QPRâs pre-season âhasnât been greatâ â Harry Harry Redknapp, QPR manager 10/08/2014 By West London Sport Harry Redknapp says he has been disappointed with QPRâs pre-season as they prepare for the start of the Premier League campaign. Rangers played in Germany and Ireland before their final friendly, at home to Greek side PAOK, ended in a 1-0 defeat. âIt hasnât been great. We havenât had good games. Weâve been to Ireland and the games werenât particularly good,â said Redknapp. âPAOK was probably the first time weâve played on a decent pitch against a good team.â Rangers are expected to add to their squad this week, with Redknapp keen to sign another midfielder and at least one striker. The Râs boss said: âItâs obvious we need to bring in players. The squad is not big or strong enough. âI know what weâre looking for and I know the players we want, itâs just a question of getting them. âWeâre still a little bit short and need to strengthen, thereâs no doubt about that. âWeâre working hard on it though â weâre not silly and we know what weâve got to do. Itâll be a busy week.â
Well who picked the games?!!!!!!! Sorry, a couple of third rate German teams, (one of which we lost to), we couldnt beat either Southend or Orient and played two Irish reserve sides!! If we had won every game 5 zip then I can understand it. I like our new signings but HR never fails to annoy me and when he is not happy about something speaks in the third person (as in nothing to do with him!!!)
Just as I was starting to give him some credit for some good work. Don't tell the squad they're not good enough one week before the season starts you moron!
I was thinking this the other day: Why don't QPR create a little tournament in every pre-season, like Arsenal's Emirates Cup. Obviously, it won't be as high profile as that but we could get decent teams from the lower reaches of the top leagues or second leagues of Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and a team from the Scottish Premier and have a little tournament. Surely there'd be teams willing if it was organised well. It may be hard to start but it's reputation could be built over the years and we could potentially use other local team's grounds for some of the fixtures if time is an issue.
Telling the squad they're not up to it and publicly telling the board that the squad aren't up to it is the same thing. Private conversations would be better and less damaging.
Not that I think he should be saying this out loud but I think the point Harry makes is that if they had better opposition they would have stepped up to that. I believe in that. If we'd played several relatively good teams from top European leagues, we'd have played at a higher tempo with a more competitive edge and pride.
Funnily enough, I remember much better preseason opposition in the past when we were in the Championship and didn't look like being promoted any time soon. And you know what? I think it'd be more useful if we played several teams from the championship. Or if we made a pact with the other two promoted teams to test ourselves with them before the new season. At least we'd be playing against teams who play in the English style.
The opposition was a lot better last year. Now, I don't expect Harry (or any other manager) to arrange our friendlies, but the chances of him not having designed the type of opponents we faced are very low. Come on H, if your unhappy with who we faced, tell us who the decision maker was. Otherwise, I will continue to believe that your'e the man responsible.
Well tbh he is saying what most of us have said, but obviously its not helpful that he publicly says it. Surely had input into the pre-season programme!
I know I go on about Phil Beard a lot but this would seem to be another example where he just doesn't have the football connections to do the job. There was plenty of talk about different plans for if we got promoted versus staying in the Championship but I would wager that the pre-season would have been the same if we stayed down. It undoubtedly takes a lot of time and effort to organise these kind of games but most of all its about influence and he doesn't seem to have the right strings to pull.
IMO, the chance that a CEO would be involved in arranging the pre season fixtures is close to zero. Yes, If like two years ago the club require to tour some distant land for PR purposes then the board would dictate that. However, as with other clubs, that happens very early in pre season (like our trip to Germany this year). It would seem to me that nobody realised the Irish sides were in the middle of their season & so would not be playing their first sides against us. That trip was great for PR but useless for preparation!
