| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 08:37 - Feb 27 with 2127 views | TGRRRSSS |
Kudos to Clive for getting the interview, fair play to TF for doing it, he does I admit come across as passionaite, but I worry about some things... I don't remember academy and youth in the past, more like Ji SUng Park, Jose Bosingwa etc etc....
I do want TF and co to succeed but I still have fears... but I can see some signs of learning, ironically from Charlie Austin a bit and seeing young up and coming players as a chance to grow the club in a better way... Smithies Washington and the Burton lad for instance...
I agree on SM stuff but I do think he needs to rethink how he uses it but think thats a point many of us and him will differ on... |  | |  |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 08:46 - Feb 27 with 2115 views | derbyhoop |
He does come across as naive and a bit star struck. He did take over just as we got to the PL for the first time in 16 years and was hampered by Briatore not allowing any player investment for Warnock. Since then, it's been a fire fighting job all the way. When you're up to your neck in alligators its difficult to remember the original objective was to drain the swamp.
Mistakes have been made, expensive ones. If he'd been stronger in setting realistic targets and budgets he wouldn't have lost so much money. He thought he'd got good managers but they didn't work.FFP is making us think first, act later. I do believe we have a stronger team now with Hoos, Les and JFH, but we'll have to see.
The plus side of TF is that he is open. His use of social media to communicate is part of that and he clearly isn't going to stop. But, checking with Ian Taylor before tweeting is no bad thing. You cannot use 140 characters for a nuanced point of view, so don't try. People need to accept it for what it is.
@derbyhoop [Post edited 27 Feb 2016 8:48]
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| "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 11:08 - Feb 27 with 2035 views | SimonJames |
I look at Burnley and Hull, sitting at the top of the Championship. Both kept their managers when they were relegated, both have gone about their business without a lot of fuss, publicity and social media. And I just can't help feeling that all TF has achieved in most of the last 4 years is masterclass in deck chair rearrangement.
Hopefully, he finally has people in place that can do a decent job and are willing to make a stand against his flights of fancy. |  |
| 100% of people who drink water will die. |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 12:46 - Feb 27 with 1990 views | Neil_SI |
I think there's a lot of convenience attached to his answers, with after the fact excuses and in many ways re-writing history and what actually happened. His answers are fraught with contradictions and tell tale signs of what the reality really is. There's a lot of passing the buck here.
He says the previous owners didn't buy a lot of players, so he had to. That's the first sign of a problem, because it was that wave of players in Neil Warnock's period that crippled the club and set it back many years. We've still not got rid of everybody from that disastrous spree and we didn't need wholesale changes, just strengthening in a few key areas. He lacked the football nous to understand that.
He then goes on to blame the managers, namely Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp for the buying culture that followed the one he had already started. On one hand, he claims he argued about Jose Bosingwa and Rio Ferdinand, but on the other, talks about Harry not being keen on Charlie Austin, who was on Ruben's "list" (as well as Danny Ings), so that contradicts Fernandes' narrative. They clearly have an input on who they want to sign throughout all the new QPR era's they've been through.
Why would Fernandes have argued about signing Bosingwa prior to his arrival? Why not so many others, like Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton, Bobby Zamora and more? It's only because Bosingwa was the pantomime villain that he can come out and say that now. Because otherwise he'd have applied that argument to the majority of the players he signed since he's been here.
Let's not forget that Bosingwa, an expensive club asset, was left to hung out and dry by Redknapp. He destroyed a club asset and turned an entire fanbase on the player who the club still had to pay £65K per week to and who had years remaining on his contract. That itself was a sackable offence, but with no pride or standards imposed, you're left with players and staff doing and behaving as they please. It shows a lack of leadership, standards and direction from above. That's where the problem is.
Fernandes says he argued many, many times, but then follows up by saying who is he to question an experienced manager. So did you or didn't you? And let's say he did, the end result shows a lack of strength of character, a lack of vision and coherent plan and a willingness to do whatever the latest fad, buzzword or impressive sounding chat from the next person is. Another new plan, another lesson learned, another new QPR.
Fernandes claimed he backed the managers and it was them who wanted to sign all of these players, but that's not reality. Are we expected to believe they came up with Yun Suk-Young as well? On one hand he blames them, and on the other, in the case of Austin, Fernandes and Ruben want to take the credit because Redknapp wasn't keen on him.
Did Hughes decide he wanted a massive fanfare at a specially held event in London to announce the arrival of Ji-Sun Park? Of course not.
That Fernandes feels he has to pump players up and try to motivate them, also says a lot. An owner shouldn't have to do things like that. An owner shouldn't have to publicly show favouritism to specific players either, by naming youngsters or players like Luongo as "the future". It's not setting the right tone or example, it's not supposed to be about individual players, it's supposed to be about the club as a whole, the club as an institution that's greater than any individual. This approach gives players an opportunity to slack off or given that he's so stupid with his praise, a chance for them to ask for more money that may not be warranted or deserved.
His pumping them up failed miserably, clearly.
He needs to distance himself from those players. It worries me that he's still so starstruck and in awe of them, and you can tell that's the case when some of his best memories from Wembley include "being carried around by Joey Barton" and "hugging Charlie Austin". That's what he's aspiring to, being able to rub shoulders with stars.
There were many people who laughed and scoffed at the idea of the timelines he gave for a new training ground (2016) and a new stadium (2018). But now, it's the fans who don't understand how long these things take. Frankly that's taking the piss out of us.
The public footpath issue at the training ground isn't a new thing either, it's been going on for a long time. But if I were the Chairman, and I cared, I'd want to get involved personally. I'd have gone and met Car Giant myself to discuss matters regarding the stadium, and I'd have met with opposition groups to the training ground with regards to their development concerns. QPR could become a key part of that local community and it has to prove it's genuinely interested in being a central figure in it rather than just a big bully that thinks it can do as it pleases.
What it all boils down to is this: in the football world, we judge players and managers, and there are those we think are good and those we don't. That's how you need to judge Fernandes: is he any good at the job?
The answer is no, he's actually rubbish and not very good at all. That's what it boils down to, because if he was a manager or a player, you'd be asking for him to be sacked or out of the side and sold. Comparatively he'd be worse than current pantomime villains Karl Henry, Daniel Tozser or Paul Konchesky. He'd also be worse than Bosingwa, Bob Malcolm, Hughes, Redknapp, Ramsey and others too.
I'm afraid he's just not made for or suited to football, or even sport.
There's a continued bipolar nature to this man, which for me, says lessons haven't been learned and I'm doubtful he's capable of learning enough to change.
I don't see any sign of strong leadership here, or an understanding of history, culture and tradition. I don't see a firm vision or coherent plan other than continued short term crisis management in search of what the answer might be. I see no understanding of imposing standards across the club as a whole and it saddens me to have to say that, still, after all this time. |  | | |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 13:51 - Feb 27 with 1941 views | isawqpratwcity |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 12:46 - Feb 27 by Neil_SI |
I think there's a lot of convenience attached to his answers, with after the fact excuses and in many ways re-writing history and what actually happened. His answers are fraught with contradictions and tell tale signs of what the reality really is. There's a lot of passing the buck here.
He says the previous owners didn't buy a lot of players, so he had to. That's the first sign of a problem, because it was that wave of players in Neil Warnock's period that crippled the club and set it back many years. We've still not got rid of everybody from that disastrous spree and we didn't need wholesale changes, just strengthening in a few key areas. He lacked the football nous to understand that.
He then goes on to blame the managers, namely Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp for the buying culture that followed the one he had already started. On one hand, he claims he argued about Jose Bosingwa and Rio Ferdinand, but on the other, talks about Harry not being keen on Charlie Austin, who was on Ruben's "list" (as well as Danny Ings), so that contradicts Fernandes' narrative. They clearly have an input on who they want to sign throughout all the new QPR era's they've been through.
Why would Fernandes have argued about signing Bosingwa prior to his arrival? Why not so many others, like Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton, Bobby Zamora and more? It's only because Bosingwa was the pantomime villain that he can come out and say that now. Because otherwise he'd have applied that argument to the majority of the players he signed since he's been here.
Let's not forget that Bosingwa, an expensive club asset, was left to hung out and dry by Redknapp. He destroyed a club asset and turned an entire fanbase on the player who the club still had to pay £65K per week to and who had years remaining on his contract. That itself was a sackable offence, but with no pride or standards imposed, you're left with players and staff doing and behaving as they please. It shows a lack of leadership, standards and direction from above. That's where the problem is.
Fernandes says he argued many, many times, but then follows up by saying who is he to question an experienced manager. So did you or didn't you? And let's say he did, the end result shows a lack of strength of character, a lack of vision and coherent plan and a willingness to do whatever the latest fad, buzzword or impressive sounding chat from the next person is. Another new plan, another lesson learned, another new QPR.
Fernandes claimed he backed the managers and it was them who wanted to sign all of these players, but that's not reality. Are we expected to believe they came up with Yun Suk-Young as well? On one hand he blames them, and on the other, in the case of Austin, Fernandes and Ruben want to take the credit because Redknapp wasn't keen on him.
Did Hughes decide he wanted a massive fanfare at a specially held event in London to announce the arrival of Ji-Sun Park? Of course not.
That Fernandes feels he has to pump players up and try to motivate them, also says a lot. An owner shouldn't have to do things like that. An owner shouldn't have to publicly show favouritism to specific players either, by naming youngsters or players like Luongo as "the future". It's not setting the right tone or example, it's not supposed to be about individual players, it's supposed to be about the club as a whole, the club as an institution that's greater than any individual. This approach gives players an opportunity to slack off or given that he's so stupid with his praise, a chance for them to ask for more money that may not be warranted or deserved.
His pumping them up failed miserably, clearly.
He needs to distance himself from those players. It worries me that he's still so starstruck and in awe of them, and you can tell that's the case when some of his best memories from Wembley include "being carried around by Joey Barton" and "hugging Charlie Austin". That's what he's aspiring to, being able to rub shoulders with stars.
There were many people who laughed and scoffed at the idea of the timelines he gave for a new training ground (2016) and a new stadium (2018). But now, it's the fans who don't understand how long these things take. Frankly that's taking the piss out of us.
The public footpath issue at the training ground isn't a new thing either, it's been going on for a long time. But if I were the Chairman, and I cared, I'd want to get involved personally. I'd have gone and met Car Giant myself to discuss matters regarding the stadium, and I'd have met with opposition groups to the training ground with regards to their development concerns. QPR could become a key part of that local community and it has to prove it's genuinely interested in being a central figure in it rather than just a big bully that thinks it can do as it pleases.
What it all boils down to is this: in the football world, we judge players and managers, and there are those we think are good and those we don't. That's how you need to judge Fernandes: is he any good at the job?
The answer is no, he's actually rubbish and not very good at all. That's what it boils down to, because if he was a manager or a player, you'd be asking for him to be sacked or out of the side and sold. Comparatively he'd be worse than current pantomime villains Karl Henry, Daniel Tozser or Paul Konchesky. He'd also be worse than Bosingwa, Bob Malcolm, Hughes, Redknapp, Ramsey and others too.
I'm afraid he's just not made for or suited to football, or even sport.
There's a continued bipolar nature to this man, which for me, says lessons haven't been learned and I'm doubtful he's capable of learning enough to change.
I don't see any sign of strong leadership here, or an understanding of history, culture and tradition. I don't see a firm vision or coherent plan other than continued short term crisis management in search of what the answer might be. I see no understanding of imposing standards across the club as a whole and it saddens me to have to say that, still, after all this time. |
Wow. You really don't like him.
Did he argue with HR and MH or not? I don't know and I don't care. It's not important.
Did he choose players to buy? Almost certainly not, except for maybe Ji Sung Park and possibly Yun Suk Young.
Did he back his managers' stupid, ill-considered requests for players out of his own pocket way beyond any prudent limit? Yes he did.
Is he everything we want in an owner? No, maybe not even close.
Is he likely to be better than the next bloke to buy the club? I don't know, but I suspect the answer to be more likely to be yes to get upset about his continued presence here.
We now have a much better management structure here and a lot of your complaints are now largely the responsibilities of LF and LH. I say cut the bloke some more slack and hope he stays off twitter. |  |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 14:11 - Feb 27 with 1925 views | Neil_SI |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 13:51 - Feb 27 by isawqpratwcity |
Wow. You really don't like him.
Did he argue with HR and MH or not? I don't know and I don't care. It's not important.
Did he choose players to buy? Almost certainly not, except for maybe Ji Sung Park and possibly Yun Suk Young.
Did he back his managers' stupid, ill-considered requests for players out of his own pocket way beyond any prudent limit? Yes he did.
Is he everything we want in an owner? No, maybe not even close.
Is he likely to be better than the next bloke to buy the club? I don't know, but I suspect the answer to be more likely to be yes to get upset about his continued presence here.
We now have a much better management structure here and a lot of your complaints are now largely the responsibilities of LF and LH. I say cut the bloke some more slack and hope he stays off twitter. |
I think he's a really nice man, I just don't think he's very good at the job and to be fair, he's had half a decade of people cutting him some slack. It's nothing personal for me, I just want to see the best for the club and the clubs best interests looked after first.
Think it's good he's done an interview like this, and I genuinely believe he would deliver on an affordable ticket scheme at a new stadium. That would be something worth chasing from his point of view if it was to come to fruition, because that would resonate really well with everybody. As I said before, if he ran the club with respect and care, he'd do fine and secure his legacy with tangible assets that the club owns, like a training ground and so on. But I'm not convinced that's his focus. | | | |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 14:21 - Feb 27 with 1912 views | isawqpratwcity |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 14:11 - Feb 27 by Neil_SI |
I think he's a really nice man, I just don't think he's very good at the job and to be fair, he's had half a decade of people cutting him some slack. It's nothing personal for me, I just want to see the best for the club and the clubs best interests looked after first.
Think it's good he's done an interview like this, and I genuinely believe he would deliver on an affordable ticket scheme at a new stadium. That would be something worth chasing from his point of view if it was to come to fruition, because that would resonate really well with everybody. As I said before, if he ran the club with respect and care, he'd do fine and secure his legacy with tangible assets that the club owns, like a training ground and so on. But I'm not convinced that's his focus. |
Fair enough. I think your criticisms of his part in the training ground and new stadium development are reasonable, and I think those are good areas for him to pursue his 'legacy' in. But as for the day-to-day running of the club and any 140 character messages for the troops, he's better off well out of it. Leave it to his able team of LF and LH and his much lower profile co-chairman.
But I definitely have no wish to see him exit the club.
Enjoy the game. [Post edited 27 Feb 2016 14:26]
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 18:10 - Feb 27 with 1855 views | VancouverHoop |
"Fernandes says he argued many, many times, but then follows up by saying who is he to question an experienced manager. So did you or didn't you? And let's say he did, the end result shows a lack of strength of character, a lack of vision and coherent plan and a willingness to do whatever the latest fad, buzzword or impressive sounding chat from the next person is. Another new plan, another lesson learned, another new QPR."
This.
It's this 'Mr Toad' side of his character that's his undoing. Every new toy, every shiny new idea, just because it sounds good and he can afford it – or has been able to until recently. I too think he's a genuinely nice guy but, sadly, that's not the prime requirement in running a football club. He reminds me of an inexperienced teacher who tries to be friends with his students in order to succeed. Do that and you risk losing both their respect, and that of your colleagues.
As it stands I suspect TF's viewed as a something of a joke among other club execs, which is a pity, for him and the club. LF, Hoos and JFH however, aren't. Hiring them is his most positive decision yet (if it was his decision.) He has to step into shadows and let them become the professional faces of the club. However I'm concerned his personality just won't let him do that. He really wants love and recognition, from players, fans and from the game itself. |  | | |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 21:44 - Feb 27 with 1799 views | PunteR |
I think Neil is spot on.
[Post edited 28 Feb 2016 0:07]
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| Occasional providers of half decent House music. |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 01:56 - Feb 28 with 1744 views | Ingham |
I think the point about trusting the judgement of the people around you made by qprphil is worth considering. Sometimes the Club's support seems to be divided on this as on so many other issues.
When we have people of genius off the field and performers of brilliance on it, we'll notice. There is no need to trust what they tell us. They certainly don't. They make sure they get paid whether they succeed or not. The day they put their money where their mouth is and are paid only when they win - because THEY believe in it - is the day we can trust them.
If their money depended on the success we're supposed to trust them to bring, why, what a lot of hard-nosed realism we'd get then, wouldn't we? There would be no rush - in the boardroom - to talk about Champions League, world class talent, and 45,000 capacity - if they were HELD to it.
If the authorities fined the people at the Club (personally, not on QPR's tab), say £20 million for each reference to the Club being debt-free, for each reference to QPR in the Champions League, and so on.
They wouldn't be telling us what a great bunch of people they had around them then, and how much they trusted the manager. If the authorities made them put a figure on it, and put it down as a deposit, so the Club wouldn't be out of pocket when it turned out that the manager was, once again, unable to cope with a Club run by people like them.
If managers were paid whenever we won, because THEY trusted THEIR OWN judgement, that would be different, QPR could afford to take the risk. As it is, if things go the way they usually do, they'll all be gone, still wealthy, while QPR can't even make a small profit, no matter how much Premier League money and parachute payments is swilling around.
This is a sport where even the biggest Clubs are failures most of the time. For a Club like QPR, just one of a huge number of wannabes of more or less the same size and level of achievement, it makes far more sense to tell us that it is vanishingly unlikely that any expedient - short of sheer genius and sheer brilliance - will make very much difference. Success, even under Gregory, and such as it was, was brief. No sooner had we a good squad with a good manager than the manager was gone, the squad was falling apart, and we were dropping down the table again.
Sure, we can achieve far more than Leicester are managing this season. We can dominate the English game. It is possible. But any Club can. IF it has the required geniuses off the pitch and the required brilliance on it. And we won't need the Chairman to tell us. We can see all we need to know. Dazzling performances, unparalleled success, we'll spot that at once - I feel sure of it.
If Fernandes had been here 10 years, won 8 Premier League titles and 5 Champions League, and said 'I'm rubbish, I have no idea, I've made no difference at all', there would be reason not to believe him. He must have been doing SOMETHING RIGHT we would say. Because no other Chairman got anywhere near achieving what he achieved. Even if his technique was only 'masterly inactivity'. Whatever it was, we'd say, it WORKS.
So why is it so wrong, when things haven't gone well, to suggest he hasn't a clue? It WOULD be perverse to deny he didn't know what he was doing in the face of obvious success. So why does it make so much sense to suppose he does in the face of obvious failure?
QPR is run like a homeowner who has a leaky tap. We don't get Chairmen on the basis that they have a track record of plugging leaks, which is what we need. We don't even get Chairmen with the sense to turn the stopcock off to prevent further damage!
What we get are people who ask us to feel sorry for them because they have to run a Club that is underwater.
And even if someone does have the nous to hire a plumber, rather than merely another boardroom member who has OPINIONS about plumbers, merely stopping the leak won't transform anything else about the Club, any more than it will repair the long term flood damage.
We do the opinions. We have plenty of them, and we don't harm the Club by doing so.
It is often said that we're lucky to have TF. If we're so lucky when the Club has done so badly, what if he had done well? Would that make us unlucky? It is often said that when he embarks on a course of action, he's damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't, but that isn't usually what people say of professionals, people with talent, a track record, or relevant qualifications. If they're hired to do the job, by people who know who is capable of doing the job, and they do it, then it isn't a question of damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
That only applies to people who don't have any idea what to do, so - indeed - they ARE damned if they do and damned if they don't, because they don't know how to make anything work. Of course, TF and the boys may all come good in the end.
Great. And when they do, then we'll know, and then we praise them for what they've achieved. Rather than try to guess how good they're going to be, and pretend we know how much praise to heap upon them for their future achievements.
It might be reasonable for the wannabe critics to wait until we know a manager or a chairman is really making a pig's ear of it. But if that is so, it is also reasonable for their wannabe admirers as well. If it is too early to judge, it's isn't only too early to run them down, it's also too early to big them up.
JFH seems to be getting results. But it's early days. Not just for the critics, but for the admirers. And he must get results. If he doesn't, he's gone, as most, if not all, of the managers we've had who've done well have been. Especially managers who've done well, we might say. Stock, Jago, Sexton, Venables, Holloway and Warnock were all gone within barely a season of their most significant achievement at the Club, for one reason or another.
TF hasn't demonstrated faith in any manager through a long period of adversity yet. I think the supporters would back a manager who was able to show us that we were constantly improving, even if it was only very gradually.
But it is much easier to persuade people you're good if you achieve spectacularly good results almost from the off. Jim Gregory did. People like Clough and Taylor, Ramsey, Revie, Shankly and Paisley (once they were able to sign a couple of players), Jock Stein too, I think.
Slight improvements may well go unnoticed, especially if they have little impact on results, because there are so many other factors to take into consideration.
Compared to the managers he has sacked in quick succession, TF gets off lightly. He's still there, year in, year out. But, of course, it doesn't do his reputation any good, because he's stuck with the consequences of his own decisions.
Perhaps he should have sacked himself, and kept Hughes, so Hughes's reputation, rather than his own, would have been damaged by living with the consequences of his own mistakes.
Instead, he let Hughes go, Hughes made a new beginning at Stoke, free and clear of whatever damage Hughes left behind at QPR, and he appears to be doing all right.
His record was okay before, too. Like Redknapp's, not THAT great. But not that bad either. So it may be that the problem lies in the boardroom, where the more unsuccessful QPR became, the bigger the big talk became. With Thompson, we were glad we didn't have to sell the ground. With Wright, we were going to be financial big shots. Instead, we just lost money hand over fist. Thompson took us down, Wright took us down again. The bigger our losses, the more absurd the PR. From the Wright dream, we went to Champions League, according to Briatore, and according to Bhatia.
There doesn't seem to be any engagement with the reality of the game. They're happy to tell us that the Club just doesn't generate the money to compete, but they don't develop the football side based on the limitations they're quick to point out when it suits them.
Instead, they're bragging that we're debt-free when we aren't, that we're signing quality when we weren't, that we need a huge ground when we don't, that we're Champions League when we're not even in the top flight.
Boasts, excuses, promises, and the failure to deliver on any of them. That's why so many supporters don't believe TF. Not that it is just him. The supporters didn't believe most of his predecessors either, once we'd had a chance to see if their punching power matched up to the scale of their pretensions.
And the supporters were proved right. It's the same rule for him as for JFH. Win. And admiration - not to mention astonishment - will be forthcoming at once. If we have to persuade ourselves - or be persuaded by a Chairman - that not winning means the same thing, no-one will be fooled.
Maybe TF doesn't know what to do. He could set about finding out, of course, but when has any of our Chairmen ever done that. Arrived as a novice, and spent a decade or more just learning the game? We wouldn't be impressed with lawyers who didn't know the law, or milkmen who didn't know how to deliver the milk.
If Chairmen don't know, why don't they find out? And if it is a hard game to learn, and we can't expect them to admit that, as it implies possible failure, then it is up to us to point out where things are likely to go wrong.
It's what they're supposed to do, but they don't seem to do it. And the supporters have always been the last ditch defence against the pretensions of Chairmen, as Gregory and Bulstrode and Marler and Wright found out when they clashed with the fans about mergers and groundsharing and all the other last refuges of the incompetent.
TF will be judged by his results. In that sense, football is an easy game. Just win, just be brilliant, and just keep doing it.
If that is impossible, they might try being more honest. They have nothing to lose because incompetence is obvious at once in an environment as abrasive as football. | | | |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 22:38 - Feb 28 with 1566 views | CiderwithRsie |
Very, very good posts from Neil_SI and Ingham.
The one thing you have to say about Tony Fernandes is that, frighteningly, we could do a lot worse. We've just played a side where the owner is in jail for money laundering. Sepp Blatter was in charge of FIFA for decades. This is a sport - and, astonishingly, an industry - where being a crook or just plain clueless is pretty much the norm for the people at the top, with competence gradually seeping in as you get lower down the hierarchy. The most successful owners are ones who have bottomless pits of money to waste, and not one of them have acquired the money by being successful business men - you have to either inherit control of the most valuable commodity on earth, or have a once in lifetime opportunity to rip off the population of an ex-superpower, or use smoke and mirrors to get your hands on a football club which is already a licence to print money. | | | |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 10:19 - Feb 29 with 1491 views | Mvpeter |
Very good posts from Neil_SI and Ingham. Shocked to see it met with 'oh you really don't like him' | |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 10:26 - Feb 29 with 1489 views | ElHoop |
It's not just Fernandes though is it? The owners since, well Thompson I suppose, have been pretty useless. When I first started supporting QPR the youth set up was amazing if the results and league tables and conversion rate to first team was anything to go by. That's been eroded over time and Fernandes inherited nothing at all by way of a youth set up. I'm not sure that he's improved it much if results and conversion rates are anything to go by, but we live in hope that there's something going on now.
The other thing that has affected his era is how he started and then the summer after we survived in the PL. The Faurlin affair presumably meant that there were no plans for promotion at the end of that promotion season and the old board were presumably planning to sell if we went up, so we didn't have a plan at all for identifying signings and approaching them. By the time that the Faurlin saga had ended and the club sold, there was little or no time to sign anybody apart from the 'leftovers' and we signed too many of those. As a result we struggled and Warnock was sacked and although we stayed up we seemed to be on the back foot. The transfer policy that summer after we stayed up was the one that killed us I think. We'd probably have survived if we'd got that right, despite the 'leftovers' signed the previous autumn. Was it Fernandes or Hughes who set out the policy that summer? It struck me that it was a cashflow decision - we went for players out of contract looking for wages rather than signings on transfer fees. A 'pay as you go' approach perhaps. But there didn't seem to be any relegation clauses so I think that a lot of this wasn't down to Hughes but to Fernandes himself. Hughes seems to be able to hold his own in the PL with a strong hands on and capable chairman above him. For me that was the turning point in our fortunes and Fernandes had a PL team which had survived the first season and he had the chance to get it right from then on, and he didn't. Redknapp just carried on where Hughes left off and we went down. I'm not convinced that anyone else is more to blame for that than Fernandes is. Sure other people made mistakes, but I reckon that he made the most. [Post edited 29 Feb 2016 10:28]
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 12:11 - Feb 29 with 1446 views | Kensal_Ranger |
I really don't understand why we should over analyse the interview, for which thanks Clive, almost to the point where, if TF was reading this could be inclined to say 'Stuff this', and walk.
We all want the truth, and transparency, and the best for QPR but, personally, not to the extent of ruination for our club. Several posters have said this before and I support the view - TF is a loose cannon but the best we can do for our club is not to make him the main event, or even a sideshow. Support the CEO, the DoF, the Coach and all the rest trying to make this club better respected, ignore the wild tweets and focus on the big picture.
Please. |  | | |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 12:56 - Feb 29 with 1423 views | simmo |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 13:51 - Feb 27 by isawqpratwcity |
Wow. You really don't like him.
Did he argue with HR and MH or not? I don't know and I don't care. It's not important.
Did he choose players to buy? Almost certainly not, except for maybe Ji Sung Park and possibly Yun Suk Young.
Did he back his managers' stupid, ill-considered requests for players out of his own pocket way beyond any prudent limit? Yes he did.
Is he everything we want in an owner? No, maybe not even close.
Is he likely to be better than the next bloke to buy the club? I don't know, but I suspect the answer to be more likely to be yes to get upset about his continued presence here.
We now have a much better management structure here and a lot of your complaints are now largely the responsibilities of LF and LH. I say cut the bloke some more slack and hope he stays off twitter. |
"a lot of your complaints are now largely the responsibilities of LF and LH"
Are they? Because that posts seems to highlight Fernandes contradictions - of which there are many. A lot of the grievances are based on things that happened before LF and LH were even here. |  |
| ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 13:41 - Feb 29 with 1402 views | qprphil |
Lets just get on with what we have. We may have been in a bigger mess than what we are now. We also may have been better off. It is what it is, we have a club, a ground, supporters, maybe and I say maybe, we are going in the right direction. There are few supporters around, that are totally happy with what is going on at there club. | | | |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 13:56 - Feb 29 with 1398 views | isawqpratwcity |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 12:56 - Feb 29 by simmo |
"a lot of your complaints are now largely the responsibilities of LF and LH"
Are they? Because that posts seems to highlight Fernandes contradictions - of which there are many. A lot of the grievances are based on things that happened before LF and LH were even here. |
You misunderstand me Simmo. I didn't mean LF and LH are to blame for anything attributed to TF. I meant that the roles that TF was being criticised for failing at are now divested from him and given to LF and LH. This is a much more satisfactory situation.
In LF we have somebody who knows much more about football and players than Fernandes and in LH we have somebody who knows much more about running a football club as a business than either Fernandes or Beard. | |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 14:09 - Feb 29 with 1386 views | simmo |
| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 13:56 - Feb 29 by isawqpratwcity |
You misunderstand me Simmo. I didn't mean LF and LH are to blame for anything attributed to TF. I meant that the roles that TF was being criticised for failing at are now divested from him and given to LF and LH. This is a much more satisfactory situation.
In LF we have somebody who knows much more about football and players than Fernandes and in LH we have somebody who knows much more about running a football club as a business than either Fernandes or Beard. |
Ah OK, yeah - I agree. If Fernandes deserves credit for anything it's FINALLY placing people that know what they're doing in positions of power and influence. Ferdinand is a little more of a gamble in that respect but his genuine affinity with the club balances his lack of DoF experience so I am happy with that.
What Fernandes needs to do now after finally putting the right type of people in place is take a MASSIVE step back from everything and not undermine them with bullshit social media comments, talk about individuals or letting his fellow board members present and discuss 'lists' like it's their place to do so. He's not there to be mates with famous footballers, he's there to put the right people in place and support them to get on with their jobs. | |
| ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead |
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| Tweets, training grounds and tickets - Tony Fernandes interview on 20:14 - Feb 29 with 1279 views | DylanP |
Great interview -- My favourite pice:
"So are we completely debt free now? There was a loan from Barclays…
TF: The loan from Barclays is about £17m and will be paid off during next season.
And that is literally the only debt the club has at this point?
TF: Correct."
Thanks for nailing that down. |  |
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