| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... 09:11 - May 17 with 9831 views | YorkRanger |
Doomed Rangers have only themselves to blame for failing to play fair
Joey BARTON, the captain of Queens Park Rangers, has been involved in a typically entertaining Twitter spat.
Joey is as energetic and combative on social media sites as he is on the pitch. Would that one or two other of his utterly useless teammates had showed the same level of involvement this season, QPR would surely not have been relegated and thus facing financial ruin.
Only two teams from the Premier League have seriously under-performed this season – Newcastle United and QPR, who met yesterday afternoon. A grim battle between the utterly insouciant and the entirely distrait, Barton and Jack Colback excepted. The supporters of both clubs have been seriously let down by the majority of their expensive and mercenary players.
Barton launched into a tirade against an old QPR legend, the wayward talent that was Rodney Marsh. “Let it go, mate. You peaked over 40 years ago in Division Two. You did well in the lower leagues when football was played at a walking pace,” Mr Barton observed (not entirely incorrectly, it should be noted), before describing Marsh as a “skint, washed-up player full of hatred”. Miaow, etc.
Marsh, for his part, pointed out – again, not entirely incorrectly – that when he was Barton’s age he had played for England and captained Manchester City. We should probably let the two of them slug it out — the former player who was always (to my mind) rather overrated, and the current player who has been underrated as a consequence of a somewhat querulous attitude.
I would rather have Barton in my team than Marsh. If QPR had been lucky enough to have 10 Bartons they wouldn’t be where they are now. Ten Rodney Marshes and they would probably be bankrupt already, as well as relegated.
QPR are in big trouble – and now, of course, the lawyers are involved. In the season they were promoted from the Championship they spent much, much more money on wages and transfer fees than their budget allowed under the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
In other words, they cheated. And they cheated by an enormous amount of money. Subjected to a fine of £58m by the Football League upon their promotion the club decided that the best course of action would be to ignore it entirely. So they cheated, and then they defaulted, banking on the certainty that they would not be relegated the following season and therefore would be able to evade the fine. Bad, bad call. The options open to the Football League are many and varied and involve the possibility of kicking the club out of the league entirely. But the signals from the Football League have been conciliatory of late, with demotion or defenestration all but ruled out. This, I think, is a grave mistake. If the Financial Fair Play rules are not enforced with stringency then we might as well get rid of them. It is hard to imagine a greater infraction of the spirit and letter of the law – and QPR should pay heavily for it. Why should the majority of clubs bother adhering to strict budgets when QPR sail gaily through, incurring debts of more than £60m?
You can argue that the FFP stuff is an absurdity if you like. If some rich foreigner wants to waste his entire fortune on a middling west London yo-yo club, as Tony Fernandez is doing at QPR, then why should he not be allowed to do so?
Better that, you might argue, than the other sort of approach – which is to transfer money out of the club and into the rich businessman’s various other accounts and interests, as happened at poor old Blackpool. Sure, I see that. But owners have a habit of growing weary of forever forking out more and more money – and then, exhausted, skedaddling – leaving behind them an unholy mess. Financial Fair Play was one method of combatting the destruction of a football club by an overweening, over-ambitious owner, as well as ensuring that clubs strove for success in a sustainable manner. Mr Fernandez wrote off QPR’s debts of £60m, but for how much longer will he be happy to do that? And what happens when he bails out?
My guess is that QPR will just about get by, in the very short term. One assumes they will flog the talented striker Charlie Austin for somewhere in the region of ten to fifteen million quid. That will help them pay the first instalment of that whopping fine, and it may keep the Football League happy for a while. They also have parachute payments to help them along. But on current predictions, next season Rangers are looking at a loss of somewhere in the region of £100m – which, again, will be a tad above the approved limit under the FFP rules of £8m. That would mean a transfer embargo and a fine, at the very least.
It would be unfair on the other Championship clubs if Rangers were not hit with a transfer embargo immediately, until that fine is completely paid off. Otherwise, what is the point of Financial Fair Play? |  | | |  |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 09:19 - May 17 with 6767 views | paesanu |
Was this written by Joey Barton. |  |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 09:26 - May 17 with 6711 views | peejaybee |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 09:19 - May 17 by paesanu |
Was this written by Joey Barton. |
Mr Liddle is a Puddle of Piddle. |  |
| If at first you dont succeed, pack up and f**k off home. |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 09:32 - May 17 with 6674 views | stuabd |
100m loss next season? Surely that's a bit of an exaggeration. |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 09:51 - May 17 with 6609 views | stowmarketrange |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 09:32 - May 17 by stuabd |
100m loss next season? Surely that's a bit of an exaggeration. |
The guy on SSN on Monday was talking about the amount of lost income for next season as being £100 million but this idiot has switched that to us losing that amount of money.
It won't be easy,but if we get rid of the highest earners from the club because their contracts are up,we can bring in players on sensible wages for a change. |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 10:05 - May 17 with 6552 views | TheBlob |
Don't rise to the bait,that's what he wants is us lot to be on the defensive all the time.It's all sour grapes - Millwall/his mate Barton.....
If I were the QPR legal team I'd be looking at accusations here,especially being called cheats. |  |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 10:10 - May 17 with 6528 views | QPR_Jim |
He's wrong about FFP too, the limit was 8m the season we were promoted but they have changed that to 13m next season to prepare for the new FFP rules coming in the following season.
Who needs facts though. |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 10:12 - May 17 with 6520 views | TheBlob |
RAAAOWWWWWWWWWWWW......here's a nice saucer of milk for you Rod. | |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 11:18 - May 17 with 6370 views | SomersetHoops |
I wonder how many times he has seen Barton play for QPR when he comes out with that crap. It undermines everything else he says which seems to be equally inaccurate anyway. |  |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 11:32 - May 17 with 6312 views | connell10 |
He lost the argument when he said Barton is better than marsh! |  |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 11:46 - May 17 with 6263 views | WrightUp5hit___ |
What I hate about these ill informed rsewipes giving forth on FFP is that they dont understand the real circumstances of relegation from the Prem.
When you are there, you sign players on reasonably chunky salaries offering the player reasonable security, or they wont join you. Relegation clauses dont exist for the type of player you want to sign to keep you in the division, just the steady eddies.
When you are relegated you just cant magic them away. if you settle their contracts to be rid, you spend and breach FFP. You keep the players they are under contract ,you have to keep paying them, you breach FFP.
It means non compliance with FFP but it aint cheating Mr Liddle, it means fulfilling a contract and the law of the land. |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 12:11 - May 17 with 6197 views | QPR_John |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 11:46 - May 17 by WrightUp5hit___ |
What I hate about these ill informed rsewipes giving forth on FFP is that they dont understand the real circumstances of relegation from the Prem.
When you are there, you sign players on reasonably chunky salaries offering the player reasonable security, or they wont join you. Relegation clauses dont exist for the type of player you want to sign to keep you in the division, just the steady eddies.
When you are relegated you just cant magic them away. if you settle their contracts to be rid, you spend and breach FFP. You keep the players they are under contract ,you have to keep paying them, you breach FFP.
It means non compliance with FFP but it aint cheating Mr Liddle, it means fulfilling a contract and the law of the land. |
No one should comment on FFP without discussing that very point regarding relegation from the PL. I cannot imagine that was even considered when the FL came up with their FFP plans. Very few clubs will gamble on competing in the PL if relegation means a fine from the FL. Most clubs will go up pocket the money and come down again. |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 13:55 - May 17 with 6054 views | SomersetHoops |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 11:46 - May 17 by WrightUp5hit___ |
What I hate about these ill informed rsewipes giving forth on FFP is that they dont understand the real circumstances of relegation from the Prem.
When you are there, you sign players on reasonably chunky salaries offering the player reasonable security, or they wont join you. Relegation clauses dont exist for the type of player you want to sign to keep you in the division, just the steady eddies.
When you are relegated you just cant magic them away. if you settle their contracts to be rid, you spend and breach FFP. You keep the players they are under contract ,you have to keep paying them, you breach FFP.
It means non compliance with FFP but it aint cheating Mr Liddle, it means fulfilling a contract and the law of the land. |
I agree with you, but some of the contracts we gave out were outstandingly stupid both in length and value. That should have no bearing on FFP though because as you say we had no option but to honour those contracts after relegation and the only other option would be to pay the contracts off which would show an even greater deficit and leave us short of players. | |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 14:52 - May 17 with 5926 views | derbyhoop |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 09:32 - May 17 by stuabd |
100m loss next season? Surely that's a bit of an exaggeration. |
Far more than an exaggeration.
Let's start from the £69.8m loss (before write offs) from the 2013/14 season.
Since then we have lost Remy, Cesar, Granero, Mbia, Luke Young, Benayoun, AJ and others from the wage bill. We received fees for Remy, Granero and Simpson.
We bought Caulker, Fer, Sandro, McCarthy and Robinson; bought and sold Mutch; paid loan fees for Isla and Vargas. Net loss on transfers about £25m maximum. I'm guessing wages would be less compared with the departees.
Income would be up by at least £35m, probably more like £50m.
So income up by £35m, less £25m on transfers and £5-10m less on wages.
Any accountant worth his salt (TF, perhaps) ought to ensure the losses for this season would be about half the figure quoted. Or less.
Not good but not as bad as the picture painted. |  |
| "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 15:43 - May 17 with 5806 views | GroveR |
Liddle is one of a select group of journalists* whose byline I see and immediately think "what is that [________] cùnt wittering on about now" and just autofill based on which one it is, "fat-faced wife beating racist" in this case.
I'll agree with him on 1 thing though - "If the Financial Fair Play rules are not enforced with stringency then we might as well get rid of them." - which includes Real, Barcelona, PSG, Man City, Chels***, etc.
* includes but not limited to Nirpal Dhaliwahl, that mad bitch he was married to, Littlejohn, Mellor, Mick Dennis, etc |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 15:59 - May 17 with 5755 views | Jigsore |
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| “The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.†|
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 21:53 - May 17 with 5456 views | TGRRRSSS |
How much did Bournemouth spend to get to the PL??? |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 23:09 - May 17 with 5332 views | SydneyRs |
So I assume that he has also accused Chelsea and Manchester City of cheating? | | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 23:18 - May 17 with 5306 views | WilloW4 |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 23:09 - May 17 by SydneyRs |
So I assume that he has also accused Chelsea and Manchester City of cheating? |
Rod Liddle is just a plastic millwall mockney feck wit...nuff said !! |  | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 23:46 - May 17 with 5261 views | batmanhoop |
I doubt too many of us that can remember Rodders down the Bush would prefer Barton | | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 00:16 - May 18 with 5234 views | zicoshoops |
I've seen them both play for us.
On his very best day, Barton was probably good enough to lace up Rodney's boots.
As for the newspaper article.
Some front the fella, glass houses and all that.
He should take a long hard look at himself.
Class.................You can't buy it.
You've either got it..........or in his case.....you haven't.
Two Bob. | | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 15:33 - May 18 with 4830 views | Chicken |
I think it's a good piece. | | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 16:08 - May 18 with 4777 views | Rangersw12 |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 15:33 - May 18 by Chicken |
I think it's a good piece. |
Your Mum.... | | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 17:46 - May 18 with 4690 views | headhoops |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 10:05 - May 17 by TheBlob |
Don't rise to the bait,that's what he wants is us lot to be on the defensive all the time.It's all sour grapes - Millwall/his mate Barton.....
If I were the QPR legal team I'd be looking at accusations here,especially being called cheats. |
Liddle can call QPR cheats - in a court case it would be up to QPR to prove they weren't.
The same way I can call Liddle a vvanker and he would have to prove he isn't. I'm not expecting a libel letter anytime soon. |  |
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| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 19:23 - May 18 with 4584 views | easthertsr |
Liddle utter c@nt end of! | | | |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 19:24 - May 18 with 4581 views | Stanisgod |
| Brace yourselves - Our old friend Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today.... on 23:09 - May 17 by SydneyRs |
So I assume that he has also accused Chelsea and Manchester City of cheating? |
Exactly. Absolute cock of the highest order. So chelscum stocking up on Europe's best youngsters with no intention of ever playing them isn't cheating. Having 26 players out on loan is ok is it? Man City buying the title is different how exactly.
What about Hull? No one mentions the fact that they are going down despite buying practically the equivalent of a whole extra team pre season.
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| It's being so happy that keeps me going. |
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