It's the last home game, and the groundsman is clearing the pitch after the match. He gathers a little pile by the half-way line. Tape, gum, a stud maybe, a lace. Football detritus. He's about to bag it for the rubbish, when you tell him to wait. Don't throw it all away. Put some in this box. This cardboard box. For this isn't rubbish, it's the spirit of QPR. It's not crap, it embodies everything that has been good and still could be good about Queens Park Rangers Football Club. It's our essence. The QPR Meaning of LIfe, but the number isn't 42, it's 76. Write that number on the box, tape it up and put it on a shelf. And when prospective managers ask about our 'ambition', take down the box and hand it to them. Don't open it, tell them, what's inside isn't important, it's the number on the top. That's our ambition. Another side like that one. That great trophy-less side. That's not too much to ask, is it? You don't even have to win anything, just play like that side did.
Am I the only one with the squeaky-bum feeling that the groundsman mentioned in Stroller's OP will be picking up stuff from the pitch when we are relegated at the end of this season? If we don't get to 50 points sharpish I think it is still a possibility. I like the side of 76 but would also give a shout to the 81/82/83 team who got us promoted and so very nearly won the FA Cup. What was Tony Curry doing back in the penalty area?!!!
I really need to pay more attention, thought we had 5 left!! Bring on the new guvnor and look forward to next season then.
I'm sorry for your 24 hours of unnecessary anxiety! We are safe because Rotherham lost and not through any great merit of our team even though from the radio commentary it was yet another game we might / should / could have done better, even won. I know most are worried about next season but wouldn't it be the QPR way to cobble together a team that does ok and surprises us all? Yes please.
Thanks to Steels and Blymie on the RIP thread I have just learned that 10 of the 11 Celtic Lisbon Lions were born within 10 miles of Parkhead/Celtic Park, with the foreigner born a massive 30 miles away. So that should be our ambition, winning the champions league with a team from within (a generous, but think of the population covered) 15 miles of Loftus Road. Or 15 miles of the new stadium, but I’ll be dead by then so I don’t really care.
One of the many differences between 76 and now is that we had already had 10 or more years of the late great Jim Gregory as chairman. A wealthy man for sure but he still built the modern QPR on a shoe string. I can't see any sign that our current owners understand how to strike the balance between sensible investment, fiscal responsibility and a long term strategy that Gregory did so effectively. It seems to me that we are swinging between the ends of a financial pendulum and having thrown away billions in trying to buy overnight success the owners are now determined to experiment with unsustainable levels of austerity and hope for the best. I know that FFP has totally f*cked us up in a whole new way but we are still owned by some of the richest men in the world and they must surely be able to come up with something other than knee-jerk economics.
Watching this still brings a tear to the eye at what might have been, an afternoon I'll never forget, we were still in the ground an hour after the match finished...
We were lucky to have experienced it. Can't see anything like this happening ever again - although hopefully there'll be some OBZ moments occasionally.
This says enough QPR's 2016/17 Player of the Year event has been cancelled. Tickets went on sale for the event last week but a lack of sales has resulted in the event being cancelled. QPR CEO Lee Hoos told www.qpr.co.uk: "We are naturally disappointed that we've had to cancel the event.