticised more based on what exactly they felt were all Les did or didn't do.
My own view point a lot of criticism for the Do F role whoever us doing it, is tough because it has never been spelt out in everyday language what the role entails.
We just have never known the responsibilities that a D o F has.
Perhaps when a new one is appointed eventually it would help if this could be explained by a club statement.
That would make most sense to me.
Les got flak for every wrong doing in the club from some based on ignorance of his role more than the colour of his skin.
But yes there will be some that sadly there will always be a racist element to their words.
So maybe our esteemed leader on here, Mr Clive or any others in the know of the remit of a Director of Football and then the criticism or praise can be meted out.
For me, it seems what roles and responsibilities of a Director of Football has, can be very sketchy and incredibly variable and some clubs, its almost a completely different role than at others. [Post edited 14 Oct 2023 4:49]
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| Thought's on this from Les on 06:13 - Oct 14 with 1596 views | Wilkinswatercarrier |
| Thought's on this from Les on 19:17 - Oct 13 by DejR_vu |
Well, a decent DoF wouldn't have stood for it because he/she wouldn't allow themselves to be undermined. When the sands first started to shift he should have stood his ground, or resigned, otherwise what was the point of him being there? If you're appointed to direct football operations because the owners had made such a hash of it and are under pressure, to allow them to carry on would be to provide a smokescreen for their continued ineptitude, no?
Football club aside, from a personal point of view, why would anyone allow their reputation to be tarnished by carrying the can for decisions being made by owners who have shown time and time again that they are clueless?
If he was making the decisions, he should be embarrassed. If the owners were making the decisions he should be embarrassed and ashamed.
So predictable. |
In fairness to Les the only option open to him was to resign, as you said in your opening sentance. It must have been deeply frustrating for him to watch a club he loves, make a right balls up of everything due to our useless owners.
The biggest problem with QPR are the owners. Not Les, GA, Holloway or the many other former loyal players who have been chewed up and spat out. Given jobs, but with one hand tied behind their backs; no budgets, overuled, job interference, plans changed, it goes on and on.....
Add up the playing careers and managerial careers (or DoF) of these guys and see the years they have clocked up for our basket case of a club. It's a stain on our club.
The sooner we, the fans, get the owners out, the better. Playing golf while the club burns speaks a thousand words as to where their priorities are now.
Meanwhile, we squabble on here as to whether Les was a crap DoF because he was black. Please.
Having looked at the poll regarding the ages of us on here, I can only hope the younger fans get organised a kick off at the owners at the ground. It might waken a few of us up. | | | |
| Thought's on this from Les on 06:31 - Oct 14 with 1590 views | Northolt_Rs |
Nothing to do with his colour….he was just a really shít DOF and we will pay the price for that for years to come. Look at the state of the club today! That’s his legacy from the last 8 years. Great player, terrible DOF. It will be interesting to see who the next club will be that offers him a DOF role. |  |
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