I'm sitting watching Southampton v Chelsea and cheering Charlie on as you might expect. Just to pass the time, I thought I'd check out the history of a few teams that we might reasonably hope to emulate. Southampton first. Started as original member of PL in 92/93. In the PL until relegated in 2005 then five seasons in the Championship sandwiched between two in league one ie seven altogether before promotion back to the PL. They are, at present, a reasonably established PL team. Watford. Only two seasons in the PL in 99-2000 and 96/97 followed by eight seasons in the Championship before promotion back to the PL in 15/16 and look comfortable this season on 15 points so far. Swansea. This is the shocker. At the start of the PL, The Swans were in Div 2 then nineteen years, including seven in Div 3(!!), before promotion with us in 11/12. Currently they are in the drop zone. Now, please don't get me wrong and see my recent post in the QPR:Brentford thread alluding to a new low point in being a QPR supporter. I think we all knew we were not bouncing back anytime soon. My only hope is that we do Southampton rather than a Swansea. I can wait 7 years but strongly prefer not to wait 19. Certainly for The Swans, The Liberty was probably a big factor in their recent success though the new stadium factor is not working out for The Hammers just yet. I do think more definite news on the stadium would help us but we all know not to hold our collective breath on that one. I felt really miserable after Friday but cheer up lads and lasses. We will be back - eventually!
I don't think we'll be back anytime soon, RTID, certainly not until Fernandes relinquishes the reins and let's somebody take over that knows what they're doing. His tenure is becoming more embarrassing every season.
Getting harder and harder to disagree with that. I like the man (in as far as it is possible to like someone from their public persona). It's just possible that if construction at Warren Farm actually starts in May 17 as Hoos indicated, people might begin to believe in him again. With Tony, or with some one new, it is going to be quite a long haul back to the PL.
Getting into the premier league is not really the top priority for me, as a fan who wants to enjoy watching QPR. Of course, I know it would do our club well financially to get there and stay there. But in terms of what I want to see, I simply want to see QPR playing well and competing at whatever level they're at. If we stayed in the championship for many seasons but it felt great to be at LR, great atmosphere and we had a bunch of true characters in the squad we could be proud of, I'd love it. I don't buy into the whole premier league glossy product. Of course, I'd be very happy if we managed to be a regular contender for the EPL title, had all of the above things I want to see plus rataining our soul as a club. But how often is a club's soul retained when getting to that level? Football has changed and it's toxic.
