Short term QPR are in desperate need of points from two Christmas home matches, but long term they’re still not learning from the lessons set down by their Boxing Day opponents West Brom.
Premier League >>> Wednesday December 26, 2012 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
When Harry Redknapp took over at Spurs and led them from the relegation zone to Champions League football in little over 18 months it seemed like a triumph for the English system over the continental one.
Spurs had relied heavily on a director of football set up - with first David Pleat, then Frank Arneson and later Damien Comolli in the role - through the reigns of Glenn Hoddle, Jacques Santini, Martin Jol and Juande Ramos. When Redknapp arrived he found a club that had spent tens of millions of pounds on players lying bottom of the Premier League with two points from eight matches played. Comolli was removed, Redknapp spent the transfer money himself on the players he wanted and lifted Spurs to eighth and the League Cup final in his first season and the Champions League in his second.
Comolli subsequently turned up at St Etienne but was blamed by the chairman there for getting them into financial difficulties by spending big money on players who simply weren’t good enough for the first team. Then at Liverpool he oversaw the disastrous transfer policy that included paying £20m for Stewart Downing, £16m for Jordan Henderson and £35m for Andy Carroll. That would suggest it is Comolli, rather than the system itself, that is flawed but Redknapp didn’t see it that way.
Commenting after Comolli’s sacking at Anfield, Redknapp said: “It’s something that happens abroad – they have sporting directors and they choose the players but I couldn’t work under those circumstances. If someone is choosing your players and they’re no good then you are going to get the sack. You have to work with someone who is going to try and get the players that you want. He can recommend players to you but it has got to be your decision because your head is on the block. The manager picks the team, trains the players every day and you’ve got to be the one that is making the big decisions. If your chairman is OK to work with then you don’t need that middle man there.”
Perhaps it should come as no surprise therefore to see Mike Rigg, QPR’s technical director, leaving his post at Loftus Road following Mark Hughes’ sacking. Rigg seemed like a Hughes man, having worked with him at Blackburn and Man City, but given that his remit was to address the numerous long term issues that currently afflict QPR to do with a lack of scouting, poor training facilities and an inadequate youth programme it seemed likely that Rigg might stay even though Hughes had gone – as he did at Manchester City. Not so, and judging by the comments from those at or around the club about alienating staff, firing people by e-mail, and hiring other Hughes-men like Glynn Hodges into crucial roles we shouldn’t be shedding too many tears.
But QPR should not leave themselves without a technical director for long, whatever Redknapp thinks. The club is chronically short of football knowledge at a board level and having been taken for a ride once by Hughes, Kia Joorabchian, Rigg and co should be taking steps to ensure it does not happen again rather than just hand Redknapp the keys and hope he knows what he’s doing.
British football, and QPR in particular, is chronically short term: manager comes in, is treated like God, appoints all his mates, invariably gets sacked and all his mates go with him, and then it’s repeated. At QPR that cycle has run at a manager every nine months or so and they’ve all come in, appointed their own coaches, signed a load of players, got the sack and the process has repeated again. QPR haven’t had a manager concerned with developing long term plans around the training ground, youth set up or scouting for years – they’ve just known that they need to win games with the first team quickly or they’ll be sacked too so they come in sign a load of players for the short term and hope for the best – and my doesn’t it show?
Mike Rigg was supposed to be part of changing all that, and Tony Fernandes was at pains to state pre-Fulham that although the season had been a disaster on the pitch, off the field progress was being made. And then Rigg leaves. Redknapp says that was because he was a Mark Hughes person and now Harry Redknapp people are coming in and that’s how football works – but it shouldn’t be, and increasingly isn’t any more.
It seems bizarre and concerning because while Harry Redknapp has undoubtedly made big improvements to the first team in a short space of time and given QPR a fighting chance of staying up, it’s hard to imagine he wants to oversee the infrastructure work that Rangers so desperately need for the long term. We don’t want him overseeing that anyway, even if he is up for it, because Redknapp’s strength is in the dressing room and on the training ground. I expressed my reservations about making another quick fire short term appointment when we went for him and Rigg’s departure concerns me that not only have we done that, we’re once again basically placing the future of the whole club in the hands of the manager who may well fix things short term by signing loads more players, but long term isn’t going to help.
You can say “well he did alright at Tottenham didn’t he?” and you’d be right – although they too have now reverted back to the head coach and director of football model to ensure consistency of management even if the man picking the team leaves. You can also say “all this long term stuff isn’t going to matter anyway if we’re relegated” and it is true that the plans are heavily reliant on Premier League money coming into the club so appointing Redknapp to keep Rangers there is probably the only thing we could have done. And you would also no doubt point out that QPR has been a disaster zone while Rigg has been here, but it’s not the personality I’m supporting here it’s the position.
Just as managers like Peter Reid who relied on throwing things around and yelling at players suddenly stopped having any effect whatsoever about ten years ago, so the English system where the manager is God and the whole club revolves around him is also outdated. I was formerly a big fan of it, and used Redknapp’s impact at Spurs as proof of why English clubs should stick to the English way, but on Boxing Day we face a West Brom side punching well above its weight in the Premier League using the continental system to great effect and they’re not alone. If you don’t usually read the Opposition Profile piece then I’d urge you to have a glance at this week’s, and the quotes from their man upstairs Dan Ashworth. QPR meanwhile are a clear and obvious example of why simply allowing a manager to do as he pleases is no longer the right thing to do. I very much hope Rigg is replaced quickly.
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I’d like to take this opportunity – if you can call some italic text bunged in the middle of a match preview nobody will read written at 2am on Christmas morning an opportunity – to wish everybody who reads and contributes to the site a really Merry Christmas. The support the site receives continues to amaze me, and it seems as though somebody new is coming up to me at games these days and wishing everybody at LFW the best for which we’re all very grateful. Special best wishes to Colin, Andy, Jas, Tracey, Charlie, Paul, Cez and Simmo who make Saturdays worthwhile even when the team don’t. And to Neil, who puts up with me. Self indulgent, sycophantic nonsense on that little group to follow in the Liverpool preview. In the meantime eat, drink and try to forget about this bloody football team.
Team News: Harry Redknapp has a headache at full back where neither Armand Traore nor Nedum Onuoha were fit to start at Newcastle and Jose Bosingwa has been cast aside leaving only really Fabio Da Silva as an option. Perosnally I’d rather see Samba Diakite given a run down the right rather than Anton Ferdinand because if that lumbering oaf is picked at full back again West Brom will simply pick up where Newcastle left off at the weekend and annihilate him. Bobby Zamora, Ji Sung Park and Andy Johnson are the long term absentees. Julio Cesar has recovered from a back complaint and is available.
West Brom are still without key defensive central midfielder Claudio Yacob but do welcome back his partner Youssuf Mulumbu from suspension. Steven Reid is out but Liam Ridgewell, on the bench for the win against Norwich, should be fit to start should Steve Clarke wish to replace Billy Jones.
Elsewhere: The Premier League has seven 3pm kick offs on Boxing Day with Newcastle’s trip to Man Utd, Man City’s journey the other way up to Sunderland and Chelsea’s game at Norwich arguably the most eye catching. From a QPR point of view the games at Everton and Fulham, where Wigan and Southampton are the respective visitors, are of more interest. The Fulham game is particularly intriguing given their recent struggles – a defeat here would bring them right back into the fight, but move Southampton further away from the R’s, so it’s difficult to know what to wish for. Fulham are, I would suggest, unlikely to be relegated, so I’d take a Southampton defeat there given the choice. The remaining 3pm game is also a key one from a QPR point of view as Reading host Swansea hunting for their second win of the season which, if it’s achieved, could dump Rangers back to the bottom of the table.
There are two televised evening games with Villa looking to recover from an 8-0 thrashing at the weekend by hosting Tottenham first of all, and Stoke then facing Liverpool at 7.45pm.
Referee: I half wondered if Chris Foy might have his name cheered louder than some of the players when the teams emerge at Loftus Road this weekend. Just over a yar ago Foy sent off two Chelsea players and awarded a match winning penalty to QPR in a 1-0 success in the West London derby. At the end of the season he allowed two controversial Stoke goals to stand against Bolton, relegating the Trotters and saving Rangers in the process. Let’s hope that good luck doesn’t run dry when he returns to W12 for the first time since that Chelsea game tomorrow. A full case file is available here.
QPR: The only goal Rangers have managed in the last 15 minutes of a match this season came against West Brom in October – and Esteban Granero’s last minute effort was nothing more than consolation once Jose Bosingwa had blasted a late sitter to equalise over the bar. The defeat at Newcastle was Harry Redknapp’s first in five attempts as a QPR manager, and first in eight games overall stretching back to Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat on this ground during his previous tenure. It also meant QPR will complete 2012 without an away win to their name, and are without a success in 24 fixtures on the road in all competitions. The win on this ground against Fulham last time out was the first in 17 league games this season, and remains the club’s only success in 18 Premier League fixtures.
West Brom: The Baggies snapped a run of four games without a win – three defeats and a draw – with a 2-1 home success against Norwich at the weekend. Their seven wins and two defeats is the best home record outside Manchester in the Premier League but they’ve only won twice in eight attempts away from home – at Wigan and Sunderland – and have lost their last two at Swansea and Arsenal. Fulham and Newcastle have also beaten Steve Clarke’s side when it’s travelled this season to add further grounds for optimism. West Brom have not won any of their last 11 matches in London.
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion Nathan McAllister says…
“Well, the feel good factor didn’t last long. A week after their best performance of the season Rangers produce one of their worst, at least away from home. I’m not sure Redknapp’s after match comments about players not earning their outrageously high salaries, refreshing as they were, will do much to boost morale in the dressing room. Still, I guess it’s how it affects the players he picks that matters, and I’ll give this ‘peerless motivator’ the benefit of the doubt for now and assume that he knows what he’s doing.
“It’s an overused term I know, but this really is a must-win game. After this Rangers have another run of tough games, and they cannot afford to blow the chance to close the gap between them and seventeenth place. That gap could be as little as two points if they manage a victory because the one positive from this weekend was that everyone else in the bottom four lost. Rangers may yet be saved again this season by the incompetence of three other clubs, and if that does prove to be the case then Reading, Southampton and Wigan appear the most likely.
“This time last month West Brom were third in the table but their form has, perhaps unsurprisingly, tailed off since then and they have gained fewer points from their last five matches than Rangers. If Rangers can play like they did against Fulham then I think they’ll win this, but that performance was the exception rather than the norm this season. I was really disappointed with how poor Rangers were in possession up at Newcastle and I’m feeling much less confident about our chances of winning this than I was prior to that game. West Brom have Mulumbu back for this one, a player who always seems to play well against us, and I see this one ending with the spoils shared. Sorry again for the lack of festive cheer. Have a great Christmas everybody.”
Prediction: QPR 1 West Brom 1
Scorer: Mackie
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