Personally I don't think anyone out of 25 man squad deserves the right to be in our hall of fame, your get some who will say tarabrat Is a Rodney in the making !! Behave yourself ! I wasn't around back in those heedy heights of 70s but I saw enough of Qpr in the 90's and that was the team ! Top london club loved that bragging rights at school but it didn't last long
I suppose the key to being a legend is a decent length of time, some memorable performances and a never say die attitude. I'd have to agree that every current player still has a lot to prove.
I have to say that Adel has the makings....mostly because he is so 'boutique' - but not the finished legend in any way - sorry - I think it so.
Tell you what SR, I was lucky enough to have watched Marsh, Bowles and Currie in pretty much all of their home games and a fair few away, and whilst Taarabt is our current entertainer with the potential to turn a game, I'm afraid to say he ain't a pimple on the arse of the big names above, nor lesser lights, e.g. Wegerle etc. either. When these guys got the ball they did something with it more often than not, rarely lost possession, and unless fouled or diving (Marsh) stayed on their feet with a trail of top class defenders left prostrate in their wake - and us fans delirious in awe! Adel has the potential for legendary status - but if he really wants that, he should study as much footage as he can find of them old masters at work. I'm sure he would've done that with Zidane but should also include Cantona. So it has to be old school for this old man atm - but football's always about the next game as opposed to days long gone. Can't wait till a modern Ranger really has the desire to pull the sword from the stone!
Cheers brix How's this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVc-E9TPBok I would love to have been there must, proper nostalgia right there !
In those days there wasn't so much theory, diet focus, money paid, sponsorship, media focus, you name it; it was all about the footie and the desire to be the best largely down to your own hunger. Plus if you had an inspirational manager, and a great team spirit then talent begat legend. Not the same thing nowadays, but I still like it.
Spooky! Sands of time... trouble is I pre-date all of those stands. A film on LR in my youth would be flickering cine in sepia! Brrr! Doesn't bear thinking about. Always been a this year kind of guy meself!
If you wonder if any of today's players would make an all time 25 man squad, I think Adel would just about sneak into mine, and though I didn't see much of Marsh, I was at a lot of games when we had our best ever team in the mid seventies.
It's interesting you give adel a shout mate, others would as well, no doubt about that. His not quite there yet for me but I can only compare to the best qpr I ever watched which was the school of 94/95/96 Sir Lesley Ferdinand sir Lesley Ferdinand !!!!!!!
Very good post there. None of our current crop come close although Hilly and Dezza will always be respected around W12. Since relegation from the Prem perhaps you could say that King Kev has earned legend status. Wild Thing, Rowly and Furs come fairly close too. But your post Brix, has got me to thinkin'. Our best team in my era, like Cerny's, is the early nineties one. I have it in my head that we was a great team but I wonder do we naturally tend to have a misty eyed view of past teams/players? Does anyone else remember the weather of their youth being almost always warm and sunny? Do our brains remember the good and block out the bad as a sort of defence mechanism? Are we a bit nostalgic about the teams of our youth simply because we were young and happy? Maybe those teams we idolize weren't actually as good as we think?
You have to have many years service to be in the HOF, buying 33yo players doesnt really help players because they have no chance of getting in. Only Taarabt and Granero have any chance, Mbia or Diakite could become cult heros. I saw an article that Dede and Giroud were our top 2 targets so we may have a chance of someone else if we aim at that standard in January.
I think that's right Swords. I had that in mind when I wrote Adel might just sneak into my all time 25 man squad.
South Africa Road stand was there when I first went. How much capacity did we lose with Executive boxes??? Rip them out and the directors box and put them on top of the School End and there's another couple of thou STs for you. I am hugely nostalgic for the early/ mid 70s, but I think that you always love the team/players you started supporting first the most. I was lucky, in 1972 this included most of our best ever team. Simply for his stats in goals and assists in the championship winning season, let alone his style, Adel should be up there in the most loved bracket. But he isn't for me, not sure why, just don't warm to him as a character, though he represents everything I love about football - flair, audacity, the unexpected. I can understand and respect the love for Ainsworth, Bircham, Cook, Gallen etc as great club men, but they are not in the same league as the true greats. I am aware that this must piss off those who were not even born when my true heroes were playing. Console yourselves with the fact that you will see us win far more trophies than my generation - I'll be dead by the time we pick up our fifth Champions League win.
It does piss me off mate I didn't get to see them, As an alternative i just wack on a bit of al green and flip YouTube over to clips of 70's games and watching our legends, I'd would of love to have been born back then, i fcuking love nostalgia, all things west london and the famous qpr ave it !!
Good post CB! good to see you doing threads like this mate. My era was mid 80's onwards. Loved watching Macca/Les, my 2 favs.
When it comes to football, forget all that blue remembered hills bollox. There'll never a better day than tomorrow for me. As for Swords point about long past times seeming better than they actually were, I agree, it can look like that sometimes. However, that's not the case when comparing our true greats with latter day 'saints'. Facts are Marsh not only took on and regularly beat the top players of his age, he actually played alongside George Best at Fulham and equalled the great man in both ability and character. Bowles took his place at Rangers and actually beats Marsh imo as the greatest Ranger ever. For THIRTEEN years the Rangers no.10 shirt was worn by a maverick entertainer feared by ALL defenders! Both were dribblers par excellence: ball stuck to their feet. As for their opponents, there were a lot more Roy Keanes / Robbie Savages around them days - and very few rules to limit their excesses! Let's put it this way, every game featured the famous ROD-NEE chant and EVERYONE joined in. If LR had had a roof, it would've ended up on the moon! The facts. Before strangely joining third tier QPR from top tier Fulham, Rodney was a 1 in 3 goal scorer with a tally of 60 odd goals over 4 seasons. At Rangers he was 1 in 2 scoring over 100 in just under 6 seasons. Stan by comparison was 1 in 3 scoring 97 in 7 seasons. These guys weren't goal hangers, both channel men, usually picking the ball up 40 yards out and 'keying' their way through defences to either score or set others up. Tony Currie on the other hand was more like Granero in many ways. Left central midfield and not much of a goal scorer but with second to none vision and telling passes of all types. The most gifted and silky skilled Ranger I've ever had the pleasure of paying to watch on a reg. What I'm saying is there's no rose tints involved in comparing our true greats with their modern day replacements - unfortunately for us all.
