Fulham - QPR : The battle for supremacy Who will finish highest out of the West London rivals? Fulham, or QPR? When you think of Fulham and QPR's rivalry last season, one man was at the heart of it all, Bobby Zamora. He was instrumental in Fulham's 6-0 destruction of QPR, scoring one and assisting two others. He then shocked his club by walking out on them in January to join, you guessed it - QPR. There he was re-united with ex-Fulham manager Mark Hughes, and when the pair met Fulham at Loftus Road in late February they slipped to a chastening 1-0 loss. Right then, the R's were seriously contemplating relegation, and both Hughes and Zamora would have been seriously considering their judgement., As it was, they survived by the skin of their teeth, and their near brush with relegation has led to them coming back like a comic villain, badder and stronger. They have added another ex-Fulham striker to their ranks, Andy Johnson, who bagged a hat-trick in that 6-0 victory, which will mean even extra spice when the two teams meet next season, as if it needed it. Fulham-QPR is not seen as one of the games' most intense rivalries, indeed both clubs like to think themselves superior to one another and prefer to think of Chelsea as their more traditional rivals. This season the clashes will be more competitive than ever. Last season Fulham went into both games considering themselves a notch above QPR, and they were, it showed in the results, with the newly promoted side struggling for wins all season. Heading into this campaign, QPR's aim will not be simply to avoid relegation, they will enter it with the same aspirations as Fulham; a top 10 finish, and a decent cup run. European qualification would be a bonus. The signings both clubs have made make top half finishes more than realistic. Mladen Petric looks excellent at Fulham and big things are expected from Bryan Ruiz in his second season, while QPR's signing of Park Ji-Sung is a sign of their new pulling power and ambition. The battle to finish in the top 10 will be very competitive next year, and there may only be room for one of them. The question is who
I'm also interested to see whether MH can behave like a gentleman and shake Jol's hand decently though obviously hoping that he will find that a whole lot easier this time around!!
Cant be bothered with this Fulham/QPR thing. We have never really been interested in them and it's only a recent thing. They have done well in the Prem and have always looked a hard team to beat but now i see them going on a downward slop. I will never forget the day when i saw about 20 of their fans at an away game.
They arent our rivals, they obsessed with us and I think the fact that we dont really care about them winds them up even more. We are on the way up, they are on the way down.
I have to disagree with the sentiment of this thread. I grew up in Fulham ( in my teens anyway.) Many Fulham fans turned to Chelsea when they were in the fourth tier. Then came running back when the Egyptian came in. They are the ultimate plastics who give it the biggun when QPR related. They hated us when they shared our ground although they turned it into a fortress when they resided there. We must get retribution against these fake fans. Please MH let us do the double over them, make them go down. The Ruperts will struggle to stay up this season hopefully, I would love to see them go down.
Is this how outsiders see us, 'like a comic villain'? If so, this little club's clearly getting people's attention. Can't be bad can it? Who's this Fulham again?!
They see us as the next portsmouth, a "small club" throwing money around on bad signings. Despite the fact that we havent paid that much in transfer fees. In reality they dont like the fact that we are overtaking them in terms of stature and thats why they all wanted us to go down.
