Keeping our loved assets 10:31 - May 4 with 4746 views | enfieldargh | In the mid to late 1970’s the only media outlets for finding out news on Qpr was mostly via the newspapers. In the bad old days there were no such things as transfer windows, I don’t even recall there being a loan system. You could buy and sell any player at anytime up until the 31st March until the season ended. My first heartbreak was the sale of Rodney Marsh. March 1972 apparently £200,000 to Man Citeh. I was devastated. Rodney the season I started supporting this club in the first place gone. I was 14 never kissed a girl or been told to sling my hook by one but my hero my idol was gone, just like that. I would have found out when the morning papers were delivered, I used to wait for the paperboy to try and cram the daily telegraph for my dad and daily express for my mum. I’d get to them just before my dad who needed the telegraph to read it on the bog regular as clockwork at 7:30 in case the express disappeared in with him for what seemed ages. Turn to the back pages and check for anything on Qpr, often there was nothing but one day splattered over the back of the express was news of Rodney’s transfer.OMG what happens now. Then along comes Stanley. For the next 6 or 7 years I’d check the back pages and there was Stan putting in yet another transfer request. The scar of Rodney’s departure etched deeply across my heart so these stories cut through me every time. He eventually got sold to Forest which I though at least he’s going to one of the best teams around at that time. Since then the standout departures for me have been Clive Allen, Gerry Francis, Phil Parkes, Paul Parker, Darren Peacock, Les Ferdinand and others I can’t think of just now. One of the most painful moments was Terry Venables going to Barcelona which brings me around to our Marti. This man IS the greatest assets this club has had in decades. The fact that he has pulled the current group of players into a coherent team. They were sinking and up to their necks in an acrid bog of filth and slime, the club was on the verge of almost oblivion. If this was the 1970’s I would be waiting by the front door for the papers to arrive in the hope that Qpr manager poached by Real Madrid headlines. Today’s instant news from sky, radio, clickbait, social media means that this news can hit us at any given time be it made up or true. Think I preferred waiting for the papers to arrive. | |
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Keeping our loved assets on 21:21 - May 6 with 639 views | stainrods_elbow |
Keeping our loved assets on 18:46 - May 6 by nix | Still love the guy. So pleased to see him still doing well. It's quite unbelievable sometimes when you see clips of him in the hoops. I think we say him at his irrepressible, swaggering best unfettered by all the defensive work he seems to have to prioritise at Palace to the detriment of his attacking prowess. For me what breaks my heart is who the replacements were. Mark Hately in place of Sir Les and Ian Dowie for Trevor Sinclair.. At least with Ebs we had Chris Willock who wasn't quite at Eb's level was an exciting player with potential. |
Which is part of my whole point in this discussion. We neither have a club culture (as has been widely endorsed) of (i) 'selling high' nor (and more importantly) of (ii) reinvesting wisely. Generally, historically speaking, what happens is that club sales veer between the undesirable and the catastrophic (I've got a great wheeze, chaps - let's sell club legend Les and his potful of goals and see where we go with two rookies in Gallen, plus a crocked mate of Ray's from Scotland) that are then sold back to the fans as 'reinvestment'. With the odd exception (e.g. Sinton for Tricky and the aforementioned trio of Bowles, Givens and Thomas for Rodney), that's been pretty much the shape of things in the near half-century I've been following the club. So what makes people think we're suddenly going to start emulating the Brentford model? It's bloody hard to emulate the Brentford model, and also takes a lot of luck and timing. We'd much better to really scrutinise our Academy and do our research/sink our funds into why e.g. Bristol City have a functioning one and we haven't for years. Hopefully, the new CEO has the wit to realise this. Are the sales of of Chair and/or JCS warranted on footballing grounds? Almost certainly not. Are they needed on financial grounds? Don't know. Do I have confidence the club will strengthen as a result if they're signed off? Why should I? The positive news is that we have a a manager and CEO (though an upgrade on the last one - my Siamese cat would have done a better job than late-QPR Lee Hoos) who seem to know what they're about, so, who knows, the culture may be about to change. Either way, this pre-season will tell us a lot. [Post edited 6 May 21:27]
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Keeping our loved assets on 08:44 - May 7 with 506 views | LazyFan |
Keeping our loved assets on 11:51 - May 4 by colinallcars | I miss the papers. I'm pretty sure Saturday's team was in Friday's Standard, not announced an hour before KO. Alway lots to read in the Bush Gazette and WLO. |
No, it was the away squad, as in those days, they limited them to 16. The team would get in before Saturday at a local hotel, so the journo just asked the manager who was in squad 16. From that, you could roughly work out what the team would be, who was injured and not available and so on. Also they would be asked is Ferdinand fit? And the manager would say not 100%, which then meant he would be on the subs bench and so on. | |
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