Fourteen months ago, Queens Park Rangers stood out as a shining example of what not to do when the fabulously wealthy purchase a football club. Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, whose combined wealth exceeds ã20billion, had seen six permanent and four caretaker managers come and go and made a staggering 93 transfers since they purchased the west London side in August 2007. The reward for such largesse was, at that point, a bitter relegation battle in the Championship, a division they had not expected to be in for very long. Ultimately, it took a man forged in Sheffield to show a trio who are more used to being in Monaco than Millwall how to succeed in English football. Neil Warnock has transformed expectations at Loftus Road far quicker than anyone, including the 62-year-old, could have expected. Parachuted in after growing frustrated with administration at Crystal Palace, Warnock has been given free reign at Loftus Road, with promotion to the Premier League as champions clear evidence that the football side of Rangers was better off left to the professionals. What is more, he has done it without spending anywhere near the amount of money anticipated of a club whose wealth can only be dreamed of by all in English football bar Chelsea and Manchester City. Yet for 10 days Warnock's reward was growing speculation over his future - a situation which has at last been put to bed as the club throw their weight behind the man who has wrought such a transformation. No wonder, then, that the manager was in high spirits when he spoke to Standard Sport at a training ground that is gearing up for life in the Premier League. "This has been the most rewarding season of my career by an absolute mile," said Warnock, who has brought together a team consisting largely of journeymen players and made them into the Championship's dominant side. "When I came here I was the fifth manager of that year [including caretakers]. But we have done it all in 14 months, which is remarkable. "And we haven't spent a lot of money, we have done it in the right way. "It has been phenomenal and everyone has come together as a result. I think it has been my hardest job, because so many ingredients have gone into the recipe. I don't think I could have done it four or five years ago. "But I knew what we had in the dressing room and we had some quality players, too. To sign Adel [Taarabt, Warnock's captain] last summer was important, I thought Paddy Kenny was a super buy at ã750,000 and Alejandro Faurlin will be one of the best midfielders in England next season. To see it all come to fruition is special." Indeed it has, as Rangers won the Championship title by four points from Norwich, although they faced an anxious wait for promotion to be confirmed as the Football Association investigated alleged irregularities in the deal that brought Argentine Faurlin to the club. With that hurdle cleared, the focus is now on the future. Rangers appear from the outside to be capable of almost anything, with Manchester City, who have spent around ã350million in three seasons, surely the likely model. Warnock disagrees. Pointing out that Norwich spent more than QPR did last summer, he instead warns of a more frugal summer than might otherwise be anticipated. "What we have here is perceived money," he added, bristling at the suggestion that his club will now dine at the same table as City and Chelsea. "I don't think anyone wants to splash out fortunes. I think the Premier League will be a great League to be in, and I think the owners will really enjoy it, but they will want me to be as thrifty as I have been in the Championship, getting value for money and entertainment as best that we can without spending millions. "I can't see them throwing money around with 18,000 crowds. I don't think they want to be self-sufficient, as that is difficult, but they don't want to be throwing money around stupidly. "I see we have been linked with Joe Cole but I doubt we could afford a quarter of his wages. "If you gave me fourth from bottom next season, then I would accept that now. The more years you have in the Premier League, the more chance you have of establishing and stabilising, such as Stoke or Bolton. I think QPR could become one of those clubs but you have to stay in the Premier League to do that. That can be a goal for us but we are nowhere near good enough to be top half of the Premier League at the moment. "And Stoke have improved every year if you look at their signings. They have spent a lot of money on some of them, and have increased the quality of their players year on year, and that is the art of it. "I thought we could do that when I was at Sheffield United but we only spent around ã2m in the Premier League, whereas here we need to invest a bit more than that." It is an interesting take on the world opened up by Rangers' considerable riches but is in keeping with Warnock's tactics to date. He describes himself as "the head of a group at QPR, trying to guide them [the owners] in the right direction". The main question is which direction they want to take. Since they arrived, they have taken more wrong turns than right. Warnock was certainly the right one but do they take the frugal approach from here? They have backed their manager and now is the time for him to guide them. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-s....-shoestr ing.do
Nice article but this is pretty depressing when you think about it. No possibility of big name signings (not even the questionable acquisition of Joe Cole) and an ambition to just about survive next term. I agree that staying up should be the #1 priority but you surely have to give fans a bit more than that to chew on. Is this just more Warnock double-talk to make sure we don't get ripped off in the transfer market or are we really going to continue to be the budget entertainment option for our owners?
It's a pity supporters of other clubs haven't read that, it has been promotion on a shoestring and shows that you can have all the big names, like Cardiff, but a team is the sum of it's parts and it was the 'lesser lights' who made the difference for us.
I'm pretty sure that we have spent more money paying off unsuitable managers prior to NW arriving in the last three years than he has done. and it was nice to mention a common sense approach with regard to Jole Cole when NW mentioned that his salary was far more than QPR would ever pay. ã90 grand a week for someone that hasn't set the world alight in last two years is about ã89 grand a week too much. IF and this is a big IF, Cole does decide to come to QPR and If NW does decide to take a chance, what about a pay as you play deal?
Its a very honest assessment and I think its fair enough. The first objective of any promoted side is to consolidate and on that score 17th would be a success and I'd snap your arm off now for it. The next season we would then be able to attract better players and hopefully move up the league a bit and so on for the year after that. Gradual progress like Stoke and becoming, once again, a decent established Prem side like we were in the early nineties. Fulham are another good example of how to do it right for a Club of similar size.
There was a piece about the deal that said Liverpool would pay some of his wages, it would need to be at least two thirds as ã30k is probably average PL wages. Trouble is I think Cole has lost his ambition, could Warnock weave his magic and turn him into the player we all know he can be? Judging by his comments it looks like this is a non-starter.
I think as usual he is being realistic. I too would take 4th from bottom next year right now. The mittals while they own a minority share are not going to pony up huge sums of money, and even if they owned the club outright i doubt they would spend more than they thought was necessary for premier league survival, they are business men not fanatical QPR supporters. Bernie and the Mittals collectively will i think spend the minimum amount they believe they can get away with to ensure premier league footbal and a continuing cut of the TV revenues, no major cash will come from a big influx in gate reciepts, or shirt sales or anywhere else so this input of our owners cash is all we will have. I reckon our premiership windfall in year one equates to around ã35-40 million if we were to finish 4th from bottom, so how much money would you be prepared to spend to try and make sure this level of income into the club continues YOY? I can't see them spending more than 20 million in year 1 personally (this is probably wildly optimistic), and if that has to cover transfer fees AND a dramatically increased wage bill it doesn't add up to a huge amount in Premiership terms, Joe coles 90K a week equals around 5mill a year in wages alone, so you can see why this is never going to happen. 20 Mil would equate to signing 3 players for 5million a piece on 25K a week each, and wouldn't leave much for agents and taxes - not to mention the other players. Then there is the issue of contract lengths to be considered and how we continue to pay the deals if we dont stay up and can't off load them. I think Neil is playing things down to ensure he gets a good deal, but i think he is speaking the truth also, Hopefully 20Mil will be invested this year and then maybe 25Mil next year and so on, I also think he is right that Stoke and Bolton are the models to follow. Don't under estimate the difficulty of the task ahead of us, 20Mil to a club the size of QPR is mega money that we will be lucky to have spent on us, to some of our competition next year its half of what they will spend adding one player to a squad already worth 300 million plus.
Hmmm - I don't want to detract from the team achievement, but having Tarbs helped quite a bit I'm hopeful for next season (and would definitely settle for 17th, and a few promising displays at this point). However, I think we're a bit one-dimensional still and will need to shore up defensively with some wise heads and bolster our strike-force with some eager young talent. Midfield is pretty good, although (like every team in the country) we would benefit from a killer left wing.
I don't think it's wildly optimistic (have seen that figure suggested elsewhere) although NW will have to squeeze a lot out of it. I reckon he needs 6-7 new faces Left back, right back, centre back, couple of mids (doubt Derry would see the distance and we need some more quality on the left), plus a pair of strikers. I can see 2-3 "old hands" coming in on permanent contracts and maybe 4 youngsters on loan (Walker, Naughton, O'Hara etc spring to mind, if Harry doesn't mind doing us just one more favour)
Yes Camberwell, Tarbs contributed some real class but also, in some games, absolutely nothing. It was then that the 'bread & butter' boys did their thing and earned us the 0-0 and 1-0 results that were the difference between us being champions (what a lovely word!) and in the play-offs.
i think Neil will go with what we have with possibly a centre half and a goal scorer added where were short the rest will be loans and if offered 17th would snatch yer hand orf.dont forget we have a new gantry to pay for.
So the general consensus is that despite Paladini saying we were not just going to make up the numbers in the PL the club will have no ambition beyond just doing enough to survive. You could well be right given the strategy we have seen so far but it's a very risky approach (just try asking the West Ham board who are now bemoaning the fact that they did not invest enough to stay up). I also still do not believe that anyone (barring the kind of asset strippers we saw in the early 90s) comes into football with a smaller club intending to make a lot of money out of it. I'm personally hoping for a middle ground approach that continues a sensible building process (this MUST include a new ground for the club) but also a level of investment in the playing staff that avoids walking the tightrope all season.
I tend to agree, i think we need to splash major cash on a striker (still think Crouchie or Chamakh are good ideas if the wages are anywhere close to do-able) and a centre back, I was suggesting Upson, but the more i hear the more he is starting to sound past it, Camberwell suggested Bougherra on another thread who i think wants to leave the other rangers - he should be easily affordable, and despite last night i still think Luke Chambers would be a great signing. The striker part is going to take most of our spending power, so I expect a couple of canny loans as well.
I've seen it suggested that Bougherra could be ours for ã1.5M, which seems very reasonable considering him and his mates shut out Lampard, Gerard and Rooney for over 90 minutes in South Africa. Seems he and Adel know each other (there aren't that many North African footballers in the UK after all), which could swing it. We've had enough leg-based misfortune without adding the likes of Upson or Woodgate to our numbers.
Get your singing voices ready for next season, lads. Ready now... WE'RE SEVENTEENTH IN THE LEAGUE, WE'RE SEVENTEENTH IN THE LEAGUE - WE'RE QUEENS PARK RANGERS - WE'RE SEVENTEENTH IN THE LEAGUE!!
I know I'm not the most optimistic R in the bunch but I find the tone of the Standard's piece to be somewhat out of tune with both Ecclestone and Mittal's public utterances of late. Bernie made clear he wants a top four position although he doesn't want to spend 'mad money'; and Lakshmi's interest is warming up nicely with notions of more shares and a wish list for team strengthening not dissimilar to our own. Most surprising was LM's positive revelation that football 'is not a business, it's entertainment' which I choose to interpret as his willingness to invest in fun (and rep) as opposed to profitable return. It's clear neither Ecclestone nor Mittal are likely to follow the Chelsea or Citeh route to glory - both have said as much - but I reckon this frugality will shift in the new year window when full speed one touch prem stuff has sufficiently hit home. As much as there's a game out there on the pitch, there'll be another between the billionaires. It's called pride, and our guys are not known for backing losers. Whilst Neil Warnock is prepared to lead with his nose for a bargain, ability to polish a turd and bond a team, we all know that further success will require significant investment. I doubt we'll see too much of that this summer, or results before Christmas but nor can I see the powers that be setting themselves up for a relegation dogfight next spring.
