OK so a similar poll was conducted on another QPR forum and I'm curious to gauge how you lot feel right now. A simple pro or anti question and the poll will be open for a week.
I have voted pro, despite mistakes I'm still pro Tony and feel he is learning. Over to you guys and girls!
No matter how anyone looks at it QPR have come a long way since they got back into the EPL a few years ago. We all wish things could have been done differently (after the horse has bolted) TF has started to put things in place now that should have been done when he first took the reins , learn to walk before you run as they say
Tony thought he could throw money at QPR in the short term with the EPL money it would all fall into place. But unfortunately the short term plan failed which is why we are lucky he is in this for the long haul. Tony Fernandes is a business man and a good one at that and now he has realised that the football side needs to be run as a small club should by bringing through young talent and building solid structure and foundations he can concentrate on the the commercial side, building a new training ground and investing in our new stadium
QPR are in safe hands with Tony and we should learn to appreciate a good owner after all the disasters and administration that came before him.
TF seems to have his heart in the right place and I trust is good for the club as a whole. My only gripe if I was to name one, I put down to his age ................. twitter. If he was older, he wouldn't make such rash statements as he has done. We all make mistakes, I know I've made many but I think TF will continue to struggle on twitter. Apart from that, I'm sure he has learnt from hiring mercenaries during his time with the club. I still think he's on a big learning curve and can't understand the benefit of having Ferdinand as Chief of Stuff All. I'm still pro TF but I don't get wet and clammy when I hear his name nowadays! Time will tell.
August 2011 QPR was a debt free premiership club. New owners say the club will be run as a business, with developing youth, new training facilities and a new stadium key objectives. March 2015 QPR is a heavily indebted premiership club, losing c £70m a year and facing a large fine essentially because of reckless financial decisions by the owners. Plus 3 years of largely crap football, intermittent humiliation and embarrassment. Hints of a training ground, new stadium tied into a mega development, many many years away if it works. New manager starts to play some kids. Now the owners have decided, Cameron/Osbourne like, that it's time for 'austerity'. Their call, they own everything. Doesn't matter whether we like them or not, we are entirely dependent on their continued goodwill/interest. Even if they write off the entire amount they have lent the club, it will still run at a loss and be a very unattractive proposition for anyone else. And before we have the traditional 'Mittal will save us' line, what evidence is there for that? Bhatia is off doing his playboy stuff. What's keeping them interested? I think there is still some yearning to be attached to a somehow successful team, but obviously more about the lure of building a housing development. Fernandes and his partners seem nice blokes, I have no idea why their business sense has deserted them so completely when it comes to football, I think the approach was well intentioned, but they have ****ed up the club, already a bit of a fiasco anyway, totally. We'll plod on like this while Old Oak Common is still live. If we get to build there these blokes will stick around. I don't know whether, ultimately, that will be good or bad for the club. If we lose out on Old Oak what are their options? - stick around but stop bankrolling the club (I think we are nearing this mode already) - get out, writing the loans off - get out, try to get some cash back - sell any players they can.....and the stadium? - get out, making the club bankrupt as they go I don't know. I find it hard to dislike Tony. He and the owners have been badly let down by 'football people', but Swords is right, their competence has to be questioned. Abstaining in the vote.
Tony has made many mistakes. I would have been better for the club if Amit had taken over but alas. I think now that Les has taken over the football side of the club, I think the club will move forward in the right direction. You only have to look at what Chris has done for the club in such a short time to think things can change. Tony has been far too easily misled and star struck by people. If he listen to Les we should be okay
I'm undecided, but have voted for Tony. I really worry what may become of us if he and the other money men walk away because the fans have turned against them.
I've stated before to the OP that turning Fernandes into the new Tarrabt argument isn't going to end well. Forget the banter between ourselves, but once this media whore gets a whiff of continuing dissent and negative reporting he'll be off and with a ready made excuse. Let's be honest with ourselves for a moment and look at the situation in cold hard facts - a la Benitez: Fernandes has little affinity to QPR with only the last 3 1/2 years experience tying him - made previous attempt to buy into his favourite club West Ham prior to taking the RRRs over. Fernandes has a well publicized sporting bankruptcy on his CV. Fernandes has overseen an approximate 250M GBP loss in 3 1/2 years - Playing staff valuations will be almost same as start of tenure by end season. Fernandes has been responsible for the selection of several Management teams at QPR, all underperforming. His backers have no affinity to QPR or football and possess a well publicized sporting bankruptcy on their CV. The Mittals show no signs of wishing to take over the helm, increasing from their already 33% stake. The Mittals do not require any branding from a sporting venture - they simply do not sell to individuals, it is all corporate. With just that in mind - what do we think could be keeping our owners at QPR? - My opinion - It aint the football!! Whilst the Multi Billion pound project was very feasible, a few hundred Million pound "study and viability investment" was sound. As that dream appears to at the very least be diluting, that few hundred Million USD now starts to look like it might have to be written off. If Fernandes is such a great Businessman as purported he will reach that conclusion.The only thing that might just stop him is the very real negative effect this would have on his profile in the West - which thankfully is still something close to his heart. However, if we start ala Briatore, to attack from all social media angles, he may be provided with his Get of Jail free card, able to quote racist, ungrateful, uneducated fans for forcing him out. My summation of my own made up facts is that we have to be careful - we must not get on Tony's or his partner's backs, this is extremely precarious, that our current position is due to TF is of no benefit at all to us, that we have gone from a no debt club to losses of 250M GBP within 4 years is sad and so wrong, those of you that state that it is not our money but the Owner's have missed a very real point here that Stan brings up. When TF bought in - we were a relatively OK proposition, promoted to Prem as Champions, no debt, decent relocation opportunities. Now 4 years on (and only if we go down) - we will be a club that is in the CC, lack of playing staff numbers and produced an accumulated debt of over 250M GBP to our owners - that is definitely a loss in our stock as a club, the Owners will of course have lost their "study and viability investment" but we are far more likely to lose or at very best have at risk something more dear to us. So all in all - I love you Tony!! - I'll buy the Frosties!!
Same fans that Tony promised the earth to. It is our fault for believing his lies though. Gullible we are. Never again. (oh I sound like Mark hughes now)
Isn't capitalism wonderful? Rich men buy something we hold dear. They make bad decisions to the point where that thing cannot survive without them. Then we can't run the risk of offending them lest they decide to wreck it entirely. It seems to me that living in the 21st century is a bit like being an ancient Greek or Roman - bowing to petty, unwise, unreliable, fallible and potentially spiteful little gods. Bowing not out of genuine respect and certainly not out of love. But because of a fear of the gods' wrath in the event of being offered insufficient adoration.
A good post. We've had a rollercoaster ride since TF took over - both euphoria and disillusionment - and although I expect to be relegated this season, there are signs that Tony Fernandes is taking a long term view even if we have to spend some seasons in the Championship, and come up with a solid, enthused, youthful team. That will give us the best chance of staying in the Premier League, but it's not going to be easy because increased TV monies will enable all the regular Prem clubs to entrench and be hard to shift. We're seeing that already. If QPR fans turn on management (and I don't think they will) then I'd say...be careful what you wish for.
Define "turn on". More than once, Fernandes has, via Twitter, referred to getting "hammered" by QPR fans. Each time, I've searched for genuinely inflammatory or aggressive messages and found.... NOTHING. So he either perceives mild criticism and justifiable concern as unwarranted or he invents imaginary critics. Either way, he seems very thin skinned.
So we are in this position......jolly D. The argument that we should be too scared to upset people for fear of what they might do sits very poorly with me.
"Turn on" at its mildest would be the general feeling fans had for Harry Redknapp at the end. "Turn on" at a worse level would be how Blackburn fans viewed the Venkys (boards and bedsheets etc marked and calling for them to go). A very few fans do become impatient and unnecessarily aggressive, sometimes against team players, sometimes management. I'm sure Tony Fernandes can deal with this if it's just verbal, not least because he gets the approval of most other fans.
I am pro but some of the more contrary arguments are hard to ignore eg the fact that we are now debt laden. However, while Tony is still talking about the very long haul and taking sensible steps to develop QPR then it remains a 'yes' from me.
So I wonder why he refers to getting "hammered" via hard-to-find (and therefore possibly imaginary) tweets. Every time I've asked someone to produce links to tweets in which he is genuinely "hammered", no one has ever been able to produce a single example. Oh, apart from some tweets from Scott Jones, maybe.
