I have been supporting QPR for 40 years and this has been the worst season for me. We have spent on players and paid big wages yet we still produce utter dross like today. At least in league 1 there was some pride.
1969 was bad, like Southampton we'd had back to back promotions AND we'd won the League Cup from the Third Division. However it all went horribly wrong with a similar sense of inevitability to the present. I was only young, it probably traumatised me for life.
I'm in my 20s and have seen far worse than this. Steve Morrow and Christer Warren used to play for us ffs.
It's not about having seen worse and as Watford says we've had some truly dire players but about what we are doing with a squad that cost millions and allegedly is full of enough talent to ensure us safety. This decline has been going on for eighteen months now and logically there has to be a reason for it as other teams promoted the same and following years to us have fought their corner with dignity. What's the cause here? Can't be the manager now Hughes has gone, can't be the players as we've changed enough of them and bought alleged quality, can't be the fans as we have the best in the UK. Caterham F1 sat solidly at the back of the grid for all Fernandes' tenure. A coincidence? Perhaps. "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark..."
I think we are trying to be an Everton type club before we have been a Wigan type club, we have owners that want us to be big but are not giving it time to grow and work. The club has been neglected by previous owners and The current owners are trying to get us back to our former glory, but I do feel they are trying to do too much too soon.
When the dust settles on this ****ty season, I don't think we'll blame the current owners. Presumably you remember when our owners were tight? not interested? tight and not interested? However depressing this season, we have owners who plan to carry on spending on the infrastructure of the club, and if Ecclestone and Briatore somehow lucked out and presided over a promotion campaign than so can Fernandes (and Amit was here last time remember). I think the relative age of the Swansea, Norwich and QPR squads in their promotion year has something to do with their differing fortunes in the premiership. The biggest difference though, was in the ownership prior to promotion. As the 4 year plan demonstrates, we were a joke, and we got promoted despite, not because of, our owners. There was no plan, there was no academy, we sold Sterling. We were always going to have to buy a new team or two, and contrary to the media perception, I think we haven't spent enough. Its been a crap year. But the future looks much better than last time we went down.
The difference that season was we didn't spend megabucks on the team, it was basically the same team that won Div 3 in 66/67. The top division was always going to be a step too far...
That's true but I was young and couldn’t believe it would go that badly with just two wins in the whole season. When I left the UK at the beginning of the seventies we were a Second Division (Championship) club. Despite all that has happened since I still believe to be honest that's our natural position in the leagues.
This awful season started with a completely pointless tour of Southeast Asia where we wiped the floor with a load of Mickey Mouse sides. Our priorities were all wrong from the very beginnings - trying to make us into some sort of brand that could break into the Asian market. Complete balls up from the beginning, unfortunately. We never got our objectives sorted, bought the wrong type of player, most of which played in the same position, and a few strikers, none of which could complete a season. Madness. Very depressing stuff. To think we've come so far, just to fail in such a disgraceful manner. Although there have been many terrible seasons of watching crap football, this one's right up there because we actually had a real opportunity to establish ourselves in the PL. Horrible to say, but can't see us coming back any time soon.
As someone who had an ex wife and in laws from there I can assure you Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia is bad news. Very bad news.
