Not true at all.....Chelsea have had a few lesser seasons in the Premiership, but the won the Champions League last season, something they would have never done without the Russian. The way this article is written, reminds me of the sort of people your really wouldnt want running the country or a company as their forsight is so short and negative. What he is effectivley saying is that QPR are a small club and its impossible to grow in stature and size....IMPOSSIBLE......the word impossible implies that it can never be done no matter what actions are taken and that is NOT true. We are going through a transitional period....one from a Championship team to hopefully an established premiership team and bell ends like this author would rather us be back in the Championship pulling in small gates as that where he feels we should be. Clubs grow....businesses grow...clubs fall and businesses fall....thats the way the world works....there is no reason in the world that with bigger players, a bigger stadium and the right kind of marketing we cant become a decent established Premiership team, pulling in good sized crowds. This author is kidding himself if he thinks otherwise. (thats not to say it cant go the opposite way if it all goes tits up.)
Another excellent point about the PL ... there is no better arena on the planet to operate in.TF whats that and why shouldn't he? ... the board know TF is the face and are happy with that ... watch a few QPR player vids you will see and hear that. I do laugh when people address all this towards TF
Exactly.....anyone would think that all the top clubs, have always been top clubs.....as if they litterally appeared on this earth with hoards of fans and giant stadiums! The reality is that they all had a history and worked their way up to become the clubs they are today. The only time I can see that a club may struggle, would be a club like (and no disrespect) Blackpool or Plymouth......where to grow the fan base will be very difficult (not impossible) due to the unfashionable locations and or limited appeal to anyone outside those respective areas. QPR are in the capital of England.....one of the biggest and most fashionable cities in the world, it isnt hard to attract new punters and thats why we have the interest from investors.
Let's use TF as shorthand for the investors. I reckon if you dig deep and sideways enough you may find Branson, king of corporate branding.
Or Norwich! Had an interesting discussion on their board a few weeks ago. They have a 'captive' geographical market of 1.5 million they claim and I believe them. They need to get less than 5% of this to be regular visitors to Carrow Road to fill a 50k stadium with ease. But they don't want to take the risk and are nervy about expanding to 35k from 27k. Their approach is the complete opposite of ours, and I can understand that. But it means, if they stay up a few years, they will be sitting on a mountain of PL/Sky cash. Then they either change approach, spend and expand, or the investors take cash out of the club.
Sad but very very true ... Norwich may survive and i am sure some beady eyed person will see the potential when all the london clubs are backed. London has not been Britain for a long time now and will protect its own at all costs ... Charlton could be next lets spin the wheel ... Football is growing in the states as they can't ignore it forever and when they hook into in a bigger way ... oh lordy. Anyone ever looked at how SKY have changed the face of global football? If anyone knows of a book let me know as I would love a copy
I think the only problem for us is by time we are established the G14 clubs will have moved on to form their Super League and we'll be back feeding off scraps...
After reading the article I wanted to complain about the negativity but looking at each point made there is more that makes sense than I'd first appreciated. We are a small club although bottom half of the Championship may be a bit harsh. Our ground is pokey and none of us can agree on what sort of size new stadium we should have. If the owners don't want to bank roll us for ever and ever how much of a going concern would we be if put up for sale? (Bearing in mind Newcastle are still technically available to buy and nobody has gone near them) If we got relegated it would be even worse. Buying in a team of brand new players isn't always the answer. Only 5 teams have won the Premiership title since it started in 1992. Blackburn are now in the division below us and Man City only scraped past 10 man QPR to secure theirs. Do we honestly think we are ever going to challenge for the top spot? With all the money splashing around it is hard to be critical but I hope TF can keep his feet on the ground and learn from the errors made by the likes of Pompey and MASSIVE Leeds and at the same time appreciate the kind of investment Jack Walker, Roman Abramovich and Sheik Mansour had to make in order to turn their also-ran teams into title winners.
the problem is since the conception of sky the top division has become a spend or die business,you very rarely get players coming through the ranks and scoring hat-tricks on debut i.e. clive allen.it has cost abramovich nearly £700 million to finally win the champions league where the liverpool side in the 70's were mainly home grown or well priced purchases.for us it's nice to be amongst the clubs investing in the squad but more importantly for me is the millions going into the very bowels of the club,as in youth structure upwards.only time will tell in mr F gets things right or not but it's his money so it's his choice with the right advisors whom he spends it on.
There were some legitimate concerns voiced over the Summer with what looked to be a mercenary-type transfer policy. Generally those posters were shot down for being too negative and people carried on in their jovial dream-like state about qualifying for Europe etc (it happens every pre-season ) and didn't give it a second thought. Perhaps some of those fears have unfortunately been proven to be correct?
Story quoting TF on SSN saying 'only minor trading at most' in the next transfer window. Either this was the plan all along or he doesn't trust Hughes' judgement any more. If he goes for a change he will have to promise the new man some spending money.
Minor trading....does that mean a short defender or a teenage striker?? TBH SB if a new man came in he's got plenty to work with hasn't he? Is Luke Young still a QPR employee?
I know I know! How smug! Seriously though, I only managed to find that one of mine by pot luck. I never thought we'd start this bad. But was there some validity in what Ironman was saying? Have our pensioner/Dad's Army signings been flops?
One team that has completely broken the mould and have changed beyond all recognition is Wigan. Go back a few years and they were a nothing team in nowhere land with no fans!! Look at what Dave Whelan turned them into with shrewd business sense, great marketing and sound investment. Did he start off with a club steeped in history, success and huge fan base? Great stadium, training facilities and playing squad? NO, is the simple answer. He had 3 things:- passion, drive and most importantly of all, he had a DREAM!! That's the benchmark that all teams like us should follow. And his starting point was at the bottom, we're starting from the premiership......
And as much as people on here don't like them, you could point to Fulham as another so called "over achieving" club who have a similar story.....
