QPR return to action after the international break at Birmingham on Saturday, as the first hints of boardroom pressure on head coach Chris Ramsey start to show.
The clues have been there already in the team selections.
If this season was to be the ‘new QPR’, doing things in a different way, looking more to the future than the here and now - as was pitched during the summer - then why is Karl Henry starting in midfield ahead of Michael Doughty? Why have we loaned a 34-year-old left back in from Leicester? Why is Darnell Furlong on loan at Northampton? Why has Ben Gladwin been bombed out back to Swindon without being given a proper go in the first team here? Why is Robert Green starting ahead of Alex Smithies? Why does Reece Grego-Cox no longer even make the bench? What happened to these clear pathways and playing time for young players? So far the youngest player to make at least two league starts for the 'new QPR' is 23-year-old Grant Hall.
The answer in each individual case is 'not quite good enough', 'not quite strong enough', 'not quite experienced enough'. Paul Konchesky has, up to the Bolton game, been pretty poor but he's been caught out less than Cole Kpekawa would have been — he’s better, he’s more experienced. It's hard to believe Doughty and Furlong could possibly have played worse than Henry and James Perch have so far but Henry and Perch are experienced enough not to be completely destroyed by a long, morale-sapping loss of form playing in a leaky defence whereas younger, less experienced players may wilt permanently. Furlong will benefit from his spell in League Two, and although it hasn’t happened much this season Ramsey has at least shown some willingness to consider the younger players for selection as opposed to his predecessor.
The idea that the QPR fans would be more tolerant of youngsters learning their way in the game might have been true once, but isn't at the moment. If Furlong and Doughty had been playing in the 4-0 at Fulham, Chris Ramsey would have been castigated for going on a crusade to pick young players at the expense of results, and told in no uncertain terms to get the more senior players back in the team.
Nevertheless, the PR pitch in the summer was that there would be a period of consolidation. We would be a club that gave a chance to its own once more, and sure Kpekawa may be caught out more than Konchesky but we'd get more long-term benefit out of getting even semi-regular football under his belt than selecting a mediocre loan player at the very end of his career.
There have been some strides made. The signings of Tjaronn Chery and Massimo Luongo were shrewd, at great prices. Walking away from deals when they became too expensive — Tim Ream — is a welcome departure, and a key message to send out. Agents and players have been told in no uncertain terms that Loftus Road is not some sort of pension-boosting halfway house to retirement. The average age of the first team is as low as it's been for five years. The wage bill has been cut. Damaging, self-serving, big egos have been moved on. The attack is the most prolific in the league, and games have been better to watch and more entertaining than last time we were at this level. Les Ferdinand and Lee Hoos is a better structure than we've had at that level since the money arrived.
But there's also a good deal gone on this season that is no different to what happened under Harry Redknapp, which he was rightly criticised for. Imagine the reaction if Redknapp had bought Gladwin, never picked him and then loaned him out — in fact you don't have to imagine, just glance back a year to the Jordan Mutch scenario. Imagine if Redknapp had selected Nedum Onuoha out of position at right back in a calamitous defensive performance against Bolton while Darnell Furlong earned rave reviews for his showings on loan at Northampton. Imagine if Redknapp had extended Michael Harriman's contract, only to loan him straight out. Imagine if Redknapp had brought in Oscar Gobern…
The reason is the manager isn’t the problem and hasn’t been for some time. Mark Hughes, Redknapp and Ramsey all have plenty of faults for their critics to pick on, but often they’re working under the remit handed down from above. The results didn’t improve after Hughes and Redknapp left which is worth bearing in mind when clamouring for Ramsey to be dismissed.
Tony Fernandes has taken more of a backseat this season, far less publicity and — mercifully — far fewer Tweets. But he was back this week, with an Instagram post from the training ground reading: "Harlington looking good. Boys working hard. Let's see. I do believe. But results speak. Going up is the world for me."
And there is your actual answer to all those questions. "Going up is the world for me." This is why Ramsey can't afford to give Cole Kpekawa or Michael Doughty or Darnell Furlong 20 Championship matches to see whether they can hack it or not. The ultimate man at the top wants an immediate return to the Premier League, so we're once again scrabbling around for experienced quick fixes.
Why the hunger for instant Premier League gratification? Because the television money in the Premier League next year is colossal. Why is it so important that we get that money in as quickly as possible? Because the board is down the thick end of £200m for their four year involvement with QPR. Why is the board down the thick end of £200m? Because they chased instant Premier League gratification.
Who was it talking about learning lessons?
In their last two Premier League campaigns QPR have won just 12 matches in total — across two years — and finished dead last on both occasions. They've also spent all the TV riches that came their way in that time, almost entirely on transfer and agent fees and player wages.
It makes you wonder why QPR are in a rush to go back. If they are promoted this season, possibly after another change of manager, what indication has been given that the club and team are in any fit state to do any different next time? Chris Ramsey’s critics say he’s not up to the job. Chris Ramsey’s supporters, or those who believe continuously sacking the manager/head coach is a road to ruin, say the team is a work in progress. Whichever side you’re on, you can’t possibly believe this team and club is ready to go back to the Premier League.
The expectations have changed because the club has retained its best players but all those names we're getting jolly excited about keeping here — Charlie Austin, Matt Phillips, Sandro, Leroy Fer — were all here last season when QPR finished last. Other than the old adage about third time lucky, why would QPR not finish last again in next year's Premier League? The training ground is still just as inadequate as it was before; the academy has improved with the link up with Cranford College providing a dome training facility but is still miles away from regularly producing first team players; the stadium is the same…
With a team that's already shown it's not good enough to survive in the top flight, nothing remotely Premier League-quality coming up through the ranks and Charlie Austin's contract expiring, the promotion that is "the world" to our chairman would simply require us to go up and spend all the television money we’re desperate to get on yet another dozen new signings. Unless we take the highly un-QPR step of banking it, not splashing out on players, accepting relegation under the ideal that we’ll be more financially secure and able to have a better crack next time, nothing we’ve done under Tony Fernandes’ leadership suggests that another promotion before we’re ready for it would do anything other than make our situation worse.
Les Ferdinand has been a refreshingly straight-talking, focused presence at Rangers with apparently clear aims of how he thinks the club should be run so far. His summer rhetoric was right, and it should be stuck to. Next time we go back up we need to be ready. We’re not ready now, those foundations we heard about are through no fault of Chris Ramsey, and we should use the three years of parachute payments to the full to solve that.
Sadly Ferdinand has now been forced to admit on the club's in-house Thursday show that expectations have changed and that Chris Ramsey has to "up his game". With a tough match at Birmingham tomorrow, and QPR's lousy London-derby record looming large over the Brentford game at the end of the month, the head coach (with a perfectly reasonable record of four wins, three draws and three defeats) suddenly looks vulnerable. Again.
Is this meet the 'new QPR', same as the old QPR?
Links >>> Remarkable turnaround — interview >>> Light at the end of the tunnel - Opposition profile >>> Trevor Francis tracksuits — history >>> Boyeson in charge — referee >>> Travel Guide
Ravel Morrison celebrates scoring the opening goal of QPR’s 2-0 win at Birmingham on Rangers’ last visit to St Andrew’s. Morrison’s fine free kick was followed up with a crisp second after half time.
For Birmingham, David Cotterill is waiting in for a parcel to be delivered so is a doubt. Andrew Shinnie (bad hair day) and Demarai Gray, who'd been suffering with a recurring dream in which he's falling, have both been passed fit to play.
Elsewhere: The Championship doesn't take kindly to people taking time off, and will punish the players for their slacking by making them play three times this week.
Nottingham Trees are fielding their Under 12s tonight thanks to an ongoing injury crisis which this week claimed Michael Mancienne and Kyle Ebecilio for six weeks each. They're only playing Bristol City though, so they should be ok.
QPR fans have a chance to scout their Tuesday opponents when Sheffield Owls play Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah in the Saturday lunchtime Sky game and then there's the usual sludge blockage at 15.00
Uwe Rosler says "promotion is not on the agenda" for the Champions Of Europe this season. No kidding mate, not sure the box of frogs you've got running the joint will agree with you mind. Expect the knives to be out if league leading Brighton win at Elland Road. Broken Abacus against Rotherham, where Neil Redfearn has replaced the Walking Heart Attack as manager, is a relegation six-pointer at Griffin Park. Must win game etc etc.
Rupert and Tarquin are heading up to Middlesbrough this weekend — a motorway clogger of a fixture if ever there was one — while Blackburn go to the Franchise. What else do we have here? Preston v Cardiff. Ipswich v Huddersfield. Waitrose v Charlton.
Derby have Wolves on Sunday and this weekend's game between two teams beginning with B's is Big Spending Burnley v Bolton.
Referee: Carl Boyeson, best remembered by QPR fans for making and absolute hash of a win at Barnsley during the Neil Warnock promotion season, is travelling down from East Yorkshire to take charge of the R's at Birmingham on Saturday. More on that night at Oakwell, the rest of his QPR appointments and recent stats can be accessed here.
Birmingham: The Blues come into this game on the back of successive 2-0 wins on the road at Brentford and Leeds — they've won three and drawn two of their five away games so far this season, a fabulous start which sees them fourth in the table. At home they've slipped a little of late, with defeats to Nottingham Forest and, most surprisingly, Rotherham. Gillingham, Bristol City and Reading have been beaten here while Derby got away with a draw.
QPR: Rangers have the Championship's best attack (18 scored) and worst defence (20 conceded) and consequently sit bang in the middle of the table. They've won four, drawn three and lost three so far. The away form had been encouraging prior to a 4-0 thrashing at Fulham last time they travelled — three wins a draw and a loss in all competitions. They've beaten Birmingham on the last three occasions the two have met, without conceding a goal. Rangers have won a league-leading seven points from losing positions, and have twice recovered from a two goal deficit and gone onto win (Wolves A, Bolton H).
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion ISawQPRatWhiteCity says…
"So Les is talking tough...Will this focus CR's mind or unnerve him? I don't see it helping. Brum's form at home is weird, a couple of ok wins, then a couple of poor losses. Despite a heartening, if profligate, win for us last time out, the auguries don't feel good here. We always oblige: Brum to regain home form. Make me eat my words, Chris, please."
Jim's Prediction: Birmingham 2-0 QPR. No Scorer.
LFW's Prediction: Birmingham 2-1 QPR. Scorer — Tjaronn Chery
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images