Good BLOG piece after a day of high drama Not that long ago, the salvage job at Queens Park Rangers would have felt made for Harry Redknapp. This is an ambitious London club, within daily commute of his home in Sandbanks, Dorset, who are money-flushed yet flailing at the foot of the table, and a team in desperate need of a spark who is not Sparky. There will be funds to be splashed in January and pedigree to coax from experienced players who have clearly lost their way, but all would not seem quite so hopeless with 'Arry in charge. And yet, in the context of recent seasons, Redknapp's imminent appointment at Loftus Road feels like too much of a comedown. After all, it is little over six months ago since his Tottenham Hotspur side claimed fourth place in the Premier League, to be left crossing their fingers that Bayern Munich would win against Chelsea in their own stadium and claim the Champions League, thereby offering Spurs the route back into Europe's elite club competition their domestic form over the campaign had merited. Retreat a few weeks further and he was the favourite to take over the England national team. Now, as he returns to club management following his dismissal at White Hart Lane over the summer to oversee the only winless team in the country, he will feel the weight of the table heavy upon him. The QPR owners will see the firefighter in the 65-year-old and take reassurance from his achievements at West Ham United, Portsmouth and even Tottenham. As Redknapp was prone to remind the watching world, Spurs were cast adrift at the foot of the table with two miserable points when he succeeded Juande Ramos in the autumn of 2008, his brief back then limited to retaining top-flight status, and he duly hoisted them to eighth and the Champions League two years later. He and his back-room team organised the defence, sharpened the front line and breathed life into an entire setup almost overnight, bringing structure and enthusiasm to a team who appeared dishevelled. That was the Redknapp effect. Survival proved a springboard to the kind of success Tony Fernandes, Amit Bhatia, Ruben Gnanalingam and Din Kamarudin so crave. But there the comparisons with Spurs end. While Tottenham were in an inexcusable position when he took over four years ago, the squad Redknapp takes over at QPR are more akin to that he inherited in his second spell at Portsmouth. There he replaced Alain Perrin, who had managed 10 points from 13 matches â considerably more than Mark Hughes this time round â who had assembled a squad swollen in numbers but shorn of quality. The likes of Konstantinos Chalkias, Giannis Skopelitis, Emmanuel Olisadebe, Aleksandar Rodic, Collins Mbesuma and Zvonimir Vukic are instantly forgettable. "When I came back I took over the worst team you've ever seen in your life," Redknapp later said. "Dejan Stefanovic, who I'd brought in first time round, came up to me and said: 'Gaffer, you've got no chance here. You must be mad.'" Yet he still succeeded in securing safety and QPR must hope history repeats itself. Their squad are bloated, a reflection of three periods of frenzied buying since they were promoted to the Premier League in 2011 under Neil Warnock. He had recruited either side of Fernandes's takeover, and Hughes did so again, heavily, last January and over the summer. The team's more consistent performers over the past few seasons, such as Shaun Derry and Alejandro FaurlÃn, have slipped from the radar, superseded by players on heftier salaries who have largely yet to justify themselves. The free transfer signing of Júlio César just weeks after Rob Green had been secured on a substantial wage rather summed up the haphazard nature of their transfer policy. That sense of chaos off the pitch has pursued the team on to the turf. There is an imbalance to the squad, a lack of quality at centre-half and too many journeymen in the twilight of their careers who have proved injury prone or, judging by performances, simply lack the appetite for a relegation battle. Some are already nowhere near the first team. The player who would arguably have had most impact, Spurs' Michael Dawson, sensed the chaos and opted out early when a move across the capital was mooted in the summer. Clint Dempsey, too, chose White Hart Lane despite QPR apparently offering £10,000 a week more. A lack of relegation clauses written into many of the players' deals has added to the anxiety: this club, even backed by their current owners, cannot afford to slip out of the elite. Perhaps Redknapp, if he can forget what might have been, can succeed in inspiring this mishmash of senior professionals and mould them into a team. There is quality there, if it wishes to show itself, though the task proved far too much for Hughes. Maybe the new man in charge can inspire the kind of revival that marked his spells at Pompey and Spurs, and this club can force its way safely into mid-table. Yet Fernandes and Co must just hope the other scenario, the one played out at Southampton back in 2004 where the decline could not be arrested, does not come to pass. QPR may be bottom but demotion is unthinkable. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/...edknapp-queens-park-rangers#start-of-comments
