...or is it? Despite all the warning signs we've had this entire season, and last, looks like we've finally gone doesn't it? No, not the club from our premier league misadventure, all but the least sane of us know that by now. I mean us on here. Judging by the relative inactivity on the board these last couple of days, looks like the impetus has gone for a lot of people. Penny's finally dropped, bubble's burst and there's nowt to even hope for anymore. Sure there's one or two starting to optimise about our future in the NPC, but that won't do it for most will it? Especially not now with five games to go and nothing to look forward to barring a long dry summer in the wilderness between despair and Never-neverland. People will be finding they have better things to do with their time than coming on here looking for solace. I can see where their coming from. Ostrich position's not a bad angle from which to view the next few months I s'pose - but for me all this is old news. Writing's been on the wall for so long it's starting to peal away. Tbh, can't wait till it's all over and we start finding out where the owner's think it all went wrong. Oh to be a fly on the boardroom wall! Regardless though, whatever's said in words will be nothing compared to the actions that follow. Only then will we begin to be able to make a bit of sense of it all. If there's to be a solid plan for recovery based on lessons learned, we'll find out soon enough. Certainly once them upstairs have had time to recoup and think things over, there'll be changes one way or another - but quite what'll change I doubt anyone of them knows for sure atm. Which begs the question, what has Phil Beard been up to all this time - other than getting pecked to pieces 'negotiating' contracts by vulture-like football agents that is? He's been looking pretty haggard lately so let's hope he's been busy on the master plan rather than just drinking his sorrows away. But if there is a plan and not just a knee-jerk reaction to circumstance, first thing I want to see is evidence of our CEO and/or the owners taking the bull by the horns and flattening the beast for once and for all. Full control takes a lot more than a bag of money or a job title - and there's been precious little to speak of to date. So will there be partings of the way down the line? Beard, the Mittals, Fernandes himself? Who knows but something's got to give somewhere surely. You can't ride all this disappointment without some sort of reaction. Wouldn't be normal would it? Then again, what's normal mean when it comes to this club of ours? We just seem to drift from crisis to crisis even when top of the league or WITH funds available. If I were granted one wish it would be to inject some sense into the mix, get some solid foundations laid for the coming year and finally shrug that damnable 'funny farm' reputation of ours for once and for all. (Is that one wish with consequences, or three separate ones? I dunno.) What that all means in terms of management and playing staff is yet another series of mysteries to be unravelled in the close season. Oddly enough I reckon we WILL see some real Rs emerge from the embers of this whole farce. Some like Onuoha and Jenas maybe, who we might have seen coming - and I dare say some others who we'd least expect. One sideshow I can't wait to visit is the Trapped sale or non-sale of the century. I know he's been busting for such an opportunity for ages and it'll be interesting to see who fancies him and how much for. Okay, so we'll all be flat as flippers on here for the next month or two - but thereafter wonders (if that's the word) to behold. Things are bound to pick-up on the uncertainty of it all alone. Then, as the dust settles come that big little day in August, eleven men will step out into a new era, ten of whom will be sporting thicker hoops and an old badge. Whether those men will go on to do us poor sinners proud at last, or do a Wolves, all depends on the hand we're dealt this summer. Let us (grit our teeth and) pray!
Great post Brix. Well thought out and carries so many tangents, it should result in invoking interesting and great individual responses. Here's mine. Last season I was full of it. ( Even if our league position and fixtures didn't show it. ) I came on here, giving Churchillian type speeches and predicting incredible results, telling people that we were in for a crackerjack finale etc etc. ( The evidence is on here if anyone can be arsed. Search back to 22/03/12. Or thereabouts. ) I just knew that somehow we weren't going to be one of the dreaded three. I really believed it. We had characters like Taiwo, Cisse, Mackie, Kenny, Hill, Derry and dare I say it Barton. We had a spine of a team and some periphery players who could do a job. This season, I didn't... ever. I think it was on rangercol's first match thread v the swans that I posted that I could sense something wasn't right. Whilst watching the players warm up pre match I got the sixth sense, instinct thing that things weren't correct. And so it proved, more drastically than I could ever expect it to. Of course, like the rest of us I hoped upon hope that things would turn around. Deep down I knew they wouldn't. This occurred to me after the West Ham game at home. I still hoped that my insight would be proved wrong. But alas not. Hence the complete absence of any war cries from me or any late expectant reprieve. It all seems academic in hindsight. Of course, I realise that. There will be more recriminations throughout the summer on our board and that is going to prove to be the bitterest pill. A summer ruined with relegation hanging over us. But we'll take our medicine and go forward once more into the breech. Because that is what we've always done.
Remember your Mystic Mick months at the end of last season fondly Ninesy. Remember screaming at you to get real and grab a parachute - but you, DT and a couple of other rose tints stood tall, hands to holster in the shadow of the big guns coming at us, like Oddball in Kelly's Heroes! Completely vindicated though - by the skin of OUR teeth!! After all that have to admit it bothered even me when you let on early doors that the tea leaves weren't sitting right in the pot this year. So how're the waters stirring for a bit of sense this summer? Any chance of a bit of light at the end of the tunnel (that ain't a train coming to flatten us all over again?!!).
No optimism for next season at all, do you honestly think that bunch of overpaid crap-merchants will tear up the most competitive league in football? Over 46 games? Steely determination and effort are two of the requirements and our two most lacking. I really fear next season could go the same way and we find ourselves with a Wolves-type scenario as the players pick up their fat paychecks and sleepwalk to League One...
Members will pick up the pace once the initial shock ........... or should I say, the impending shockwave filters thru us. We will no doubt be numb for a while, not wanting to comment. There will a a period of time where we are lacking any feel-good factor ( which is probably right now ) and have little to get enthusiastic about, hence little of new positive material on the board. Another factor to consider the lack of response of posting is that certain times throughout a given year, posters taper off, for whatever reason ........... they do tend to come back when but only when they are ready, we do have other things in lives, do we not? We all go hot and cold with things. Now that our team is suffering and lacking any positives, the support levels of us, the fans, may well have diminished and or been exhausted. We may think that we have given our all to the team but what have the team given us and or what have we got to show for it ............. very little. hence we drop off. Next year, regardless of where we are ............. will be as usual, a whole new ball game, with much vigour from us the fans and hopefully, our team. We already know that TF will be likewise.
Well written op Brix. Who knows what will occur? For me though....I'm dreading the last 3 home games. The atmosphere could be so low and could even turn quite ugly if we know we're down. I want to enjoy these times with the lad, but I'm not too confident that there'll be much enjoyment in those games.
Great OP. Plenty to discuss & keep us busy. I disagree slightly with the fans being a little flat for the last 3 home games. Knowing our fate, unless a miracle happens, we should go down shouting from the rooftops. Managers come & go. Players come & go but one constant that will never go is us! Let's get behind the team & let them know we are still here & are not going anywhere soon. We, the fans, should use the last 3 home games to let the likes of Rednap, Remy, Samba, Townsend et al know that we would love them to stay at least for 1 more season. Get behind them on the terraces. My heart says there is still a chance we could survive but my head has accepted our fate. It will be intriguing who we do retain & who goes & so we should have much to discuss over the close season in our corner of Not606! This I am looking forward to. Just be warned, we will have every WUM gloating at our demise & so we should act with dignity or even ignore them as they crave a reaction. Just my 2 cents....
"Judging by the relative inactivity on the board these last couple of days, looks like the impetus has gone for a lot of people." Doesn't help you knee jerking a ban to posters who seem to truly love this board (albeit misguided) when the blindest of eyes was turned to a complete lunatic quite obviously suffering a nervous breakdown/meltdown!
I am with Col here as some of the fans in x block last match need sorting out I am sure there will be a reaction I believe Harold's outburst is to do two things ... Last stand and kick up the arse at the same time making sure the fans remain good to him ... It's clear he wants in here long term to me ... A club that is building big off the pitch on London ... No brainer ... I think he has big designs inside The growing ill feeling towards the team this season has not helped nor have some of the posts on here A lot of posters had given up and were right to do so as it has turned out However those posters IMO weren't right to give it chops as on reflection the evidence is all here that players ... Brilliant players that the club signed took it in turn to be ****ed over. It hasn't worked and peace of mind is spreading to all on here ... That should be comforting to any man and we should all understand we can't do much more than supporters and fans than go hope good things for our team in the future ... Why hold on to bad thoughts? I look at the squad and still can't bueve it ... The club delivered for us by putting together a good squad it was we all wished for ... No one knows what would have happened if we spent **** all do we?.... We can only guess ? City and Chelsea have shown exactly what it takes today to follow Blackburn's Leeds and Newcastle's model of buying success . Look what it takes when you get there to stay a big club ... Liverpool ? Swansea is the new model? Arsenal ... Massive worldwide club and brand are possibly the future sadly and they have cut back to buy for their platform ... A few quite years but they will come strong I bet now and be one of Europe's giants for many years its all in place there ! 4 prizes each year and the showbiz of the premiership ? It all seems flat to me at the moment and I am not going to Stoke Saturday I need to look towards other things now ... The club has been punched hard and in my world that's a good lesson TF is at heart a good man but is reacting to the fans ... Stability TF do it you way ! ... We still like you and we still love QPR. Had a dream last night and woke up The story is not over it told me ... Twists and turns I am currently sitting with that and say go on then thrash stoke and then we will see ... It's up to the overlords now
I'm alright thanks, though this board is an understandably miserable place, which just makes it boring. There's something to laugh at in even the most dire of performances and farcical management/ organisation. It's entertainment. Going into the start of last season this club was clearly rotten to the core - no infrastructure, no plans for infrastructure, a spirited but aging, pace and quality free squad. Fernandes tried to work a miracle but sadly had a false start with Hughes (though I don't blame him for this - that car crash was completely unforeseeable). We've just lost a couple of years, that's all. Now we bounce back stronger, with experience, determination and, I sincerely hope, a commitment to do things right on and off the pitch. At its core that means playing like a proper QPR team - with flair, imagination and that hint of arrogance. Game on.
I should have added that the best things, the bond between supporters and the great feeling standing with a bunch of passionate, foul mouthed and very funny blokes watching it all unfold in front of us will still be there as well. Bliss.
There are reasons for mod actions / inactions we work hard to explain. The one you speak of was hardly knee jerk. Long history to it and Swords was given every opportunity over a couple of weeks to redeem himself and both couldn't on one aspect and wouldn't on the other. The decision was his. As for SR, no complaints received from anyone until the final day when a pot load came in (but none from you). If you think I'm a factor in the solemnity of the board atm, make an issue of it and I'll happily stand down. With two quality contributors training up as mods it won't be hard for us to move on now. However, my OP's about the club's demise negatively impacting on us all as fans atm, the apparent absence of hope and the forthcoming struggle to recover. Would Swords' presence lift our mood / collective disappointment right now? Very much doubt it.
Sombre ain't the word... but Sombrero is ... Booking up holidays as we speak and **** I may just change my job as well ... Sit and Mope? Sun and Hope?
personally speaking I had the best laugh I've had in ages at the Everton game! the match itself was ****, I've already forgotten about that. yet again it was the people I was with and met. staines and his crew are top blokes we had a good laugh in the arkle before the game. I spent all day with tramore, finglas and his 2 nephews- alan and Nathan. also joined up with Sharon smith from Dublin. all of these people turned a very long day in to a very short one. basically as long as QPR have fans like these then any success on the pitch is a bonus and the players abject failure won't stop me going to more games in the future.
Good OP brix. I posted a thread about Beard the other week and got shot down for it by some, and the vote was a landslide in favour of Beard. I find that odd seeing as he runs the club day to day. He negotiates the contracts and imo if there are no relegation clauses in them then that deserved the sack imo. Each to their own view i guess, but as you say after having such a bad season, and other potential issues with finances you would normally expect a change.
I'm not sombre. We've all been here before and next season we'll still be QPR. I'm looking forward to seeing the comings and goings over the summer. On paper at least we have plenty of quality players. Here's the question though, as far as I'm concerned. I think Harry is the man to bring us back up.. but, given his past record, he'll do it by finding hungry, experienced, proven footballers. He doesn't pay much attention to 3 years hence.. concentrating on the youth development etc. So, are we better off with him at the helm or someone more long term?
I'm with you on that one Inky. It is the people that make the day, not the trash our lot are dishing up at the moment. BTW, Alan is my brother not my Nephew. Lol. Brix, people's spirits will lift once we have been confirmed as relegated. It is hard for people to accept failure especially when it is currently happening to something we all love so much. These past few weeks and the next few are like having a car crash in slow motion. You can see it happening but there is nothing you can do about it. How long will it take for this board to recover? I would say at least a month after the season ends. There will be all sorts of fallout within the club as a result of relegation. The next four months up to the kick off of the new season in August will be really interesting. In the meantime, we all just have to stick together and cheer each other up. Have a few beers together before the game is a good pick me up and makes you realise that we really do have fantastic supporters and that the vast majority of lads and lassies who post on this board are smashing blokes and girls.
