Firstly, let us hope it is actually not a post mortem but a spell in intensive care before the long and painful road to recovery. It is too easy, but most definitely appropriate, to blame Mark Hughes for his poor signings, managerial ineptitude, poor man management and stubborn insistance that it was his way or no way. Who else is to blame? Tony has to take some of the blame. For example, we lauded him for bringing Samba to the club but, if the narrative is to be believed, that happened after a brief conversation with Harry about who he fancied as centre back. Was there due process? Had anyone actually seen him play recently? Conversely, bringing Remy to the club, probably also largely down to Tony, was inspired and watching Remy has been one of the few joys at Loftus Road this season. What about the rest of the board? Amit has been conspicuous by his silence / absence yet the Mittal family (now demoted to 4th on The Rich List incidentally) still own their stake in the club. It would be very reassuring to hear from Amit about his / their ongoing commitment to QPR. They were set to buy the club before TF came in. The Mittals buying would be the only face saving option for TF if he did want to sell since he could say he was leaving the club in safe hands with potential for great investment etc. Sorry to say this but the fans have to take some of the blame here. This has always been controversial amongst us on this board but I'm afraid there were too many times when sections of the crowd got on the players backs after a missed pass or two. I do realise that was as a result of cumulative frustration but how was that supposed to help them play well? When Loftus Road is rocking it is amazing but the proximity of the crowd means that when it gets ugly, the negative effect is greater too. We love to blame the officials. We've seen our fair share of poor officialdom but just from watching MOTD (without detailed analysis) I don't see QPR being any more harshly treated than any other club. BTW, credit yet again to Sian Massey for another correct call at The Cottage yesterday. She seldom gets it wrong, if at all, so far anyway. Lady luck. Adel's near miss yesterday sums up the season for me as 'QPR - the nearly team'. Think also about the Villa game. Samba's header finger tip saved by their keeper. I may do a separate thread about the 'QPR nearly team' at another time. Of course, that may well be true for other teams too but without very detailed analysis it is hard to say whether we are more unlucky than teams around us. Probably not. So, who does that leave? The players. I am interested to see what they come up with but I hope it starts with an apology. They have let us all down, they've let the board down who trusted them and rewarded them far too richly for their efforts and they have let themselves down too. In some cases, the fact that they've let themselves down will impact on their futures. I can't see teams lining up to sign the majority of our players bar Remy who will be gone in the summer. This may work in our favour if it helps Harry produce a team that can do a job in the NPC. It would be nice to see Adel lighting it up again though I fear that halcyon season will not be repeated for a while. It needs another thread to analyse each individual players role in the demise of QPR's Premier League status and we will all have our varying different views on that. Finally, there is Harry. We all said when he took over that he had nothing to lose. If he succeeded then his status as 'Harry Houdini' would be immortalised in footballing legend. If he failed, he would blame the fact that it was not his squad that he assembled and we saw that in his post match interview yesterday. He used that interview to tell TF & Co that he wants the job for next year but, if they keep him, it is going to cost them a lot more than they've spent so far because he wants to assemble his own squad. We are down and out for now. The only question now is how we (all) will cope with this and whether we (all) have the character to dig deep and come back leaner, meaner and stronger (and hopefully more skilled) than we have seen over the last two seasons. Whatever happens, the true fans will be here come thick or thin, win or lose, joy or sorrow. It is subdued but I am still RTID.
I have a theory that we weren't good enough but as of yet still can't work out why ... Harold needs to give some straight answers ... The club has to also give some straight answers The players need to view the feelings and make everything public for the interests of football in this country Greed I am sure will be underlying
Hard to argue with any of that post. Be interesting to see what reaction the comments about our fans get. Personally I agree but feel its as much to do with LR as it is the fans, I think it was Shaun Derry said once that out on the pitch you can often clearly hear individual voices and comments. I definitely feel at times this season our fans have been awesome (particularly on the road) but at home its been a bit Jekyll and Hyde. Negativity and tension in the crowd tends to translate onto the pitch at Loftus Road more so than any other ground in the PL. Obviously we haven't had much at all to cheer about these last two years but as the OP states we haven't helped our team at times.
We ask, how can a team of such costs play so poorly throughout the season. I keep thinking back to the many comments about the 'split / division' in the team ............. you can spend all you like but if the players hate each other, nothing you do will hide the fact. I really do think this has been our ( and Harry's ) major stumbling block. I can't think of anything else that would have such an equal affect.
We've got all Summer to do this....and I have a feeling it will get worse before it gets better. I'm on the all fibre and protein diet and am stocking up on minerals for the debate.
Football teams are just like any other group of people at work. You can have all the capability and capacity in the world, but if you have no desire to harness it, then it's worthless. I take the same approach when recruiting and managing staff - of course, I look for key skills and ability, but most of all I look for desire - to want to be part of a high performing team / business. I'd overlook the most talented applicant, if they didn't really want the job. Desire is everything when it comes to success. I think that the manager(s) looked at capability only and failed to see beyond this. Contrast this with the squad that won promotion and there was less capability, but a huge hunger and desire - led largely by Neil Warnock. So the answer in my mind lies with a triage of those that desire the challenge and rewards of a second tier campaign, and those that don't. Get rid of those LSD players - lazy, stupid or dishonest. Thereafter the incoming transfer policy should be focused on players that exhibit desire and capability.
The bottom line is we signed expensive, injury-prone has-beens no sane club would've touched with a barge-pole. Joorabchian saw us as a last hurrah for many of his 'clients' and with gullible TF believing everything he was told we were taken to the cleaners. Last summer should have been where we rectified the mistakes made the previous season, all we did was compound the problem. The real alarm bell was when Cesar was signed and Green told he wasn't wanted, just three games into the season. What sort of management was that? Hughes showed himself to be a complete prick and it was downhill all the way from then...
The problem in situations like this always lies at the top. Yes the players are lazy and disloyal but far from stupid; how could they be, they are among the best paid in the division. But even they I'm sure would prefer to be paid a little less if it meant they were part of a decent setup to which they could owe their allegiance.
When all's said and done, you're right Sku, a fair bit of the blame comes down to (mis)management from procurement / recruitment through to training, game plan (and contingency) and ultimately imbalances in individual desire and capability. (Odd that capability procedures don't seem to apply in football contracts as they do elsewhere in being a legit means of terminating contracts along the way.) There's no doubt we've seen individual desire (i.e. the old guard, Mbia, Townsend and one or two others) and perceived capability (track record of most incoming big name players) but this rarely translated into TEAM desire and capability. How many times do we see players ignore the simple ball in preference for a run into an opposition cul de sac? No question of Hoilett's desire yesterday but I might be exaggerating if I say no more than two times he received the ball did we retain possession. Only Townsend has shown consistent capability in using dribbling to our advantage. Training has been a key let down for me under both Hughes' and 'Arry's regimes. No evidence of improvements in either fitness, dead ball or open play tactics from one end of the season to the other, let alone the really big attitude essential: goal focus. But for me the overriding factor has been the absence of a genuine Rs core since Warnock introduced a few understated journeymen to an underachieving squad. We all agreed on here, that there was too little quality in the NPC winning side to cope with prem opposition - and we weren't wrong. By the time we were able to bring replacements in, it was far too late to establish the necessary foundations from the dregs of the transfer barrel. This is where youth development comes in. It underpins pride in the shirt, badge, club and so on - and we've had none of that since Ray Jones and precious little for years before him. Problem with buying groups of players in each window is new wine in old bottles doesn't spell vintage. Time and team bonding exercises is the only hope there - and in our case it wasn't to be. Maybe we should've done Dubai more often!
