Match Day Thread West Brom v QPR

[bc7]

It’s the whole sorry lot of ‘em, as far as I’m concerned, including Amit Bhatia. What exactly has the man done other than appear on the periphery of every ****e decision made by this club in the last 6-7 years?

McClaren (capital C, not capital L) is taking the money, so every bit entitled to take his share of the vitriol. When I complain to a large organisation and can only speak to some call centre lackey who tells me I’m being unfair to him because that’s all he is, I remind him that he is what the bigwigs are putting between them and the punters, so I have every right to sound off at him.

McClaren is our call centre lackey.

Amazingly, I’m finding myself a little nostalgic for the no-nonsense, decisive administration of Tango & Cash at the moment. Yes, it was somewhat chaotic from the outside, but no question the club progressed year-on-year until it was Premier League. I get the impression that Watford was managed in a similar way and they are now a sustainable PL side despite a few changes in management personnel.

The anti-alchemy mix of Fernandes, Bhatia, Sir Les and Gnamadamadingdong has been a catalogue of bollocks.

I say get rid of McClaren soonest and scout for another young progressive foreign manager like Luigi De Canio, then give him licence to loan emerging talent from abroad and 2-3 years to set the right culture and infrastructure within the club. Manage expectations on that basis.

Alternatively, wait for the short-term fix of Warnock - I fear we may need him to do for us what he did for Rotherham a few seasons back - then appoint the young foreigner.

Dickheads like McClaren are not the future of this club. If you appoint mediocre has-beens then you should expect mediocrity.

Remember those ticket price rises when we got promoted though! At least TF & Amit reversed them (if I remember correctly)

 

[Uber_Hoop]

Remember those ticket price rises when we got promoted though! At least TF & Amit reversed them (if I remember correctly)

I think those that paid the reduced prices deserve a further discount!

 

[Frome-Ranger]

I think one can safely make these asumptions about the administration of the club, Frome. Their track record speaks for itself. I have zero sympathy for the amount of money these clowns have stuck into the club and since written-off. As I’ve said a few times before, they’re a bunch of plucky amateurs at best.

Just consider what they’ve “achieved” in the past 6-7 years. Not even the first foot on the new stadium ladder. Not even the first foot on the new training ground ladder. Mark Hughes. Harry Redknapp. JFH. Steve McClaren. FFP. SLF. A list of hopeless signings and swan song pay-chequers. Not so much of a whiff of a proper infrastructure. Enforced austerity.

By the time Fernandes slopes back to his toy planes he’d have lost millions and we’ll be a struggling League One side celebrating home draws with Accrington Stanley and fearing Doncaster Away. The man and his team are oafs.

One thing I’ve learned in management is that you never look back and believe you dismissed somebody too soon. I’ve no idea what length contract McClaren is on - probably far longer than was wise - but he’s gotta go if we fail to pick up in th next 5 games.

Sure there's been a **** tonne of mistakes made during TF's tenure and he is ultimately culpable for them. But we can't keep harping on about Redknapp and Hughes and the endless string of mercenaries. We are a few years down the road from those mistakes. The club are making efforts to learn from these, finally.

Neither you nor I or anyone on this board really knows exactly the roles people like SLF play. I am firmly in the camp that actually SLF alongside Hoos is making sound progress in ensuring the club is more stable. What do you know about our infratructure? Actualy better question is if we had won 3 in a row would you even be thinking about it.

Player recruitment is clearly incredibly challenging for us at the moment and whilst that is as a result of previous mistakes austerity is really the only option.

Bhatia has never really had much if an active role has he?

I have never procured a site for a new training ground or built a new stadium neither do I know what goes into these ventures. So whilst on the surface it feels very frustrating I don't have the knowledge to criticise the club for a perceived lack of progress. Maybe TF's tweets about these things are the most frustrating as they are routinely chucked out to calm us down about something or other.

Ref McLaren, he does need a result on Tuesday as it doesn't take much for things to get nasty.

 

[Frome-Ranger]

I get it in HD mate.
Channel 144 on sky.

Anyone watched it yet? Ollie is their pundit. Made a comment about Ned yesterday still not having a job.

 

[Uber_Hoop]

Sure there's been a **** tonne of mistakes made during TF's tenure and he is ultimately culpable for them. But we can't keep harping on about Redknapp and Hughes and the endless string of mercenaries. We are a few years down the road from those mistakes. The club are making efforts to learn from these, finally.

Neither you nor I or anyone on this board really knows exactly the roles people like SLF play. I am firmly in the camp that actually SLF alongside Hoos is making sound progress in ensuring the club is more stable. What do you know about our infratructure? Actualy better question is if we had won 3 in a row would you even be thinking about it.

Player recruitment is clearly incredibly challenging for us at the moment and whilst that is as a result of previous mistakes austerity is really the only option.

Bhatia has never really had much if an active role has he?

I have never procured a site for a new training ground or built a new stadium neither do I know what goes into these ventures. So whilst on the surface it feels very frustrating I don't have the knowledge to criticise the club for a perceived lack of progress. Maybe TF's tweets about these things are the most frustrating as they are routinely chucked out to calm us down about something or other.

Ref McLaren, he does need a result on Tuesday as it doesn't take much for things to get nasty.

All true, Frome. But this is a results-based industry where expectations have to be managed.

What do I know about our infrastructure? About as much sitting in Southampton as you probably do sitting in (presumably) in Frome.

If you think it unreasonable to question these things then that’s your prerogative. I will be as delighted as the next man when we win the next three games on the spin, with McClaren (capital C, not capital L) having an inferior squad to last year playing a superior style of football to last year.

If we lose the next three in a row will I be permitted to criticise the decisions made by the club, or should I wait until Christmas?

 

[Goldhawk-Road]

All true, Frome. But this is a results-based industry where expectations have to be managed.

What do I know about our infrastructure? About as much sitting in Southampton as you probably do sitting in (presumably) in Frome.

If you think it unreasonable to question these things then that’s your prerogative. I will be as delighted as the next man when we win the next three games on the spin, with McClaren (capital C, not capital L) having an inferior squad to last year playing a superior style of football to last year.

If we lose the next three in a row will I be permitted to criticise the decisions made by the club, or should I wait until Christmas?

If we lose the next 3 in a row, we'll be in the middle of an all-out crisis. Bristol City is huge on Tuesday. We need a win, or at least, a really persuasive performance (and a point).

 

[rangercol]

Anyone watched it yet? Ollie is their pundit. Made a comment about Ned yesterday still not having a job.

Can't bring myself to.

 

[awjm]

Sure there's been a **** tonne of mistakes made during TF's tenure and he is ultimately culpable for them. But we can't keep harping on about Redknapp and Hughes and the endless string of mercenaries. We are a few years down the road from those mistakes. The club are making efforts to learn from these, finally.

Neither you nor I or anyone on this board really knows exactly the roles people like SLF play. I am firmly in the camp that actually SLF alongside Hoos is making sound progress in ensuring the club is more stable. What do you know about our infratructure? Actualy better question is if we had won 3 in a row would you even be thinking about it.

Player recruitment is clearly incredibly challenging for us at the moment and whilst that is as a result of previous mistakes austerity is really the only option.

Bhatia has never really had much if an active role has he?

I have never procured a site for a new training ground or built a new stadium neither do I know what goes into these ventures. So whilst on the surface it feels very frustrating I don't have the knowledge to criticise the club for a perceived lack of progress. Maybe TF's tweets about these things are the most frustrating as they are routinely chucked out to calm us down about something or other.

Ref McLaren, he does need a result on Tuesday as it doesn't take much for things to get nasty.

My previous post pretty much sums up my opinion on this:

When Ollie got sacked I was against it.
Ollie DID get us into a better position. It may not look like it based on our finishing place on the table but points wise we were better off than the season before. That was actual progress. We were watching more interesting matches than we had done at any point with the last 3 managers. There was actual progress. The whole club felt better.
The owners at QPR get funny ideas in their heads and make impulse choices. Simple as. They should have looked on that (albeit somewhat slow) progress, realised that stability would be an important factor and pushed on, perhaps bringing in some better coaching staff and players.
But no... the thinking is "let's take a complete gamble... we're making progress but I keep having dreams of being on Sky Sports in EPL every week and I don't want to wait!"

Past mistakes... but the mistakes are being made today quite potentially. Was the sacking of Ollie really justified when we finished with more points compared to last season all the while having the target of mid table (which was achieved). We saw a bit of an improvement in the football. The feeling of the club was feeling good again.

So why did they pull the trigger and gamble on another change of management, leading us back to instability after a period of stability?

I'm willing to give McClaren a chance but yesterday was shocking. He said it will take 6 games for the team to play his style. Fine. But I would have rather stuck with Ollie for the stability and hope of a gradual improvement on last season.

 

[Sooperhoop]

I saw a couple of the goals on SSN last night and our defence seemed to go walkabout, certainly lacked effort which really has no excuse. Schteeve is coaching them so he's clearly not getting the message across at present...

 

[KooPeeArr]

Firstly, this "need more experience" line seems like nothing more than an excuse. We had a couple of youth players on the pitch and a couple on the bench.

Secondly, I personally can forgive TF for chasing the dream and ending up with burnt fingers but there has been poor decision making even when we're trying to be restrained and sensible. We sack a manager who inched us forward to pursue a greater degree of progress.

At this point, contrast Ipswich, who sacked their manager for similar reasons and have similar budget constraints. They were linked to the Blackburn manager, the brothers at Lincoln, the St Mirren manager, a couple of ex-players, Gerrard and Lampard before getting the Shrewsbury manager.

What diligence do we show? We go straight for someone who TF liked from 4 years ago. How can we tell that there wasn't an exhaustive list of candidates? Because it was leaked that McClaren would take over before Ollie was even sacked.

It was just lazy interference for the sake of feeling like you're doing something when perhaps you shouldn't do anything at all.

 

[Uber_Hoop]

I saw a couple of the goals on SSN last night and our defence seemed to go walkabout, certainly lacked effort which really has no excuse. Schteeve is coaching them so he's clearly not getting the message across at present...

Maybe it’s all double Dutch to the players?

 

[Uber_Hoop]

Firstly, this "need more experience" line seems like nothing more than an excuse. We had a couple of youth players on the pitch and a couple on the bench.

Secondly, I personally can forgive TF for chasing the dream and ending up with burnt fingers but there has been poor decision making even when we're trying to be restrained and sensible. We sack a manager who inched us forward to pursue a greater degree of progress.

At this point, contrast Ipswich, who sacked their manager for similar reasons and have similar budget constraints. They were linked to the Blackburn manager, the brothers at Lincoln, the St Mirren manager, a couple of ex-players, Gerrard and Lampard before getting the Shrewsbury manager.

What diligence do we show? We go straight for someone who TF liked from 4 years ago. How can we tell that there wasn't an exhaustive list of candidates? Because it was leaked that McClaren would take over before Ollie was even sacked.

It was just lazy interference for the sake of feeling like you're doing something when perhaps you shouldn't do anything at all.

Bang on. Good post.

 

[awjm]

Firstly, this "need more experience" line seems like nothing more than an excuse. We had a couple of youth players on the pitch and a couple on the bench.

Secondly, I personally can forgive TF for chasing the dream and ending up with burnt fingers but there has been poor decision making even when we're trying to be restrained and sensible. We sack a manager who inched us forward to pursue a greater degree of progress.

At this point, contrast Ipswich, who sacked their manager for similar reasons and have similar budget constraints. They were linked to the Blackburn manager, the brothers at Lincoln, the St Mirren manager, a couple of ex-players, Gerrard and Lampard before getting the Shrewsbury manager.

What diligence do we show? We go straight for someone who TF liked from 4 years ago. How can we tell that there wasn't an exhaustive list of candidates? Because it was leaked that McClaren would take over before Ollie was even sacked.

It was just lazy interference for the sake of feeling like you're doing something when perhaps you shouldn't do anything at all.

This is my point exactly. There was progress. We keep going on about stability. Even Ollie had similar constraints with regards to buying new players. And he still made the progress in terms of points accumulated, match enjoyment, club atmosphere and performance.

So this is basically a repeat of past errors... jumping the gun... having a modest target, losing patience with that target and being greedy for more. They still want to rush to the EPL.

 

[KooPeeArr]

This is my point exactly. There was progress. We keep going on about stability. Even Ollie had similar constraints with regards to buying new players. And he still made the progress in terms of points accumulated, match enjoyment, club atmosphere and performance.

So this is basically a repeat of past errors... jumping the gun... having a modest target, losing patience with that target and being greedy for more. They still want to rush to the EPL.

I think I did end up repeating a lot of what you already put (you can have a share in the royalties).

It annoys me that we ended last season feeling really positive about our youngsters and now they are seen as a millstone around our necks.

 

[KooPeeArr]

Bang on. Good post.

Thank you Ubes (capital U, not capital B)

 

[Goldhawk-Road]

Firstly, this "need more experience" line seems like nothing more than an excuse. We had a couple of youth players on the pitch and a couple on the bench.

Secondly, I personally can forgive TF for chasing the dream and ending up with burnt fingers but there has been poor decision making even when we're trying to be restrained and sensible. We sack a manager who inched us forward to pursue a greater degree of progress.

At this point, contrast Ipswich, who sacked their manager for similar reasons and have similar budget constraints. They were linked to the Blackburn manager, the brothers at Lincoln, the St Mirren manager, a couple of ex-players, Gerrard and Lampard before getting the Shrewsbury manager.

What diligence do we show? We go straight for someone who TF liked from 4 years ago. How can we tell that there wasn't an exhaustive list of candidates? Because it was leaked that McClaren would take over before Ollie was even sacked.

It was just lazy interference for the sake of feeling like you're doing something when perhaps you shouldn't do anything at all.

Tony has a history of either being impressed with past "names" or doing something whacky like focusing only on a black manager. Rather than really assessing what is needed, because in terms of football, he doesn't have a clue. If football had two wings and a cockpit, he'd do better

 

[IwasanotherwatfordR]

Yesterday, 18 August was the 7th anniversary of Mr Anthony Fernandes’ appointment as a director of the R’s.

It was celebrated by our shipping seven goals in his honour.

I think poor old Tone has presided over the most disastrous football takeover in history. This is in terms of lost money and team progression.

I cannot recall how many records we’ve set for ourselves and others over last four years but I remember - longest wait for away win (Notts Forest) worst home defeat, worst defeat in 30 odd years, worst start to a season? Countless times it’s been reported that Mr X has scored against us and its his first goal in xxx years.

There’s nothing on the horizon to suggest it is going to get any better any time soon.

They should refund the fans who schlepped to Birmingham for yesterday’s debacle.

 

[rajman]

It’s 3 games not the end of the world (yet). Preston was never going to be easy and we almost nicked a draw Sheffield United we didn’t get anything because of poor refereeing decisions and did anyone think we’d get anything at WBA. The manner of defeat was extremely embarrassing and the players now need to step up and grow some balls and slowly things might change, need to give the new management time, are we doing anything different from last season apart from trying to play out from the back? Can’t change everything at once, I haven’t seen much change looks like same players same system just a lack of ideas and movement hopefully management can see this and are trying to change it, McClaren can only tell them what he wants them to do, if they don’t do it then that’s down to the players, now the game is over it’s McClaren’s job to put it right for Tuesday we need to give him time he’s inherited a young naive squad that desperately needs experience let’s see if we get anyone in over the next 2 weeks before we throw the towel in.

Agree...only been 3 games, but I think its clear to see the lack of leadership or exprience on the pitch. Ned (however much he was blasted by some), was a capable leader and for my money we will miss the 10-15 pts that Smithies had saved us in the last couple of seasons.
It's going to be a desperate game on Tuesday that we at least need to get a point to get us off the mark.
I am really hoping that the board can get a few in (but who would want to come).

 

[Uber_Hoop]

Thank you Ubes (capital U, not capital B)

Most people who know me describe me first using a small “c”

 

[KooPeeArr]

Most people who know me describe me first using a small “c”

cUbes? Do you have an obsession with Oxo?