Chris King returns to LFW with an assessment of an incredible weekend in Manchester and where the team should go now (without Joey Barton).
Clint Hill’s Supporters’ and Players’ Player of the Year awards were given on the basis of the defender’s excellent season at the back for Queens Park Rangers. The 33-year-old spent the first half of the year banned and then on loan at Championship strugglers Nottingham Forest. However, during the latter stages of the season, he was an ever-present, and the honouring of his return to the R’s fold shows the esteem in which the former Crystal Palace stalwart is held by both those who pay to watch him, and those who train with the central defender day-in, day-out.
Contrast this with the shameful behaviour of Rangers “captain” and common thug Joey Barton. Dismissed on Sunday as his side were throwing bodies in front of every shot Manchester City could muster, and they managed 44 of them, he nearly cost this club its Premier League status. The former City midfielder deserves to suffer a ban stretching into double figures, and Mark Hughes should not even contemplate letting Barton anywhere near the first team while he remains at the club. While releasing the crazed intellectual surely going to be excessively costly, Barton should be made captain of the reserves and left to rot, with his only highlight of the 2012-2013 season being the occasional match against Arsene Wenger’s League Cup team.
Disgusted didn’t even begin to describe the emotions raging through the hearts and minds of every R’s fan as they watched on, astonished, witnessing Barton elbow Carlos Tévez, who is admittedly a dreadful individual, before lashing out at Sergio Agüero and attempting to assault Vincent Kompany. It took the timely and insufficiently praised intervention of Micah Richards to even get the Rangers skipper to leave the pitch. Contrast Barton’s behaviour with Shaun Derry, if you will. Painfully slow in the Premier League, and undoubtedly past his best, Derry was immense at the Etihad Stadium, and a shining example of what consummate professionalism looks like. He, at many points this season, has been the side’s true captain: a real leader, whom the players can look up to.
It says so much that an article reacting to Rangers’ miracle of survival, and what was so nearly one of the greatest days in this club’s history, should begin by analysing the foolhardy actions of that cretin. Alas, sadly, it must. However, moving onto the football, the emotions described earlier can be extended to include pride and sheer relief.
QPR were exceptional on Sunday, and their rear-guard action and unwillingness to give in until there were literally no more than a few seconds on the clock appear to have gone unnoticed. Nobody gave this little club from West London a prayer in Manchester. Cannon-fodder, we would be. The Citizens’ plaything, to be teased and abused before goals reigned in from all angles: the height of the Premier League winners’ arrogance was exposed when it emerged that even before the game, “Manchester City – Champions” scarves were being sold. One can only hope the sky blues have learnt from this premature, presumptuous stupidity, but they probably haven’t.
In Hughes’ post-match interview, presumably with his £1m (well-deserved) survival bonus being spent as he spoke, the Welshman assured the Queens Park Rangers faithful that: “There is no way we will be in this situation again in my time here.” Call me easily pleased or naïve, but I for one believe the manager. He has transformed the fortunes of the club in just a few months. From the worst beginnings imaginable, and a run of results that conspired to leave the R’s on the cusp of the relegation zone, safety has been achieved amid possibly the hardest run-in any team has faced in some years. One cannot imagine that deadwood such as Jay Bothroyd, Danny Gabbidon, Shaun Wright-Phillips, DJ Campbell, Kieron Dyer, Fitz Hall and Rob Hulse will be kept on. Tony Fernandes, Phil Beard and Amit Bhatia deserve both the supporters’ thanks, and continued support next season, for the professional business mentality they are trying to instil in W12, and the former for investing so heavily in January. Without the players Fernandes facilitated the signings of, the Championship would be looming.
Indeed, and this may seem rather like heresy when said in reference to a team that avoided relegation by a single point, the QPR line-up which started against City is a top-half outfit in the making although the gamble to start Wright-Phillips ahead of Taarabt (the winger was out-jumped, ran with his head down before being tackled, and was generally ineffective) proves that he has no place in the starting eleven. Signing the impressively combative Samba Diakité and Taye Taiwo will tighten the side up no end, as will playing Armand Traoré, who vindicated my season-long campaign to have him played on the left wing with the superb cross for Jamie Mackie’s diving header. And another man who has certainly earned a place next season is the 26-year-old. Mackie fluctuates between illustrating tremendous panache and a fantastic understanding of the game, as he did at Eastlands, and putting his head down à la Wright-Phillips and running into trouble. However, as the Barton incident proves, Rangers need players who care, and minor faults such as these can be ironed out.
After the glory of the weekend, a statement on the Rangers website even took the time to thank the supporters for yet another year of endurance and commitment beyond reason. An easy gesture perhaps, and nothing more an example of good PR, but the club could just as easily have said nothing. From the presence of press officers on Twitter, the greater transparency and stability in the coaching staff, and genial approach of Fernandes and Bhatia, Queens Park Rangers Football Club is changing for the better. With the announcement of the successful purchase of Warren Farm, it appears as though the club is not only going to possess very soon training facilities of the highest order, but it will also be providing a service to the community and reaching out as it has never been able to before. Given how hard the previous regime tried to destroy the QPR community, from the managerial chaos, failure to adhere to FA rules and unjust season ticket price hikes, it is positive to see the club actively trying to build lasting foundations, rather than mindlessly destroying everything good in its path.
Tweet @loftforwords, @chriskking
Pictures – Action Images