Look at West Ham's fixtures.8 out of twelve against top half teams.The other four are Newcastle and Saints,neither of which will be easy ,plus Wigan and Reading in the last four.Probably won't go down as they are on 30 points but would not be at all surprised to see them in the mix at the end.
Considering I've been discussing QPR and Wigan's upcoming fixtures on the other thread, I might as well just go the whole hog here: WIGAN Liverpool (H), Newcastle (H), Norwich (H), QPR (A), Swansea (H), West Ham (A), Spurs (H), WBA (A), Arsenal (A), Villa (H) [Plus Man City (A) which has yet to be rearranged] ASTON VILLA Man City (H), Reading (A), QPR (H), Liverpool (H), Stoke (A), Fulham (H), Man Utd (A), Sunderland (H), Norwich (A), Chelsea (H), Wigan (A) READING Everton (A), Villa (H), Man Utd (A), Arsenal (A), SAINTS (H), Liverpool (H), Norwich (A), QPR (H), Fulham (A), Man City (H), West Ham (A) QPR SAINTS (A), Sunderland (H), Villa (A), Fulham (A), Wigan (H), Everton (A), Stoke (H), Reading (A), Arsenal (H), Newcastle (H), Liverpool (H) I would be very happy as a Wigan fan looking at my fixtures there. I would very worried as a Reading fan looking at my fixtures there. Reading simply have to win most of their home games.
Surely this must put the nail in the coffin of the Harry worshipers. Even if he can't save them, there should at least be some sign of improvement, but there isn't.
He has always said that it's not his problem where the money comes from...this is true to a certain extent...would hardly be Mauricio's fault if Nicola bought him a couple of players we couldn't afford. However, I think he's guilty of making promises he can't keep.
Yeah exactly. He may not be in control of the money but he has the gift of the gab, and probably gets the chairman thinking that he has to get this player and that, in order to survive. "Mr Chairman the only way we can stay up is if you get me Remi, Samba, Jenas etc, if not we are good as down" The chairman is then in a no win situation. He either backs the manager spends loads and they stay up. In which case Arry is the hero for turning it around. If he doesn't, saves money but gets relegated. Arry then goes to the press saying he didn't get the support to keep the club up and its not his fault. This is what Redknapp does, he moves himself into a position where he is blameless and has done this at every single club including ours.
I honestly think a lot of people are looking for reasons to have a go at Redknapp. QPR have been a joke ever since their takeover in 2007, and they've been run by people who know nothing about football and are just throwing money around. Harry certainly hasn't made the situation any worse, and if anything he'll be good for them because he can do more with that money than most managers could. If they were always going to spend that ridiculous amount of cash, then they may as well have had Harry's opinion on where it should go. They'll go down, lose most of those players, but still be sustainable so long as Mittal doesn't get bored with his little hobby and keeps throwing his money at them.
For some reason I can't rule qpr out yet...their fixtures are quite favourable... Anyone else super excited for the return of Redknapp to SMS at long last? Only took 7 years...
Unlike other returning managers, his reception will not be warm (understatement alert!)...let's hope we get every reason to laugh at him at the end. No doubt if we go a few goals in front there will be a few 'humorous' chants. Let's hope it's party time
I'm completely with you there on both counts. Until QPR are at least 11 or 12 points adrift, I'm not even slightly ruling them out. Even if this seven point gap remains in five games time, I still wouldn't be ruling them out. Regardless of how poor QPR have been so far, seven points really is not a lot. That can be cut to one point within the space of just seven days. Football is full of surprises - I'm amazed that so many people are overlooking this. Even more so considering their fixtures. Look at the run that Reading went on, out of nowhere, just one month ago! And if had to choose to just one game to win from now until the end, it would be QPR. And all because of Harry. To beat him, and his first return to SMS (at last!) would be so, so sweet for me. Seven years waiting for some sort of revenge is a long time.
They don't have to look that hard, to be fair. Anyway, I'm sure he's feathered his dog's bank account, and will walk away from the crumbling edifice of what was once QPR several hundred grand richer, and absolved of all blame in the eyes of a fawning media. Now where's that happened before?
I'm not sure that they would have spent a fortune in January regardless, but when they hired Harry it became inevitable. Not because he's some sort of Rasputin figure capable of misleading them into spending their fortunes, but rather because you don't hire a manager of his ilk with the intention to go meekly to the Championship. As for whether he has done more with the money than another manager would, I'm less convinced. Everyone underestimated how far off the pace Samba would be; a month in, he still appears to be several steps behind. Not really what one needs on a team desperate for instant results.
