Here's an interesting interview with former QPR chairmen Richard Thompson by Ron Norris. Richard Thompson on how it all went sour at QPR – Interview Thursday, 23rd Mar 2017 19:45 by Ron Norris In the first of what we hope will be many interviews for LFW with notable figures from the QPR past, QPRnet's Ron Norris caught up with controversial former chairman Richard Thompson. Everything is being rebooted these day and now we have decided to reboot the QPRnet interview but on Loft For Words! Here’s why... I first started interviewing for QPRnet back in 2001. Across the next 13 years we racked up more than 50 chats with players, managers and officials – you can access the archive here. It became one of the most popular features on the site and my favourite to do. Since I stopped updating QPRnet a couple of years ago it has been the one thing I’ve really missed. The odd interview wasn’t really worth hosting a whole site for though so when Clive mentioned to me that he would like to carry them on LFW I jumped at the chance to get back into it. Which leads us to here. When I started putting feelers out for new interviews I threw a cheeky email out to a third party about Richard Thompson. I have followed his business career over the years and sent a few emails in the past but never got anything back. I never thought for a moment that he would be the first person to reply to kick off this new run but that’s exactly what happened. Which means this first interview on LFW is with one of the more polarising personalities of recent years. In for a penny…. The following is our chat with Richard during which time he talks about his period running the club, living through the protests against him, his thoughts on the big player sales and the Rodney/Gerry saga from his side of the fence. Enjoy. Let's go back to the beginning if we can, how did you and your family get involved in QPR? RT: My father had a stake of about 28% in Marler Estates who owned the club so I knew the people there very well. Then when David Bulstrode died in 1988 the Marler CEO at the time asked me if I would fancy taking on the chairmanship. I said yeah fine. At 24 I thought why not, I'll have a go. About nine months later Marler was sold to another company and they wanted to move the club on so we bought it outright, that was about nine or ten months after I took over as chairman. - See more at: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footba...-sour-at-qpr-–-interview#sthash.cRfkx2dt.dpuf
I'm guessing that the truth lies somewhere in between the various versions that have done the rounds over the years....... Not sure either Gerry or Rodney come out of this version too well.........would be interesting to hear their updated views...
Gerry, a seasoned football man, having to deal with a snotty nosed 24 year old chairman. It was never going to end well unless the chairman deferred to Gerry.
Interesting read: Replacing Gerry with 'useless nice guy' Wilkins as manager, who sold Sir Les and used proceeds to buy Osborn , Zelic & Hateley - says it all really. We were never going to stay up with a strike force of very young & inexperienced Dichio & Gallen plus'past it' Hateley. Thompson & Wilkins ruined our club - took decades to recover from that
A fascinating read, nice to have a perspective from a side the fans don't normally have. It has to be said that period in the early 90s was probably our most consistentently successful period as a club in the top flight and mainly down to Francis's management. I remember the regular protests at the Thompson ownership which reached a high point in the relegation season but, as was proved, the old adage of 'Be careful what you wish for' came to pass. Chris Wright, a supporter, really put the kybosh on the club with his stock market float and bringing Wasps in with all their ridiculous expenditure as well. Everybody saw Rodney as the villain of the piece, myself included, but it seems Francis didn't really need much of an excuse to jump ship at the time. Add that to some ridiculous decisions on player purchases and managerial appointments and our demise was as swift as our rise. Perhaps those of us that criticise TF, myself included, should remember just how bad things could be looking at Coventry, Portsmouth and other once established top level clubs that are on a downward spiral...
