please log in to view this image QPR chairman Tony Fernandes is chasing the impossible dream Queens Park Rangers chairman Tony Fernandes is a dreamer. It says so in his Twitter biography. please log in to view this image By Thom Gibbs 11:00PM BST 23 Aug 2012 It’s right there in a sea of incorrect capital letters after “CEO of AirAsia, Founder of Tune Group, Principal of Caterham F1 Team, Chairman of QPR,” and “Entrepreneur”. Rather than dreaming like the rest of us about, say, arriving for his Business Studies A-level wearing only a QPR away shirt, or running through treacle while pursued by an angry Bernie Ecclestone made of wasps, Fernandes’ dreams are big, bold, involve football and paying Kieron Dyer thousands of pounds to play Angry Birds. These dreams are increasingly difficult to differentiate from reality. Including loans, QPR have brought in 15 players in the year since Fernandes’ arrival. Some or all of Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Dawson, Jermain Defoe, Julio Cesar, and Kaka are expected to arrive before Sept 1. (Ok, perhaps not Kaka, but he would fit the profile identified by QPR’s scouting network, which appears to be a copy of Football Manager 2008). Planning permission is secured for an urgently needed new training ground. Wild plans are progressing for a not-needed 45,000-capacity stadium. Fernandes, like Leeds United’s Peter Risdale before him, is living the dream. It is not quite the wildly wasteful Seth Johnson model popularised at Elland Road, given the frightening wealth of QPR’s 33 per cent-owner Lakshmi Mittal, and that Fernandes and vice-chairman Amit Bhatia speak sensibly about the club. But actions speak louder than words and, in football, there are few more vociferous actions than signing an entirely new squad of ageing players in 12 months. Loftus Road is decrepit, but supporters are correctly concerned about the mooted capacity for a new ground. Clubs can overachieve for sustained periods under talented management and with an exceptional group of players or a powerful club-wide philosophy. What is basically unheard of is a club entirely transcending its status in the long term. Manchester City and Chelsea being ferociously bankrolled to glory is one thing. Transforming a mid-level club whose traditional home is the lower half of the Championship to one capable of attracting the same crowds as Liverpool is simply impossible. There is perhaps an ingrained British suspicion of class mobility at work here, the ancestral hangover that meekly warns that one must not aspire to be more than one is. There is also reality informed by years of precedents. This season’s QPR has a strong whiff of past expensive failures: the Middlesbrough team of Ravanelli, Juninho and Emerson that were relegated from the top flight in 1997, or the West Ham side that suffered the same fate in 2003 despite Carrick, Di Canio, Defoe and Joe Cole. With every new signing, there’s an increasingly noisy question from some corners of the QPR support: where does it all end? The answer? Usually in tears. In a past life as a construction industry journalist, I interviewed a Portsmouth board member about a planned move to an exciting new stadium. That venue now resides in the netherworld of unrealised artist’s impressions. Portsmouth are in the all-too-real netherworld that is League One. I asked him: “You’ve doing incredibly well at the moment, but lots of clubs have good spells under good managers. What happens if Harry Redknapp leaves?” A slightly blank look. A pause for thought. A considered reply: “That is not a part of our business plan.” Football is not business. If it was, it would have been wound up long ago or smaller clubs would have been swallowed up by five or six giants like so many independent High Street retailers. The Portsmouth director’s lack of foresight and the culture of optimistic PR speak around QPR excludes the possibility of failure. Fernandes is dreaming big, and QPR supporters should be grateful for his dedication. They would perhaps feel a little more comfortable if his club stopped behaving like they were inside a video game. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/queens-park-rangers/9495929/QPR-chairman-Tony-Fernandes-is-chasing-the-impossible-dream.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WE'RE DOOMED, DOOMED I TELL YOU!
This Thom Gibbs chap is a complete twat. Does anyone know who he supports? Jeoulousy is an evil monster.
I think he's going way over the top but are any of us - if we're totally and utterly 100% honest - not an incy wincy bit concerned at our current transfer policy? My head is telling me to cop on and enjoy the Club finally having money to buy decent players but my gut is telling me that prudence and youth is always the way to go. I just hope it all works out and that Hughes and the Board know what they're doing.
I suppose a reasonable analogy would be the telegraph's payroll including an excessive number of bitter old hacks who cheaply tie the recent revival to all the failures and none of the successes. Where were Leeds and Portsmouth's marketing strategies? How about the extra revenue generated by sponsoring everything? Off the pitch we're miles ahead. He seems to miss the means to an end philosophy and all the hype in Asia. And lower Championship club? Has he only got into football in the last 10 years? He must have been sitting amidst screwed up paper scratching his head with 5 minutes until deadline before boating together an online profile and a half interview with the Mandaric. Laughable.
The business model being followed by TF has been tried and tested and as the journalist points out usually ends in failure. But what Portsmouth fan would give up the FA cup win or Leeds fan those glorious runs in the CL. Who knows what might happen, we are fighting a bit above our weight at the moment but let's enjoy it while lasts.
That might have sounded good in your head Ironman but that's some depressing stuff indeed. If that's you being positive you must be a right ray of sunshine in the real World!
Well must admit I've never been a big believer in TF. He's in it for the same reasons as Tango and Cash but just better at marketing and dressing it up better. By the same token , I think I'd prefer to be on a roller coaster and reach some highs and just accept the dips as a consequence. But in my head i believe the dips are coming eventually.
comparisons with portsmouth frankly make me chuckle,they went under because of a combination of chairman spending cash like a spotty ginger kid in a brothel not one chairman building a club.they were actually paying a 17 year old 60k a week to keep him there that is how they bombed.before people say we dont have the capacity to balance the wages i'm no Einstein but i can add two match sticks together and make fire.the sums have been done based on the sky coffers coming in and from the extras for live games.
Ade Guess I feel that this is the important question in the article " What is basically unheard of is a club entirely transcending its status in the long term." Any clubs that have managed this??
Of course we don't need a 45,000 seater stadium Thom. We can survive on our 18,500 sell outs. It's only the smallest f****** ground in the premiership....... What a twat
Aye One year. Give them another five and they'll have pissed all over the EPL and the CL to boot. They never won the PL before and haven't won the league in 4 or 5 decades. 2012 Champions League winners: Chelsea I suppose you'll tell me they won the European Cup before an' all?
Accept the Chelsea argument. Having said that Chelsea were around 4th to 7th in the league when Roman bought them and have pretty much ended up back there now he's not pumping money in like crazy. This whole argument does make me ask. What is TF trying to achieve with QPR, is there a target we are aiming for
Very reasonable question Ironman and I'm sure you're not the only one with a couple of doubts floating around in your mind. I'm not quite sure myself what exactly it is that he's trying to do. Perhaps it will become more evident at the end of this season but you're quite right to raise these concerns and to hell with anyone who slams you as "fickle" or other such nonsense for doing so.
