Big difference between Premier and Champions League - Every year three teams are promoted to the Premiership. Not always th best teams or the one playing good football but the rules are there that the top two plus a play off team will be promoted. When a team and in particular your team does it it's a great achievement. However there is a major difference between promotion and finishing inside the top four of the Premiership. Over the last couple of seasons we've effectively achieved less than Norwich. In four years we had to achieve one promotion which is a lot more simple than achieving two. Clubs like Blackpool and Burnley achieved promotion quicker and with arguably a lot less resources. Yes the argument will be but they didn't have a £10m debt hanging over them but who is to blame for that? No other team than ourselves. We put ourselves in that position and any buyer knew what the situation was when they bought into it. We have therefore started from exactly the same position as other recently promoted teams. We've seen with good management that it doesn't take four years to achieve promotion from near the depths of relegation. But promotion is very different from Champions League qualification. I personally didn't buy into it but the owners talked it up and raised expectations. How many sat at Stamford Bridge giving it the big 'we're richer than you'? How many saw the initial rise in ST prices as an indication of quality signings coming to W12? How many sponsors heard or read things coming out of Loftus Road and bought into the idea of us being the next Chelsea? I'm sure one or two did. Whether it was said in jest or actually meant it raised expectations. Mine, yours, everyones. We all knew that meant promotion had to be secured and then the building starts. As I said the two things are different one could be achieved by three teams this season including newly promoted Brighton, Southampton or Peterborough but for any of them to achieve CL qualification that takes a lot lot more. How many teams have come close to promotion one season followed by top 4 the next? On paper the likes of Reading and Wigan looked close a few years ago but in truth they were closer to relegation than the top 4. I'm not denying that yesterdays statement should be seen as a positive one and that keeping Taraabt could mean the difference between survival and relegation but to claim their four year objective has been achieved is a lie. We all know to get CL qualification they would have to have been promoted in year two and spent massively for two years. They didn't and now want us to again be thankful for the lies they've spun and continue to spin. They've never attempted to get us anywhere near CL. I'm happy and excited to be playing Premiership football with Taraabt in the side but to try and convince intelligent people that promotion after 4 years was their key objective is ridiculous. All they have done is highlighted to Neil and his coaching team that IRS their neck on the line if things are looking rocky. Neil has no right of reply as if he does then that to has been addressed as to what would happen. I'm thankful for Premiership football, I'm thankful to have Warnock as coach and I'm thankful that Taraabt is a part of our team but I and we shouldn't be treated like fools. If they had never mentioned CL then a lot more people would have a lot more respect for them as they wouldn't feel that they've been taken for a ride both financially and emotionally.
This guy is a complete and utter muppet. Why on earth is he talking about Champions League Qualification?? Is he on drugs or something? Nothing winds me up more than absolute tossers talking absolute S*ITE about completely irrelevant things. North, where the hell do you digs these morons up from?
I think you're right to remind us that Briatore (and more recently Ecclestone) talked about a top four finish (i.e. Champions League qualification) within four years of them taking over. They have said that BUT the first quote I heard was about achieving Premier League football within four years. The fact is Briatore said both things which has long confused me as to what their plans actually were. Smoke and mirrors, best of both worlds? Maybe, but more likely pie in the sky from people who may have money but don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to football matters. This added to the kind of fluctuating twaddle you get from people who think with their emotions (characteristic perhaps of the hot blooded, Mediterranean temperaments dominating our club of late). Whilst their mission statement(s) confounded me, it was nothing like the bemusement I felt watching the Briatore Paladini act that followed. Many of the players purchased, the manager merry-go-round and the contracts (from what I could make out) involving both, all left me in no doubt the clowns had stepped in as Ringmaster at the Rangers Circus. When such things happen you just know it can only end in tears. Doesn't surprise me in the least that they have the gall to claim the club's promotion as their achievement carried out within their timescale. That's the same kind of patronising bullshit that 'officially' stated Faulin was bought for £3.5m; that Taarabt's move to PSG had been 'rebuffed' when the latter wasn't prepared to meet the asking price; and that the proceeds from his sale (which in itself refutes the word 'rebuffed') would have been used for transfers in. Who do they think they're talking to when they produce all this rubbish? The levels of farce involved since they forced their way back in after their sabatical would be funny if things weren't so ****ing desperate. What a shambles. Don't tell me self-made men are invariably bright. The difference between them and the rest of us has much more to do with insatiable greed than marbles. If they had the senses to see what we can see, they'd do the decent thing and make arrangements to move on. Oh for the day we get rid for once and all.
Couldn't agree more Swords!! There are an awful lot of twats out there talking an awful lot of bollocks!!
Whichever way you look at what was promised, the expectation levels were pumped up by the Champions League in 4 years statement that was widely rubbished at the time. We suspected it was pie-in-the-sky at the time and several managers later we knew they were a bunch of tossers. Nothing that happens while these arseholes have possession of our club is likely to be in the best interests of QPR, it will be in the best interests of Bernie & Flav and it will be the minimum they can get away with. We will be spoonfed crumbs and told we are enjoying caviar...
