Me neither. I remember back to the end of the transfer window, and then when they got pretty much all their players back from injury that they were going to rise away from trouble with effortless ease, leaving Saints and other teams struggling in their wake. Hasn't turned out that way.
This season has been fascinating in respect of the relegation places. I've always felt Reading were doomed yet , under Redknapp's guidance, could see QPR avoiding the drop. I'm siurprised they've imploded over the last few weeks (since the Wigan game) and today's result was entirely unexpected given Stoke's recent preformances. It is almost impossible to see you will take the third berth. Wigan look favourites to me yet the have predigree of avoidng relegation. Could the FA Cup final prove to be too much of a distraction? I think they will beat Villa, WBA and Swansea so that teams will need a minimum of 40 points to survive. Villa will get nothing from Man Utd and may still be in the mix come Monday evening. This season looks like going to the wire and I believe that safety level will be 42 points. Saints are one game away and I can see us securing this next week. If we fail to beat WBA, the last game against Stoke could be interesting as I don't see us getting anything from Spurs. Quite how the other fixtures turn out it too difficult to ascertain although I feel we will be unfortunate of we go down - can't see it happening myself.
I've always been amazed by your love for Redknapp. You were waxing lyrical about him when they appointed him, saying what a fantastic manager he is. I never understood this and I am not surprised they're going down.
I have mixed feelings about Redknapp, but I certainly don't think he's taken QPR down. As you can see in that thread that was bumped the other day, I said that squad wasn't good enough from day 1. Redknapp, Hughes and Warnock all have the same win percentage at QPR (20%) and that's not because they're all bad managers, it's because QPR are a bad side.
Jim Magilton (were he not at Ipswich still ) would have done better than Harry. He talks of players chucking the towel in, but that's all I've seen him do since the Villa game. He has been found out, & with his reckless spending we won't be seeing him in the EPL again. Result.
Redknapp came in after 12 games so has had 2/3 of the season to turn this around. When he came in QPR were 6 points off of safety so with 26 games left to play. Tonight they sit 10 points off of safety with Villa in 17th having a game in hand. How the media can say that he has done a good job there and turned their fortunes around is beyond me. The facts speak for themselves. He has had double the number of games Hughes had and has seen them slip further behind. Completely overated in my opinion, if he was this great man manager he could have got the most out of that squad and should have been comfortable by now. This has been a great relegation battle but I think it may now fizzle out and the three at the bottom will remain there.
FatleTiss I'm not a fan of Redknapp as a person. He's a good coach and with the squad that was assembled at QPR, should have guided them to safety albeit it was a tough ask. I think they would probably be a team who'd be looking for mid-table if Redknapp had started in August with this team. Seeing what he achieved with Portsmouth, I felt that he could have done the same with QPR. Jonathan Pearce has made the same comment too and similarly ended up with egg on his face. With the likes of Remy, QPR should have done far better since the transfer window. I a sure most football fans would agree that QPR have substantially under-performed under Redknapp despite getting his tactic right for our encounter at St. Marys. There just seems something jammy about Redknapp and the media continually over-look his short-comings. I don't think his perception in the press owes much to reality and i somewhat doubt if his tenure at Loftus Road will count against him in future as Harry always makes good copy. Personally, I think he is more keen to project his own self-image than the interests of his club and I have been intrigued by his recent press statements which have mirrored the comments he similarly made at St. Mary's. I'm surprised QPR have been relegated so easily. Part of me thinks that in the right circumstances he is capable of achieving great things. I think his spell at Pompey matches what Lawrie Mac achieved for us. You would also have to agree that he did well at Spurs and his departure from White Hart Lane was a shock. I wonder as to how much non-footballing matters had to do with the ease with which he was released. However (and this is a big "however" ) it is pretty apparent that his employment can be hugely devastating with mid-table PL clubs. I was just arguing this on another board. I'm not a fan of Redknapp by any means but believe someone of his calibre and with a team as talented as the one he assembled should have done significantly better at Loftus Road. I'm of the opinion that Redknapp is great when you are pushing for promotion or chasing a European place but perhaps incapable of reversing the fortunes of relegation-threatened clubs unless there is some sort of personal attachment as was the case at Fratton park. QPR could have been saved and I am perplexed at how easily they folded over the last month especially having guided Portsmouth to safety when they had similarly been in such a parlous position. Cheers Ian
This sums of Redknapp's main fault perfectly. He has a habit of alienating certain players in his squads and this was his undoing whilst at St. Mary's. He gave some shocking post-match interviews when in charge of Saints and can remember a telephone call with my father when ringing from holiday whereby Redknapp's negatively continued on into the close season.
His record is worse than Hughes or Warnock - he`s nothing but a con-man. Signs Samba , saying ` ee`s a proppa cenr-arf` , then critises him after a shambolic performance. Critises the squad he inherited, and can`t motivate them. The only way he`ll be at QPR next season is if he can`t find another club stupid enough to take him on.
I agree that the damage was done...and that Harry did not improve the situation much. I also think Tony will find that buying players is a lot easier than selling them. Next year will be tough, last year three teams stayed up with less points than all but one now have. Sorry for the fans though, and to lose their board off the Prem page. PS can't believe they beat us, what a bad day that was.
It's like the Emporor's New Clothes, Redknapp is being seen for what he is. He is not a great manager, but the media all toed the line and none would tell the truth. He is fine when all going well, but his habit of turning on those around him during bad times is most unattractive. Praising Mark Hughes in order to blame the players rather than the manager (i.e. himself) is unpleasant. How do you get anything from players with this attitude? He still has to work with them next season...except he won't, because he will be gone soon.
sadly IMHO it's looking like Wigan I really really want it to be Stoke !!! Nothing at all against the team or fans , but I cannot abide Pulis .
