Incredibly, astonishingly, QPR face the prospect of going into their final game of the season against Leeds still not knowing the outcome of the FA’s inquiry into the Alejandro Faurlin transfer.
QPR (1st) v Leeds United (7th)
Npower Championship >>> Saturday, May 7, 2011 >>> Kick Off 12.45pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12 >>> Live on BBC1
At the end of the 2004/05 season, with QPR ensconced in the middle of the table, manager Ian Holloway used his final press conference after the last game at Cardiff for a good old fashioned rant – about players’ shorts, the FA, the referees, finances, agents and anything else that took his fancy. And if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to do the same.
The final match preview of this incredible season is one I’ve been looking forward to writing for some time. What I should be writing about is that seeing a QPR player lift a trophy is a dream I’ve held since I was a little boy who used to go to the games on my dad’s shoulders. I should be saying that it’s a tragedy that rather than standing next to him and our best mate Stuart as Adel lifts the elusive silver jug into the air this Saturday afternoon, I’ll be standing pretty much alone because cancer took them both from me before they could witness this momentous event. I should be talking about the tidal wave of emotion that will sweep over my body when that trophy glints in the sun and is then thrust into the air to the acclaim of 18,000 ecstatic QPR fans.
But as I sat on the tube home this evening thinking of what to say, all I could feel was anger. Growing anger. I shouldn’t even be writing this now – the plan this week has been to delay the match preview for 24 hours and write it on Friday night once the verdict of the FA’s hearing into the Alejandro Faurlin transfer had been made public. But now we’re told that the FA will not be releasing the decision at 4pm on the Friday as previously planned, and all they can say is that they will let us know what the outcome is “as soon as possible” after that time. Friday night? Saturday morning? Sunday? Monday? Next week? Your guess is as good as mine, because we’re merely supporters so we don’t matter mate. Now fork out another £30 for a poxy England friendly would ya, they’ve got a giant white elephant that looks like a shopping basket to pay for you know.
I have, to this point, largely resisted any criticism of the Football Association over this whole saga. The whole sorry situation is QPR’s fault. It was QPR who signed a South American footballer in a deal that was a bit suspect from the start, it was QPR who entered into a third party agreement with that players’ representatives at the very time that the intricacies and illegality of such deals were being poured over in the media because of Carlos Tevez, it was QPR who put the paperwork through the FA with one fee on and then trumpeted the signing as a club record £3.5m deal when it was nothing of the sort for the sole reason of appeasing fans saying they weren’t spending enough on players, it was QPR who then appear to have made an absolute cock up of correcting the situation in October last year bringing a further two charges upon themselves and it is the QPR legal team who sought to delay this hearing for as long as possible into the season.
QPR and Gianni Paladini, and whatever the bloody outcome of all of this the time has long since passed for those two to part ways. Even if we’re not guilty of anything it’s only a matter of time before the Italian drops us in it again – Paladini inflicted crises have come around on average once every 14 months or so during his seven years with our club and while he continues to put his own popularity ahead of the club and being professional he is a loose cannon we can no longer afford to have rolling around.
To this point the FA is blameless. However, that is no longer the case.
The FA has been looking at this deal since September. It is they who waited until March to bring any charges, it is they who set the hearing for the four days before the final match of the season, it is they who spent the days before the penultimate match of the season privately briefing the gutter press that QPR would be deducted thousands of points, it is the FA that further prejudiced its own case by writing to all the other clubs explaining the new play off dates in the case of a QPR points deduction, and it is they who have put out this ludicrous statement this evening.
Apparently the result won’t now come through at 4pm on Friday. I’m sorry? Did I miss a memo? When was the deadline for the result ever 4pm on Friday? The big problem with this whole shambles has been the same problem I found when my dad was wasting away in his hospital bed – it’s the open endedness of it all, the not knowing, the waiting and suffering that’s actually worse than the final act. I’ve been saying for weeks on here that it’s ridiculous that we have been kept in the dark about when the result of all of this would be known while still being expected to turn up to Football League games and pay upwards of £25 to sit and watch matches that may turn out to be meaningless. Finally today they tell us when the verdict will be known, but they reveal it in a statement that says a deadline we didn’t know existed will not be met, and then don’t go on to say when they will actually deliver a verdict sticking us right back at square one again.
Who is judging this case? Who is on the panel? What is being said at this hearing? What evidence is being offered? You’re not allowed to know mere supporter. There is no public gallery or press bench, there is no openness at all. The best we can do is scour Twitter feeds from people who have “sources”. Whatever this punishment is you’ll have no idea how it was reached, or why. This is a similar justice system to the ones used in North Korea and the Philippines – bizarre sentences handed down for no discernable reason and with no explanation. UEFA and FIFA don’t call the FA the most shambolic governing body of any footballing nation in the world for nothing. We’re now going to have a league season finished, play offs ready to start, and nobody very sure whether they’re promoted, in the play offs, or finished for the year.
The FA has never been shy of embarrassing itself before, and has done so on multiple occasions, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s happily doing so again. They should be ashamed of the way this is turning out. One wonders whether Npower are regretting their decision to take up sponsorship of what is now a complete and utter farce.
The happiest day of my life, originally pencilled in for this Saturday, will now have the same cloud hanging over it that the last happiest day of my life (last Saturday at Watford) did. That nagging doubt that they’ve delayed all of this because they know what they’re going to do, they know we’re not going to like it, and they don’t very much fancy a televised riot taking place at Loftus Road this Saturday at 12.45pm. In the real world we’d be made to stay at work on Friday night until this job is done, but this is the FA’s world now – and don’t we all bloody know it.
The Leeds story is depressingly familiar – top flight mainstay mismanaged, fallen on hard times, suddenly finds itself playing a first round fixture in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Section. Norwich, Forest, Southampton, QPR, Leicester and others have all been there – although the collapse of Leeds United from European semi finals with Valencia down to League One games with Hartlepool was probably the most extreme example of the art, and the mismanagement that caused it was absolutely catastrophic.
We’ve all heard the Peter Ridsdale stories before – the thousands of pounds spent on fish, Seth Johnson going into his office looking for £20k a week and coming out with double that, millions upon millions upon millions of pounds thrown around in the pursuit of a dream that they came tantalisingly close to reaching. Leeds are only just recovering now, and they did that in highly questionable circumstances with chairman Ken Bates screwing over the club’s creditors by hauling them into, and out of, admnsitratuon while still owning the club – essentially ridding it of its debts overnight without anybody who was owed money getting what they were owed. Bates then oversaw a couple of seasons of progress on the pitch, while the club was owned by anonymous backers who could not be revealed. Only this week, when Bates apparently bought the club from them, has that situation been resolved.
There was brief hope of a reprieve, when Kevin Blackwell hauled them kicking and screaming to the Championship play off final in 2006, but they were soundly beaten by Watford and the side that returned for the following season was an unimaginative shambles with Geoff Horsfield at the top and a hollow vacuum at its heart. Blackwell made way for Dennis Wise midway through that campaign but he couldn’t save them from relegation to the third tier with a plethora of dodgy loan signings – Leeds were out fought and thought by a QPR team swiftly filled with characters like Danny Cullip, Adam Bolder and Lee Camp by John Gregory who performed miracles at Loftus Road to ensure Rangers survived against the odds.
Leeds didn’t care for this very much at all. Their ever loveable fans invading the pitch before the end of their final game of the season with Ipswich and attempted to get the match called off with a small riot – this scenario at Loftus Road live on the television could well be the reason for the sudden delay in our hearing. The rest of the Championship bid them farewell like you may do with your in laws after Christmas – big smile, celebratory drink, vow never to see the horrible bastards again.
Leeds were left to fall into the Sheffield Wednesday trap of assuming a return would be automatic because of the sheer size of their club, and off they went with their factually incorrect ‘Champions of Europe’ chant to Yeovil, Hartlepool and other glamorous flesh pots of the British Isles. New owner Ken Bates, of Chelsea infamy, put the club into administration with debts of £35m, and then scandalously bought it back for himself offering to pay the creditors 1p in the pound, and eventually settling on 8p under protest. The Inland Revenue, owed more than £7m in unpaid tax, revolted and Leeds were deducted 15 points for the start of the following season. Quite how Leeds’ owners are able to pass the league’s ‘fit and proper person test’ when nobody actually knows who the Forward Sports Fund is, and Bates isn’t willing to divulge, is as much a mystery as it is a farce.
Wise left to join Newcastle midway through the season and Gary McAllister replaced him as manager, guiding Leeds to the play offs where they again brought joy to the nation by losing in the final against Doncaster Rovers. Much like their previous play off final failure Leeds suffered a hangover the following season and McAllister was sacked in December after a run of five straight defeats. The Scot still seems unable to shake the idea that he’s an undoubtedly nice fella, but not really management material and to go with his poor spells as boss at Coventry and Leeds he has this season presided over the collapses at Middlesbrough and Aston Villa as an assistant.
He did however leave a side that contained Jermaine Beckford, Luciano Becchio, Fabian Delph and others and Leeds actually made a positive move for once by bringing in former player and fine manager Simon Grayson from Blackpool. The turn around was remarkable but they were again beaten in the play offs, this time by Millwall at the semi final stage.
Last season they started as clear favourites to win League One and did indeed race away at the top to start with – eight straight wins to start the season was the club’s best ever run at the beginning of a campaign. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, they even beat Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford in the third round of the FA Cup, and scored late to take Spurs to a replay after that as well. What happened then has never really been explained. Grayson is clearly a fine manager, as we will come onto shortly, and the team Leeds had at their disposal last season was the best League One will see for a generation. But they completely collapsed.
Norwich City quickly overhauled their nine point lead at the top of the table and all of a sudden, just two wins and a draw from eight matches later, Leeds were staring down the barrel of another play off campaign as Millwall and Swindon came up on the rails. Walsall won at Elland Road, Brentford took a point, Charlton closed the gap to two points in third at one stage. They were in trouble and nobody could really put a finger on why. The cup run may have served as a distraction, along with constant speculation about Jermaine Beckford whose status at the club was up and down like a bride’s nightie as he refused to sign a new contract and courted Premiership clubs ahead of an inevitable summer move. They lost four games in March, including a 2-0 home defeat to Millwall, and dropped to fourth.
In the end they got lucky. A rally in April saw them win three consecutive games to climb back to second, although they lost against league leaders Norwich which meant Millwall were still in the driving seat until they lost a late game in hand against a poor Tranmere side with nothing to play for. The black was over the pocket, the white was well placed, Leeds chalked their cue – Bristol Rovers came to Elland Road on the final day of the season with one foot already on the plane to Tenerife.
They went one nil down to Rovers, and then down to ten men when Max Gradel threw a tantrum on a level not seen on a football pitch for many years. Eventually Jonny Howson and Jermaine Beckford scored in a narrow 2-1 win – but by Christ they made it needlessly difficult for themselves.
Back in the Championship Leeds found a division with no obvious title contender, and no threat being posed by the relegated Premiership clubs. They’ve threatened to make a serious impact on it, and going into the final game of the season still have half a mathematical chance of making the top six – QPR lunacy not withstanding. Their problem has been an inability to stop conceding goals, and centre halves of a better quality than Alex Bruce must be top of Simon Grayson’s shopping list this summer.
Manager: As a player Grayson was a dependable right full back who played predominantly with Blackpool and Leicester but also notably with Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers. A Leeds fan as a boy, and player as a trainee coming through the youth set up at Elland Road, Grayson was the reserve team manager at Blackpool in 2005 when the Oyston’s surrendered their grand plans of progress under former Scotland captain Colin Hendry and sacked the Pat Butcher look-a-like with relegation to the bottom division a distinct possibility.
Grayson was thrown in initially as a caretaker, but did such a superb job he was hired permanently and laid a platform at Bloomfield Road that Ian Holloway and the Tangerines are still benefitting from today. For a rookie manager Grayson showed great knowledge and tact in the transfer market – picking up players like Jason Wilcox, Marcus Bean and Ian Evatt who were really solid, dependable figures for the level of football Pool were playing at. They stayed up with something to spare and then in his first full season in charge rocketed straight through the league to win promotion via the play offs – Yeovil Town their victims in the final in what was a club record tenth straight win.
He then revelled in keeping Blackpool in the Championship despite pundits queuing up to tip them for an immediate return. Again his transfer dealings were second to none with players like Kaspars Gorkss and Wes Hoolahan discovered playing in the backwaters of Latvia and Scotland and added to the team with great effect at minimal cost. When those two, and more besides, were picked up by perceived bigger clubs on the cheap Grayson simply replaced them with more fine buys.
It was inevitable that a big club would come calling, and he was even linked with the assistant manager position at Old Trafford before finally answering the call from Leeds. After everything he had done for Blackpool it was a shame he had to part on bad terms to manage the club he supported – he forced the Tangerines’ hand by resigning when they refused initially to let him go to Elland Road.
As the previously mentioned former Premiership sides have found, promotion from League One is not an easy thing to win but Grayson has now brought one big and one small club out of that division and made a really decent fist of the Championship. A second promotion could beckon and his stock really will be sky high then – although as a supporter it’s hard to envisage him ever leaving of his own choice but if he continues in his current vein it may well be Leeds cast in the Blackpool role of fending off interest in him from clubs higher up the food chain.
Three to watch: Leeds have the worst home defensive record in the top half of the league (37 conceded), the worst away defensive record of the top ten (35 conceded) and the worst goal difference of the top eight teams (+10). It doesn’t take a genius to work out where summer transfer activity may focus. There’s been a 5-2 defeat at Barnsley and a 6-4 home set back against eventually relegated Preston just to reinforce the point.
First out of the door, if Simon Grayson has any sense, should be Alex Bruce who is not even as good at football as I am. If his last name was Smith or Jones or anything other than Bruce, and his dad was a cabbie or a brickie or an estate agent or anything other than a former Man Utd captain, then he would be doing an everyday job, just like the rest of us who have no footballing ability whatsoever. You can forgive the family loyalties that saw him attached to Birmingham for so long when his dad was manager but Ipswich fell into the trap of thinking there may be a little of his father’s magic in there somewhere and despite proving conclusively over several seasons at Portman Road that there absolutely wasn’t Leeds leapt straight in to sign him when his contract ended last summer.
To the clear horror of his father, regularly filmed shaking his head in the stands as Bruce commits one howler after another, young Alex disobeys the clear and obvious rule of centre half play with ridiculous frequency – never let the ball bounce. He gives whoever he is playing against a chance – he’s good for a goal a game. He’s the manager’s annoying son everybody had in their junior Sunday league team, always getting to play despite being crap just because of the ball sack he came from in the first place.
The man having to back him up is another player who has perhaps been given a leg up in his career by his surname – Kasper Schmeichel. Now as tough acts to follow go, I can’t think of one much tougher than keeping goal as the son of Peter Schmeichel. Christ, you only have to look at the way Old Trafford has eaten alive the various attempts at replacing the Danish legend over the years to know they are big gloves to fill. Schmeichel has flattered to deceive for much of his career – he looked like he was going to be an absolute star when he was Man City’s first choice at the start of Sven Goran Eriksson’s reign but he soon dropped out of contention, and he did himself few favours by chasing the big money at Notts County, despite the move relegating him four divisions.
The most noticeable thing about him at Leeds this season, for me, has been the clear change in his physique. His chest must be twice the size it was 18 months ago now, and he’s actually starting to look like a goalkeeper physically able to command his area and intimidate opponents in the way his father did. He’s still young and quite naïve in a lot of the things he does, but he’s a far better keeper than he was a year ago and looks like a good signing for Leeds.
As does Max Gradel, the former Leicester trainee who scored twice against us at Elland Road back in December. Despite a fantastic season in which he has scored 17 goals from a wide area, I’m still not Gradel’s biggest fan. His technique and temperament are suspect for me, although he’s made me look an idiot for saying so all season by scoring and performing consistently.
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Leeds: Schmeichel 6, Connolly 6, Bruce - (Bromby 11, 7), Collins 7, McCartney 6, Kilkenny 7, Howson 7, Johnson 7, Gradel 7 (Sam 76, 7),Becchio 8 (Paynter 90, -), Snodgrass 7
Subs Not Used: Higgs, Faye, Somma, McCormack
Booked: Connolly (fighting)
Goals: Gradel 25 (assisted Becchio), 70 (unassisted)
QPR Kenny 7, Orr 6, Gorkss 6, Connolly 5, Hill 4 (Hall 46, 5), Derry 5, Walker 5, Mackie 6, Smith 6 (Ephraim 75, 5), Taarabt 6, Hulse 6 (Helguson 75, 5)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Clarke, Rowlands, Tofas
Booked: Orr (foul), Hill (foul)
Earlier in the 2006/07 season, right at the very beginning of it in fact, Rangers and Leeds shared the spoils in an opening night Loftus Road thriller. After a meek 2-0 defeat on day one at Burnley QPR looked set to par the course again when Eddie Lewis gave the visitors the lead midway through the second half. Step forward young Ray Jones, who combined with Shabazz Baidoo in the final half an hour of the game as a substitute to win QPR a famous point. Rangers drew level from the penalty spot after a generous decision from referee Kevin Friend who adjudged Gareth Ainsworth to have been fouled in the box. From the kick off Geoff Horsfield restored Leeds lead with just eight minutes to go but Baidoo scrambled and equaliser and Jones went within a whisker of winning the game outright in stoppage time.
QPR: P Jones 9, Bignot 4 (Baidoo 76, 8), Rose 4, Stewart 4, Milanese 5, Ainsworth 7, Lomas 7, Rowlands 7 (Bircham 89, -), Cook 7, Ward 7, Czerkas 5 (Jones 54, 7).
Subs not used: Cole, Kanyuka.
Goals: Rowlands 80 (pen), Baidoo 90
Bookings: Stewart 39
Leeds United: Warner 7, Kelly 7, Crainey 5, Butler 7, Healy 7 (Carole 76, 6), Horsfield 8 (Moore 84, -), Lewis 7, Stone 8, Bakke 7 (Westlake 50, 6), Derry 6, Kilgallon 6.
Subs not used: Gregan, Blake.
Goals: Lewis 65, Horsfield 82
Bookings: Crainey 6, Derry 45, Warner 79, Kilgallon 90
Head to Head >>> QPR wins 15 >>> Draws 13 >>> Leeds wins 19
Previous Results:
2010/11 Leeds 2 QPR 0
2006/07 Leeds 0 QPR 0
2006/07 QPR 2 Leeds 2 (Rowlands pen, Baidoo)
2005/06 Leeds 2 QPR 0
2005/06 QPR 0 Leeds 1
2004/05 QPR 1 Leeds 1 (Gallen)
2004/05 Leeds 6 QPR 1 (Ainsworth)
1995/96 QPR 1 Leeds 2 (Gallen)
1995/96 Leeds 1 QPR 3 (Dichio 2, Sinclair)
1994/95 Leeds 4 QPR 0
1994/95 QPR 3 Leeds 2 (Ferdinand 2, Gallen)
1993/94 QPR 0 Leeds 4
1993/94 Leeds 1 QPR 1 (Meaker)
1992/93 Leeds 1 QPR 1 (Ferdinand)
1992/93 QPR 2 Leeds 1 (Bardsley, Ferdinand)
1991/92 QPR 4 Leeds 1 (Ferdinand, Allen, Sinton, Wilson pen)
1991/92 Leeds 2 QPR 0
Links >>> Leeds 2 QPR 0 Match Report >>> Leeds 0 QPR 0 Match Report >>> QPR 2 Leeds 2 Match Report
Leeds have postponed Luciano Becchio’s hamstring surgery in the hope that he can help fire the six goal turnaround needed between them and Nottingham Forest for the last play off spot.
Elsewhere: If t wasn’t for the QPR farce, the Championship would be almost entirely settled. Norwich sealed promotion with a win at Portsmouth on Monday night and will celebrate with their fans at their home match with Coventry this weekend. Leeds could technically get into the top six but need a six goal swing between them and sixth placed Nottingham Forest who are at Crystal Palace. Reading can overtake Swansea and claim home advantage in a play off semi final if they win at home to Derby and the Swans lose to already relegated Sheffield United. Similarly, Swansea can move up to third if they beat the Blades and Cardiff’s annual end of season meltdown continues at Burnley.
Referee: Well as QPR seem to be set for a party, it should be no surprise to find Premiership referee Mark Clattenburg in town. Clattenburg was the referee for our play off semi final victory against Oldham on this ground in 2003, and our promotion sealing win against Sheff Wed at Hillsborough a year later. He has already refereed our home match with Nottingham Forest this season, sending off Radowslaw Majewski in the first half. For a full case file click here.
Leeds: Simon Grayson’s men came into a dodgy patch of form at just the wrong time. A month ago they seemed certain to beat an out of form Nottingham Forest into the top six but Forest refound themselves again just in time, and Leeds have won just two of their last nine games, losing four. Prior to that they’d lost one of ten, which makes the recent trough hard to understand. Away from home this season the Whites have won seven times – but have only won one of their last eight on the road, at Preston.
Prediction: What an odd situation for everybody to be in. I think Leeds’ defence will be too porous to hold us out if we’re in any kind of mood, but it’s been a big week of partying and worrying for our players so that may negate that. Leeds need goals in their quest for the play offs, so they will probably try to come flying out the traps at us. Let’s go for a high scoring draw, seen as the only prediction I’ve had right all season was 2-2 at Cardiff I’ll try it again.
2-2, 14/1 with Boyle Sports and Bet Fred.