Hill ready for battle in QPR's long climb, shirkers not welcome

Hill ready for battle in QPR's long climb, shirkers not welcome


Steve Tongue Sunday 30 December 2012
Queens Park Rangers are "being rebuilt", according to the club's Malaysian owner, Tony Fernandes. It is proving a painful process. Amid all the drama at the Etihad Stadium on the final day of last season, the perilously narrow margin by which Manchester City's opponents QPR escaped relegation was rather obscured. "Never again" was the promise, yet they are back at the bottom of the Premier League with a single win from 19 games.

Fernandes and his board have grand ambitions, but there are signs that they may be going too fast and losing something – other than matches – along the way. A down-to-earth, hard- working Championship squad was augmented for two summers running by vastly expensive and supposedly better players, and the result has been 11 Premier League victories in 57 games under three managers. The only one this season was achieved after Jose Bosingwa, a Champions' League winner, refused to sit on the substitutes' bench, whereupon Harry Redknapp fined him a fortnight's wages and just happened to let slip that, by the way, that amounted to £65,000 a week.

It is not quite clear at the moment what Rangers want to be, only what they need to be; time for some old-school virtues of rolled-up sleeves and determination, the sort of qualities exemplified by the former Tranmere and Crystal Palace man Clint Hill, a Merseysider who used to stand on the Kop cheering for today's opponents, Liverpool. "With the upbringing I've had I've always been hard-working on the training ground and in games," he says. "I hope the players are hurting. If they're not they shouldn't be here. It's pretty poor by anyone's standard, especially with the squad we've got. We as a group of players need to have a good hard look at ourselves over the next few days and try to show a bit more pride."

That sort of approach appeals to Redknapp, who for all his Sandbanks houses has always insisted that the flair and ability he loves in footballers must be matched by application. He appears to have instilled into Adel Taarabt, the club's most gifted player, that talent alone is not enough and he appreciates the effort put in by most – though not all – of the others. "People like Clint Hill have been fantastic," he said on Friday, "turned in great performances and given us everything."

The Hill faction, however, cannot understand the mentality of those who will not do the same, and the 34 year-old defender did not shy away from a question about Bosingwa and his attitude: "You can't really understand anyone who doesn't want to sit on the bench for that kind of money. If you don't want to go on the bench, do you want to be here? Do you want to fight? Do you want to be in a scrap with your team-mates?

" That hurts as a group. We all earn good money. You want people who are fighting for the cause and if you can't sit on the bench and support the lads, then why are you here? You're talking about people here who have won the Champions' League and FA Cups. So you hope there is a desire in them. We need that as a team."

Redknapp, who once signed nine players for Portsmouth in a January window, will surely be looking for some fighters next month. It must be one ray of hope in a depressing season for Rangers supporters to hear a voice like Hill's from the dressing room saying: "There is no mistake about it, we are in a dogfight. If they don't realise that now, we are in trouble."

 

QPR veteran Hill warns spineless players: If you don't want to fight, get out nowBy Rob Draper
PUBLISHED: 22:02 GMT, 29 December 2012 | UPDATED: 22:02 GMT, 29 December 2012
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..Queens Park Rangers defender Clint Hill has laid bare the dressing-room tensions at the Premier League’s bottom club ahead of the team’s crucial clash against Liverpool.
Hill revealed the discontent that the players who helped the club win promotion to the top flight felt when they were cast aside by previous managers Neil Warnock and Mark Hughes for a series of big-name signings, most of whom have failed to make any real impact.
And the 34-year-old veteran questioned whether the club’s imports had the desire to fight for Premier League survival.

‘Of course, I was hurt when I was dropped,’ said Hill. ‘And I’m not the only one. There were another 10 or 11 players who had done well for this club, bringing them up from the Championship. To see players who had fought for everything [discarded] is hard to take. We’re not naïve enough to think that we didn’t need change, it’s just how much change.’
QPR have won just one game all season and are bottom of the table with 10 points. With games against Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham looming, they are likely to remain rooted at the bottom well into 2013.
New manager Harry Redknapp has already lambasted some of his best-paid players, claiming they are not giving value for money, and he fined Jose Bosingwa, a Champions League winner with Porto and Chelsea, £100,000 for refusing to sit on the bench for the recent clash against Fulham.
Hill, made captain by Redknapp for the game against West Bromwich Albion when Ryan Nelsen was absent, backs the boss’s stance on Bosingwa.


Hill said: ‘If you don’t want to go on the bench, then do you want to be here? Do you want to fight? Do you want to be in the scrap with your team-mates?

‘We’ve all been on the bench, we’ve all been dropped, we’ve all been told we can go. But we all earn good money. If you can’t sit on the bench, there has got to be something wrong.
‘You want to be in this together. You want people next to you fighting for the cause. If you can’t sit on the bench and support the lads, then what are you doing here?

‘We’ve got to be together and up for the fight. If you don’t fancy it, then January is round the corner, so off you go!’

Redknapp’s punishment of Bosingwa revealed the full-back’s £50,000-a-week wages and exposed the gulf in earnings between new signings and the pre-Premier League team. But Hill insists money is not an issue.

‘If you can get that money, then good for you,’ he said. ‘I’m more anxious about what players do on the pitch.’

Too much, too soon: Mark Hughes signed a whole new team in summer
The first wave of signings came when current owner Tony Fernandes bought the club in August 2011, with Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Armand Traore, Luke Young and Anton Ferdinand soon arriving.
When Warnock was sacked last January, Hughes brought in Nedum Onuoha, Samba Diakite, Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse during the transfer window, before almost an entire team was signed in the summer. Hughes bought Bosingwa and Nelsen along with Andy Johnson, Park Ji-sung, Esteban Granero, Rob Green, Julio Cesar, Junior Hoilett and Stephane Mbia, with Fabio Da Silva arriving on loan.
Of these, only Nelsen, now club captain, is an unqualified success. QPR also paid almost £7million in agents’ fees, the third highest in the Premier League behind Liverpool and Manchester City.
Hill suggests Hughes tried to build a new side too quickly. ‘When you look at the other teams that came up with us, Swansea and Norwich, they’ve done it gradually and brought big players in when they needed it,’ he said.


‘The players who came up from the Championship weren’t given enough trust. I think they could have done a job in this League. But all managers have their own transfer policies.’
Hill was voted player of the season by fans and players in 2011-12 but thought he would be sold on until Redknapp arrived five weeks ago and restored him along with Shaun Derry and Jamie Mackie from the promotion team.
Hill added: ‘I’m 34 and I’ve played most of my career in the lower leagues. You’re talking about a Champions League winner [Bosingwa] here and people who have won the Premier League and FA Cups. You hope there’s a desire within them. We need that as a team, as a unit. Everyone is frustrated and everyone is different. But it has to be hurting you to be bottom and to have won one game. If it isn’t, I’ve got to question them.’


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So now we have one of our most respected Pro's coming out and telling us that some of the squad aren't trying yet there's still a few posters on here who are effectively saying he's lying. Perhaps they know more about what's going on at the training ground than Hill himself?

Shame on those fans.

 

we have a nice blend as you need to succeed, over the Hill , shirkers and Jerkers

 

Be interesting to see how many takers are queueing up for Bosingwa...

 

More than proves my point. We have a minority of players who are playing for our club and the rest for their wallet. Good on you Clint.

 

Not too many me thinks

 

Hughes told Hill several times that he was not wanted and should leave.

Thank god he was sacked because he is the most inept manager weve ever had at QPR.

 

seem to remember warnock didnt want him either.2 inept managers in a row

 

Warnock was just above his level. Hes always been a very good lower level manager but a terrible top level manager. Hughes just didnt have a clue.

 

Hughes is looking even more inept and he's no longer at the club

Take hogan. Hughes puts him in the 25 with no intention if playing him and yesterday's Telegrsph reports him as being out injured 'medium term'

That's a 25 place berth not used at all then when we could have put young in, or kept Helgusson, or kept DJ as backup or even the old grafter Tommy Smith

My only criticism of TF is that he fell hook line & sinker for Hughes and his ineptitude

 

Get a life.

 

I think all of us want an owner who gives total faith to the manager rather than interfere. TF was too trusting, its a fault but he was suckered in by Hughes and Im sure it wont happen again.

 

Couldn't have put it any better.

 

Care to elaborate?

 

Any news about Ryan N if he will play today or not ?