QPR will target Championship and League One stars in the transfer market 10:00 26 February 2015 Rob Brennan please log in to view this image QPR chairman Tony Fernandes With Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp now in the past, QPR chairman Tony Fernandes says he wants to find the right balance when it comes to signing players. please log in to view this image Jose Bosingwa was a major flop during his time at QPR During Hughes’ time in charge Rangers signed several big-name flops including Park Ji-sung, Jose Bosingwa and Esteban Granero. Redknapp was then brought in and his solution to the Rs’ defensive problems was to sign Christoper Samba for £12.5million. With no money available to spend during the last transfer window, Redknapp swiftly departed due to his ‘knee problem’ and Fernandes says things will now change. He said: “In my four years I have been very consistent in saying that I want players to come through – I’ve always said that. “For one reason or another we’ve been in relegation battles, managers have said we need more experience – managers who don’t want to take the risk on young players. “So when we talk about my dream manager, here is a manager [Chris Ramsey] who hasn’t complained to me about the fact that one of his best players is injured – Charlie Austin – and then Richard Dunne and Leroy Fer. He just said ‘we’ve got enough quality in the squad and we will find a way’. “Now that’s pretty exceptional from where I sit. A manager will just moan to me a lot of the time about ‘there not being enough quality, not enough of this, or I need that’. “I’m not directing this at Harry or anyone. I’ve met many managers at different clubs as well. There are very few – Roberto Martinez at Everton would be one, if you talk to Bill Kenwright he would echo what I said... This guy just gets on with it and finds players. But they are few and far between. Fernandes added: “It goes back to my initial business of music, when I set up a record company and why I rose so quickly in the industry. “There were record companies who bought talent so signed a big cheque to buy Phil Collins from Virgin, but we discovered a lot of talent. “So I’ve always wanted to develop people. Air Aisa was about a tiny airline, building guys up into what we have now. I would love QPR to be like that. “You can buy in a bit of talent. Ryan Manning is that kind of signing, to fast forward it. But the Under-14s are going to take time to come through.” Fernandes continued: “If you look at Tottenham Hotspur, obviously Tim Sherwood gets a lot of the credit. “You look at Nabil Bentaleb, Ryan Mason and Harry Kane and you listen to Steven Caulker, who says that Chris Ramsey brought him up at Spurs. “We then need the scouts. Now, I have a list of League One and Championship players that we have identified over the last six months that are free agents or we would like to buy. “We are not in the hands of agents. It is about a good scouting system. Les has been going to loads of games and Chris Ramsey knows players as well.” http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/sport...3970577?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
OK good to hear you have found this out now, Tony. But why did it take you so long to move out first Hughes, and then way, way too long to sort Harry's knees, and yet fire Colin pretty sharpish, who did use a number of players who we came up with and whose experience was mainly in lower leagues, he had no choice. In any case it will take time to develop a lot of really good young players, and some money is going to have to be used for a long time yet on the experience and quality we are going to need to stay in the PL, or compete at the top of the Championship.
I think this needs to be balanced. I'm all for the young signings - it makes me feel good about the club - but, IF we survive, we will need to be looking to replace some of the older players. Expecting the young players to all come in at the same time and retain league status is, in my opinion, too much to ask when we're reliant on what previous coaching regimes, that weren't perhaps as well supported, have produced. I'm not slating Ryan Manning (especially considering I haven't seen him play) but it's a tall ask to expect him to be Premiership standard immediately. If you consider that Ferdinand, Hill and Zamora are nearing the end of their careers, there is a short term gap to be filled just to create a core of players that will be around for a few years and smooth any transition for those coming from the youth team into the first team. YSY didn't cost a huge amount and a sensible strategy would be to find a few more of these (20 somethings from abroad with a few caps to their name for less than £3-4 million) while maybe even selling the odd player if that frees up enough to help finance several in return.
So, despite having a "bring 'em thru" philosophy when he was a music mogul and again when building Air Asia, Fernandes comments tell us that he was as much the proverbial kid in the sweetshop as the big name managers he appointed. Presumably, had he stuck to his tried and tested ethos from the start, we might not be where we are now...at least not in the financial doo-doo.
I wish to God this nitwit would just stop talking. It was endearing at first but now its just embarrassing. With the change of management, structure etc, would it be too much to ask that Tony changes his style too and just keeps out of the media for a while?
It's how the guy gets his kicks I think. I'm not sure he would be interested if he had to keep a low profile.
We need to develop our own talent, not buy it from League One or Championship clubs. To do that, we need the new training ground in order to obtain full academy status. Glad the penny has finally dropped with TF and believe this is one of the reasons he brought Les Ferdinand on board.
It's taken much longer than it should have done, but we should at least be be happy that TF finally gets it.
Better late than never! I hope it is realised though that there are also a few real bargains available from around the world. Possibly cheaper than buying from Championship clubs! Let's hope that we get the balance right. I love us playing youngsters but we will at times need some experience. Not all the old, one last pay day types though!
