Following harsh criticism of chairman Tony Fernandes from journalist Paul Smith at the weekend, and the chairman’s recent appearance on London Call In, Neil Dejyothin gives his opinion on QPR’s Malaysian owner.
Tony Fernandes’ recent statements haven given a lot of food for thought and pointers, so I wanted to share some of my thoughts about his comments on London Call-In last week.
I want stability more than anything
I wanted it with Neil Warnock and Mark Hughes so it is third time lucky with Harry and I think he is the man.
I really hoped this was true, but actions speak louder than words, especially when you’ve publicly backed Neil Warnock and Mark Hughes to the hilt and then fired them long before the finish line.
I am worried he thinks Harry Redknapp is the man too, though I suppose he has to say that at this point. Redknapp can only ever be a short term solution for QPR because of both his age and his pedigree.
Redknapp to date has only had eyes for the first team. He is not even interested in the plans for a new training ground and that’s because he probably knows that whenever that arrives, he’s not going to be around. There’s nothing wrong with that either, but that’s why everything points to his time here being short term, whether he is successful or not.
I think Redknapp and his back room staff are excellent, but personally I would have no problem if he decided he wanted to leave at the end of the season, simply because it gives us a chance to rebuild properly and address the bigger picture. The club need to start working towards the medium to long term future and ensure there is a club wide vision for football matters that focus on the footballing culture and philosophy.
We understand each other well and he knows how committed the shareholders are. He has a great coaching staff and philosophy – he’s a fantastic man and I would love to keep him as long as he wants to stay.
This statement concerns me because we have a typical situation where both parties are playing mind games and being noncommittal. On one hand, you have Redknapp saying it’s up to the board what they want to do, as he’s stated both at the fans forum back in February and more recently in the press, and on the other hand, you have the chairman saying he’d love to keep Redknapp as long as he wants to stay.
This is jostling for public perception with the press and fans, so if it turns sour and Redknapp does go, each man can point to their story to create an illusion of being pushed, shoved or abandoned. It’s also about money too – if Redknapp walks on his own accord, he likely won’t be entitled to a pay off, but if he’s let go, then he likely will be, and we all know that money talks in football.
We will have to sit down with Harry and discuss who we want to keep and who would go
The above statements are followed by this one, which illustrates so many things to me. The use of the word “will” means this can only happen if Redknapp stays, which we already know is not clear either way, and it sounds like the club themselves are not ready or prepared for the future, and do not have a contingency plan in place for what they’re going to do with the squad, which they should already have regardless of what division they’re in. It’s all very short term.
Obviously there will be players that will go regardless of if we stay up or go down. We want players who can give a lot to the club for a long time. I do see players going, but I think we do have the nucleus of a good squad now which we have had to rebuild.
This is the closest we’ve got to an admission of really making a mess with the transfer strategy employed by the club since Fernandes arrived, but I would like to see the football matters being discussed by football men.
I do agree that the squad needs some surgery though, with or without relegation. It has been criminal that we’ve had so many players on the books to the point that there has been nearly seven or eight players unregistered at certain points in time, because of the 25 man squad rule. It’s staggering that we’ve been in this situation for the best part of two seasons and I’m not sure I’ve seen any other Club in such a predicament since the incarnation of those squad rules.
When you combine that with the fact that we’ve not developed any Under 21 players to fill in the gaps, when plenty of sides in the division have two, three, four or five that can make their respective teams’ first elevens…well, need I say more?
Every single player who has left QPR has not stayed in the Premier League and I think that shows how much rebuilding we had to do. There will be players going but I don’t think there will be a mass exodus as we try to keep a nucleus together and build on that.
This is the one statement that I really dislike and find so disrespectful to those players who served the club and is not clever because you should never talk about players in this way, especially when they were your own. This nonsense is something Fernandes picked up from Mark Hughes and Mark Bowen, who both made similar claims in interviews when things were tough for them.
Come on, let’s face it, at this rate nobody staying at QPR will be playing in the Premier League next season either, and if we are relegated, we’ll be taking so many down to a level they’ve never experienced in their careers before. I hope not, but you still shouldn’t say things like that.
It’s also worth remembering that during Warnock’s time in the Premier League with us, we were playing some of the best football in the division outside of the top four or five teams, and at one point we were in eighth place in the table. But like I said, it would be better to let the football men do the football talking.
We need every player to play to his best. Obviously key players have made key mistakes at key times and that has let us down over the last two losses. We just need all eleven players on the pitch to put in their best.
It is a tough old game. You can do everything right but then there are eleven players, sometimes the referee; all kinds of things come into play. I’m an old fashioned guy and if you keep doing the right things a good will turn right and the smiles will come back.
I sound like I’m repeating myself, but you know what I’m going to say – let the football men do the football talking. It is never smart to talk about needing every player to give their best and mistakes in the same breath, you are not going to endear yourselves to them in this way and it’s the wrong message to convey, especially as it’s just another short term message based over two matches. This isn’t about those two games, it’s about the entire 18 months and how the club has been run, and the consistently poor performances or results in that period of time. If you’re going to do that, do it privately.
Over the years, Newcastle have been down there, Manchester United have been down there and West Ham have been down there. Many clubs have gone down – it’s not the end of the world.
We will come back stronger, it’s not obviously what we wanted but a lot of good work has been done over in these last two-years and that good work will continue for a long time into the future of this club.
This really isn’t the point, the point is the club have demonstrated a lack of a strategy and plan, or if we have, it’s been a bloody poor one. It should have always included the possibility and risk of relegation, and the sackings of Warnock and Hughes proved that the club dismissed the idea of relegation as an acceptable outcome, when in actual fact the reality of the situation is that it should have been expected as a serious possibility at this stage in our lifecycle and with mitigating plans in place in the event it happened.
A contingency plan would include everything from financial planning to squad development and we’ve done pretty poorly on both counts. Then there is the history of the club and to say that it isn’t the end of the world, when just 12 years ago QPR went into administration because of similar problems to the above, is a smack in the face to supporters and those desperate for Rangers to learn from their mistakes. It’s just so disappointing that when we’ve had the chance to spend money and invest wisely to improve the long term health and future of the club – we’ve not done it. It’s been all about the glitz, glamour and image at the expense of doing things properly and doing things right.
There have been so many examples that we could have learned from: West Bromwich Albion were a yoyo club until they stabilised; Stoke City and Fulham have built themselves up slowly over the years, to the newcomers, Swansea City and Norwich City who have both survived and evolved. All of them have a philosophy and vision in place, and their player and staff recruitment policy matches with their model, and they have a contingency in place so when players or staff leave right the way from the youth teams to the seniors they already know their next targets and why they’re after them. And just look at Southampton and how they’ve flown through the divisions based on their vision. Where is ours? What is ours?
If Reading are relegated, they are already in a solid position to return. They’ve a settled team that know one another, haven’t spent huge sums of money and will not have as many players in a huff and wanting to leave for a higher standard of football. Nor will they have any problems shifting players, as they haven’t gone crazy and saddled themselves with players earning vast sums of money. Aston Villa, if they go down, have lots of young and hungry players, plenty of whom will have gained an awful lot of experience from this season and who have knowledge of what the Championship is all about. With one of two additions, they are in a decent position to kick on, regardless of what division they are in.
When it comes to football matters, we are being trounced by all of these football clubs and none of them have the resources we have at our disposal.
But there is so much to be upbeat about at QPR. We have a new training ground on the way and we have come a long, long way from two-years ago.
Actions speak louder than words and we’re already a year late on the initial plan. Rather than powder puff statements – can Fernandes and the board tell us exactly where we’re at with planning consent for the new training ground and what’s the actual status? When will the first spade be put into the ground and work begin on the site?
The future is bright. I know that might sound rather weird sitting one place from the bottom of the Premier League. I still think we have enough to get over the line but if we don’t then trust us. We have kept our word so far in the past one-and-a-half years and we will continue to do our best for QPR.
I really hope so Tony, but remember, actions do speak louder than words and there has been a lot of contradiction between those two things in the past 18 months, but so long as we learn from our mistakes and show we’re doing something about it, that’s all that matters. I remain worried and concerned, but good luck and all the best.
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