Tony: Players Sulking Pleased Me

TONY: PLAYERS SULKING PLEASED ME!

PUBLISHED
19:00 14th November 2013
by @OfficialQPR
Fernandes reveals why he was so happy to see his players have the hump!

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TONY Fernandes saw his QPR players walk past him with the raving hump – and he couldn’t have been more pleased!

The moment came as the squad boarded the team coach following their first defeat of the season. A 2-0 loss at promotion rivals Burnley saw Rangers’ unbeaten start to the league campaign come to an end.

While Fernandes was as disappointed as anyone about the loss, the reaction of his squad brought a smile to his face.

“I watched the players get on the coach after Burnley, and there was a different feeling completely,” he said, comparing the current squad with the 2012/13 group.

“It was pleasing in the strangest way for me. There was a very dour mood – and that made me happy. I could see they were hurting.

“I didn’t see that last season, when I walked into the changing room and people were talking about going to clubs, etcetera. This time there was a genuine feeling of, ‘God, we lost!’ People weren’t happy.

“That helped me a lot because at least I’ve got players here who get sad like me when we lose.”

Encouragingly, defeat has not been a familiar occurrence for QPR this season. With the Sky Bet Championship campaign 15 games old, the R’s occupy third spot and are well placed to challenge for an immediate return to the Premier League.

“Winning feels good,” said the R’s chairman. “We’ve certainly got a great platform. Listening to the fans, seeing our tremendous away support, it’s a much better feeling than last year.

“Hopefully we can build on it because it is still early days.”

With Fernandes’s help, Harry Redknapp has completely rebuilt his QPR squad. While there were many who predicted a further demise for Rangers in the second tier, the chairman and manager set about bringing together a group of players whose passion matched their own.

“I don’t think anybody gave us a hope in hell of cleaning things up so quickly, of getting – as the buzzword has been over the last few months – the ‘right sort’ in,” Fernandes added.

“There are still some gaps, there always will be at a football club, but I think we have done a pretty good job. Everyone we have brought in has the tight kind of spirit.”

Midfielder Joey Barton can certainly be included within that group. The combative midfielder spent last season on loan at Marseille before making a largely unexpected return to QPR this term.

Fernandes reveals he was desperate for the former Newcastle man to pull on the blue and white hoops this campaign.

“When Joey was at Marseille I was texting him telling him to come back this season and help us to get back up, I told him he’d be a legend for doing it,” he said.

“It conspired, one way or the other, that he is still with us.”

Barton’s performances for the R’s have been heavily praised by the supporters, the same supporters who were far from happy with the 31 year-old when he was sent off at Manchester City on the last day of the 2011/12 campaign when the club’s top-flight status was on the line.

“The fans’ support for Joey hasn’t surprised me,” Fernandes said. “We have got some pretty special people here, I really do mean that. Every chairman will say their fans are special but we have a forgiving crowd.

“It’s a crowd that doesn’t hold grudges and if they see a player doing his best for the shirt, they’re going to love him. It’s fact, and you can see that with the way they have got behind Joey.”

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