Articles re QPR Mass Spending - Fernandes Responds

[Macmoish]

!
The Guardian/Jamie Jackson

Tony Fernandes's QPR continue quest to spend or be damned
QPR's approach to sign players with little re-sale value raises questions over Tony Fernandes's vision for the club

Last September Tony Fernandes, Queens Park Rangers' new owner, told the Guardian: "The message is: 'I don't know where we'll take this club, but we'll give it our best shot.'"

In the first season following promotion the journey would be a haphazard stumble to near-relegation shaped by a scattergun recruitment policy that now stands at two managers, 40 players used and 16 recruited if Michael Dawson's expected move from Tottenham Hotspur goes through.

Factor in the desire of the manager Mark Hughes, who replaced Neil Warnock in January, to add Real Madrid's Ricardo Carvalho (on loan) and Dawson's Spurs colleague Jermain Defoe before 1 September and that is enough for a completely new match-day squad since Fernandes became majority shareholder.

All this would be fine if QPR had kicked-off their first full campaign under Hughes with style and stability, but by 4.50pm on Saturday Michael Laudrup, in his first Premier League match as a manager, had overseen Swansea City's 5-0 hammering of the Hoops at Loftus Road.

Hughes's words following their survival, despite losing 3-2 to Manchester City in that final day championship decider, suddenly convinced a little less. "We will never be in this situation again while I am manager," the Welshman said. Hughes's optimism was probably founded in his knowledge he would never have to select Joey Barton in a QPR XI again.

After witnessing how the midfielder came close to costing the club their Premier League status by being sent off against City in May, and compounding this with further clashes with Sergio Agüero and Vincent Kompany – for which Barton received a 12-match ban – Hughes hoped the midfielder's travails and tweeting would soon be someone else's problem.

Barton was the first player to be signed under Fernandes's ownership. Hindsight's wisdom now places this and his appointment as captain by Warnock as a disastrously wrong tone-setting move for the new era, one from which Hughes is still trying to recover the club.

Those 40 players called upon by QPR are five more than any other club in the corresponding period. Norwich City and Swansea City, promoted alongside QPR in 2011, have needed 29 and 28 respectively.

The profiles of the 15 signed so far during Fernandes's time in charge reveal the fault-lines in the club's policy. Only six could be expected to have either a significant sell-on value or have their best years ahead of them.

After Barton, 28-years-old when he arrived in August 2011 and who has been linked with a loan move to Marseille, came Luke Young (32, joined last August), Shaun Wright-Phillips (29, last August), Djibril Cissé (30, January) Bobby Zamora (30, January), Andrew Johnson (31, this summer), Ryan Nelsen (34, this summer), Rob Green (32, this summer), Park Ji-sung (31, this summer) and Dawson, who is 28.

If the 34-year-old Carvalho and Defoe, 29, arrive, then expect the wags at Loftus Road to whistle the theme from Dad's Army whenever QPR play. Hughes's squad also includes Kieron Dyer, 33, and Shaun Derry, 34. Both were named on the bench against Swansea.

Of the 16, only the 22-year-old Junior Hoilett, Anton Ferdinand (27), Armand Traoré (22), Nedum Onuoha (25), Samba Diakité (23) and the Manchester United loanee Fábio da Silva (22) have an argument for youth or sell-on value. A source close to Fernandes told the Guardian: "We haven't paid for 95%, many are free transfers and many of these players, for example, Junior Hoilett, have huge value."

In a multi-tweet dispatch following Swansea's 5-0 rout of QPR, Fernandes said: "That was a pretty poor anniversary. Worse than last season. But I remain positive. We haven't gelled yet. Have faith and be optimistic. I always said it takes time to gel this team and know our formation. There are some positives. Ji was great. Hoilett looked good. We dominated the first half. I don't honestly feel that bad. But 5-0 is 5-0.

"[The] defence was very poor today. No excuses. But this is a far better place we are in than last season against Bolton [QPR lost to them 4–0 at Loftus Road on the first day]. [There are] many many positives. I feel we are in a much better place, just takes time. At 2-0 we chased the game and lost shape. Its about a season not one game."

Fernandes even offered Hughes the confidence vote not always welcomed by managers. "I have a fantastic relationship with Mark Hughes," he said. "He's as disappointed as me. He will fix this. No one expected this. Better now than later. For all QPR fans we are working overtime. Once we have analysed the game we know what we have to do. Body blow but we are all fighters."

QPR are at Norwich City on Saturday, themselves 5–0 losers at Fulham last week, before a challenging three-game run which features a trip to the champions, Manchester City, the visit of Chelsea, the European champions, and the short journey to Tottenham Hotspur, who finished fourth last season.

www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/22/tony-fernandes-queens-park-rangers

[Macmoish]

Telegraph/Jeremy Wilson

QPR’s owners speculate to accumulate real success
Spend-spend policy stakes Loftus Road future, but at least the Mittal family millions provide safety net

Another day in another transfer window and once again it was not Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester City generating the biggest headlines but Queens Park Rangers.
With Jose Bosingwa, a Champions League winner, having already arrived and negotiations ongoing yesterday for Real Madrid’s Ricardo Carvalho and England centre-back Michael Dawson, QPR’s back four against Norwich on Saturday could bear no resemblance to the one which lined up in their 5-0 opening-day drubbing against Swansea.

After the additions already this summer of Ji-Sung Park, Robert Green, Junior Hoilett, Ryan Nelsen and Andrew Johnson, it will also represent the continuation of a recruitment pattern at Loftus Road that is certainly ambitious but also extravagant and highly risky. Add in Kieron Dyer, Joey Barton, Luke Young, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Nedum Onuoha, Djibril Cissé and Bobby Zamora, all signed since promotion was achieved from the Championship, and Mark Hughes has one of the most experienced squads in the Premier League.
Yet it is also a team with limited resale value and, for a club on QPR’s relatively moderate turnover, an extraordinary wage bill.

In the most recently published accounts, which relate to QPR’s Championship-winning season in 2010-11, the wages to turnover ratio was a whopping 183 per cent. It led to an operating loss of £25.7million. The next accounts, expected to be published in April, could be more eye-watering still.

Nobody is pretending that the model is even remotely self-sustainable in the short term but there might still be method in what some might regard as madness. Yes, in the recruitment of seasoned internationals on wages that cannot be covered by their natural resources, there is a possible comparison with Portsmouth or even Leeds. Yet it is equally possible to point to the examples of Manchester City, Chelsea, Wigan, Stoke City, Fulham, Middlesbrough and Bolton as clubs who were successful in establishing themselves at a new level in the Premier League after an initial injection of outside funds. It is about speculating to accumulate.

There is certainly no particular concern at the Premier League’s headquarters in Gloucester Place over QPR’s strategy. In the wake of Portsmouth, tighter sustainability tests were introduced and clubs are required to produce financial information on how they will meet their commitments during the year.
The viability of QPR’s model is underpinned by the vast wealth of the club’s owners. The 2010-11 accounts with their strategy for growth at every level, should provide considerable reassurance to supporters.
Although net debt as of May 2011 was £56.1million, all outstanding loans can be described as “soft” in that they are only owed to Tune QPR Sdn Bhd, a company owned by Tony Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun and Ruben Gnanalingam or the Mittal family’s Sea Dream Limited. Given that the Mittal family, who are 33 per cent owners of QPR, feature regularly in the top 10 of Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people, the safety net should be considerable.

The focus for the owners stretches well beyond this summer’s investment in the playing squad. Beneath some frantic transfer activity, change at QPR is being implemented from bottom to top. Planning permission has already been secured for a new training ground at Warren Farm that is due to be opened next year.
There has been an overhaul of the technical staff beneath Hughes. Mike Rigg, the technical director, was appointed from Manchester City in April and, in the last 48 hours, Shaun Hallett has come in as the head of academy and football operations, Levin Cruickshank as scouting coordinator and Stuart Webber, Hans Gillhaus and Steve Hitchen have been added to the scouting team.
A longer-term desire to move towards self-sustainability is reflected in negotiations over two west London sites that could house a new 45,000-seat stadium. Phil Beard, QPR’s chief executive, is focused on growing the club’s fan base over the next five years to the extent that a larger new stadium could be filled. As well as its modest 18,500 capacity, Loftus Road has only 18 executive boxes.

“What we desire is an arena for QPR that could have multi-use capabilities,” said Beard. “If we are serious at QPR about building a club and generating improved income then we have to consider another site.

“We need to grow our fan base and engage with young people and the community and become a club that is not just known in London and around Europe but further afield.”
Beard realises the dangers: “The game is so competitive it tempts clubs to push their financial boundaries.”
The lasting commitment of QPR’s owners will decide whether the boundaries have been sensibly stretched in a fascinating first year back among English football’s elite.

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/queens-park-rangers/9493601/QPRs-owners-speculate-to-accumulate-real-success.html

[Macmoish]

Tony Fernandes ‏@tonyfernandes

You know something I don't. Wages are less than last year 15 players already left. And we have spent a net of 1.5 ... m.tmi.me/vRgum

We have a fantastic team led by our very committed manager mark. There is no panic and no overspending. Very sensible shareholders.

[Macmoish]

Q: @tonyfernandes Why did you offer Kieran Dyer a new contract when he has played less than 40 games in 5 seasons? #strange


TF - Because he's a top player and worth taking the risk. Simple. RT @darylwillard:

[Macmoish]

Fernandes on Talksport

Can Listen...
www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/120823/exclusive-fernandes-defends-qpr’s-transfer-policy-179292?

Exclusive - Fernandes defends QPR’s transfer policy

By Alex Varney | Thursday, August 23, 2012


Tony Fernandes has admitted Queens Park Rangers are in talks with Michael Dawson and a host of other players about joining them – but has defended the club’s approach in the transfer market.

Rangers have been linked with moves for Ricardo Carvalho, Jermain Defoe and Julio Cesar, as well as Dawson, after being thrashed 5-0 at home to Swansea in their Premier League opener on Saturday.
Fernandes has already sanctioned the signings of eight players this summer, many on sky-high wages, but denies the imminent arrival of more big-name stars represents panic buying and insists he is running the club 'sensibly'.
The Rs owner told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast: “We are in discussions [with Dawson] but QPR have got to run a sensible business. People out there think we are just throwing money and panic buying. I think we are very calm at what we want.
“We have done some sensible business over the summer and we are not going to throw it away. We are here for the long run and we want to do things properly.
"None of the deals reported have actually been done. We’ve been talking on many, many fronts and if and when they are done we will announce them. But there have been many things we have been trying to do over the last eight day

Read more at www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/120823/exclusive-fernandes-defends-qpr’s-transfer-policy-179292?#KUBbYgyL3gZ1RJud.99

[Lonegunmen]

Wenger initially spent big and brought in a lot of players then over the years it was a minor tweek here, a minor tweek there. Hughes has actually set himself up a new base of players and I think after this season he'll do something similar replacing the aging players with younger inexperienced ones.

I have to say, I am genuinely excited by the thought of some of our own youth team guys are being noticed by Hughes. Hopefully they will get e run too.

[sharky]

I question the spending too. Only time will tell but being last after week 1 isn't a great place to be!!

[Bushman]

I can feel an Ingham coming on.

[cpr]

We're rapidly becoming the next episode of the comedy store presents.....

[Roller]

Aug 23, 2012 9:55:48 GMT cpr said:

We're rapidly becoming the next episode of the comedy store presents.....

becoming?

When haven't we been?

[cpr]

Aug 23, 2012 10:37:29 GMT Roller said:

Aug 23, 2012 9:55:48 GMT cpr said:

We're rapidly becoming the next episode of the comedy store presents.....

becoming?

When haven't we been?

True enough, next dvd will be released shortly!!!

[Markqpr]

Aug 23, 2012 9:35:11 GMT Macmoish said:

Q: @tonyfernandes Why did you offer Kieran Dyer a new contract when he has played less than 40 games in 5 seasons? #strange


TF - Because he's a top player and worth taking the risk. Simple. RT @darylwillard:

No, that is a lie.

It was because he had a clause in his original contract that automatically granted him a contract extension if we stayed up, regardless of the amount of games he played.

Tony, I too would to be embarrassed to admit that, but outright lying to the fans is unacceptable and amateurish.

Dyer signed before Fernandes took over though, so the need to lie is minimal as it was a contract granted by the previous owners.

Also if Fernandes thinks that a player who has played less than 40 games in 5 seasons is a 'top player', all he is doing is underlining his ignorance of what constitutes, by his own description, of what a 'top player' should offer his club.

Shame on you for lying to us.

[RoryTheRanger]

To be fair and injury free Dyer is a quality player.

He looked sharp on Monday in the training match at RB

[eskey8]

Dyer was a quality, 5 years ago. Whether he still is, remains to be seen.

[cpr]

"injury free Dyer" made oi larf loudly. ;D

[toboboly]

The Dyer thing doesn't make sense. If he had that clause then why did we not jettison him at Xmas when we could and when TF was in control? Why, despite Dyer being injured yet again, did we keep him on for the rest of the season?

It all stinks to high heaven of a GP cock up.

[Macmoish]

Evening Standard

Tony Fernandes rejects talk of QPR panic buys

3 August 2012

Tony Fernandes denies that Queens Park Rangers have overspent this summer.

There have been seven arrivals and QPR are in talks with Real Madrid’s Ricardo Carvalho (loan), Tottenham’s Michael Dawson and Inter Milan goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

Owner Fernandes tweeted: “Wages are less than last year 15 players already left. And we have spent a net of 1.5m this year. There is no panic.”

He also told TalkSPORT: "None of those deals that have been reported have actually been done. We have been talking on many, many fronts. When they're done we'll announce them, if they're done," he said.

"But there have been many things we have been trying to do over the last eight days."

Asked about Dawson specifically, Fernandes said: "I'd rather not comment. We are in discussions but QPR have got to run a sensible business. I think people out there think we are just throwing money and panic buying, all these kinds of words I hear. I think we are very calm at what we want.

"We have done some sensible business over the summer and we are not going to throw it away. We are here for the long run and we'll do things properly."

Brazil international Cesar was a key part of the Italian side's Champions League win two years ago but now looks set to leave the San Siro.

Samir Handanovic arrived from Udinese this summer and Cesar has been allowed to speak to other clubs about a move.

Tottenham have been heavily linked with the 32-year-old but it is understood that QPR are in talks with the Inter goalkeeper.

The west Londoners' technical director Mike Rigg is speaking with Cesar's representatives to see whether a move to Loftus Road can be pushed through.

The news comes just days after summer signing Rob Green's blunder set Swansea on course for a surprise 5-0 victory at QPR.


www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/tony-fernandes-rejects-talk-of-qpr-panic-buys-8076246.html

[nomar]

Not sure why we are looking at Cesar?

Just stick with Green. What we should have done in the preseason was get in a proper CB, like everyone on every QPR fan website on the worldwide web was screaming out for! This does smack of panic buying.

The players we have are good enough but we need some young hungry players who want to fight for the right and privilege of playing in the Prem.

That spirit was sorely lacking on Saturday when we gave up once we went 2 down.

Get a CB (preferably not one who is injury prone) or play Ehmer/Nelsen (cannot genuinely be worse than the way Hill played on Saturday) and finish the buying please.

[bowranger]

Aug 23, 2012 13:15:56 GMT nomar said:

Not sure why we are looking at Cesar?

Just stick with Green. What we should have done in the preseason was get in a proper CB, like everyone on every QPR fan website on the worldwide web was screaming out for! This does smack of panic buying.

The players we have are good enough but we need some young hungry players who want to fight for the right and privilege of playing in the Prem.

That spirit was sorely lacking on Saturday when we gave up once we went 2 down.

Get a CB (preferably not one who is injury prone) or play Ehmer/Nelsen (cannot genuinely be worse than the way Hill played on Saturday) and finish the buying please.

I agree - I also don't know why we aren't looking at improving at what we've already got. I know it's just paper talk so I may be wrong here, but if you know a player has got decent quality but has flaws, why aren't we focusing on improving them with our massive set of backroom staff rather than running for the cheque book every time? We've got Green on a contract on good wages - you bring in another keeper now and you may as well release him as his confidence will be as good as shot. Maybe I'm being stubborn but it's a bit like how I feel about Taarabt being written off as not worth it for away games - these are pro's on big money - if you're paying them tens of thousands of pounds a week then they should be performing. That's their and the coaching staff's responsibility. It's all well and good to point out flaws and want players to be dropped but i'd rather show some faith, work in training, and not piss millions of accumulated pounds down the drain because people throw their toys out the pram.

We're not going to be able to sell on alot of the players we've brought in, or at least not for big money, cos of their age so you'd think the best option would be focusing on moulding what we've got into a good unit rather than plugging the gaps.

[Macmoish]

I don't think the Cesar is just paper talk. Clearly we're trying. It was suggested by a couple of tweets that this may have nothing to do with Green on Saturday...But we needed a second goalie. I don't know...

[Markqpr]

Aug 23, 2012 12:22:28 GMT toboboly said:

The Dyer thing doesn't make sense. If he had that clause then why did we not jettison him at Xmas when we could. Why, despite Dyer being injured yet again, did we keep him on for the rest of the season?

Because the player has to agree to the move as well or to have his contract terminated in receipt of a pay off, unless we can find grounds for a dismissal and being injured all the time doesn't count as it's an occupational hazard.

Until then we have to honour the contract we gave him.

Aug 23, 2012 12:22:28 GMT toboboly said:

It all stinks to high heaven of a GP cock up.

Agreed.

[Markqpr]

Aug 23, 2012 11:35:20 GMT RoryTheRanger said:

To be fair and injury free Dyer is a quality player.

He looked sharp on Monday in the training match at RB

Are you actually old enough to remember when Dyer was an injury free quality player? ;D

He's impressed so much recently on the tour and in training that SWP came on at right back on Saturday.

[nomar]

This just has too much of last season about it for my liking.

I am a bit nonplussed by Hughes transfer dealings so far. Everyone knew that we needed a CB far more than we needed a plethora of midfield players, good though they are.

Green is good to go and Cerny appears adequate back up. If we get Cesar then we really ought to loan out Green. I cannot see the point of both.

Carvalho stinks of desperation another aged player past his prime. Shawcross is worthy of a £9m tag, Dawson is another one who is always injured.

I also think its time we looked at the lower leagues and bought in players who actually would deem it a privilege to play in the Prem. We seem to be collecting players who think they have a divine right to play in this league instead of players who feel they need to earn the right to play in the Prem.

This team really is a quality CB short of being able to be very good this season. The silly spending has to stop.

[bowranger]

Aug 23, 2012 14:50:09 GMT nomar said:

This just has too much of last season about it for my liking.

I am a bit nonplussed by Hughes transfer dealings so far. Everyone knew that we needed a CB far more than we needed a plethora of midfield players, good though they are.

Green is good to go and Cerny appears adequate back up. If we get Cesar then we really ought to loan out Green. I cannot see the point of both.

Carvalho stinks of desperation another aged player past his prime. Shawcross is worthy of a £9m tag, Dawson is another one who is always injured.

I also think its time we looked at the lower leagues and bought in players who actually would deem it a privilege to play in the Prem. We seem to be collecting players who think they have a divine right to play in this league instead of players who feel they need to earn the right to play in the Prem.

This team really is a quality CB short of being able to be very good this season. The silly spending has to stop.

Completely agree - you bring in Cesar and play him in the first team you might as well show Green the door. Having an England international keeper as your back up is great on paper but he's a confidence player. One game in and they bring in someone new, he's going to be jittery whenever he steps on the pitch. I know some will argue that competition brings the best of players but it's not always the case, particularly with keepers so early on at a new club. He needs to stake his claim on the squad, be given a chance to prove himself and win some faith back from the players around him and the fans. We're spending a shit tonne of wage money on him and despite all the criticisms and clangers, he has the ability and has proven in the past that he's a very good keeper when he's confident. Replace him now and he'll be another player on a contract rotting away on high wages with 0 confidence.

Also agree that we should focus more on players who are more likely to fight to stay in the Prem and take pride in it. I don't disagree that some of these new names flying around have great pedigree and every side probably needs a little bit of that kind of steel, but it's a huge amount of wage money and almost zero re-sell value to build a large chunk of the squad on.

My point being, say that these new signings do work, keep us up and consolidate - where are we next season? A large squad with a lot of players who are injury prone and unlikely to play more than a few more seasons, both due to age. We can't sell them on, or certainly not for much, and we're paying big wages. It's all well and good to bring in some older, experienced heads to bandage up parts of the team, but it's folly to fill the team up with players like that.

Not saying it can't work and I havn't had my expectations raised through the roof to turn my nose up at experienced players. But it puts a huge amount of pressure on us doing ok this year. If we don't consolidate this year, we're not in a brilliant state to improve year on year. It's a really big gamble.

[jezzzzzza]

A net spend of £1.5m is all I keep hearing and reading about from the owners. That's all well and good or bad depending on how you look at it. What is very concerning is how big the wage bill is and how big is it gonna be once we've signed cesar, carvalho and dawson or whoever else we might end up employing. Its just not sustainable for a club with home gates of 18,000 and frankly that scares me

[bowranger]

Aug 23, 2012 17:36:06 GMT jezzzzzza said:

A net spend of £1.5m is all I keep hearing and reading about from the owners. That's all well and good or bad depending on how you look at it. What is very concerning is how big the wage bill is and how big is it gonna be once we've signed cesar, carvalho and dawson or whoever else we might end up employing. Its just not sustainable for a club with home gates of 18,000 and frankly that scares me

Definitely - it's not sustainable now and wasn't a year ago either - we're just lucky enough to have a board room who are willing to suck that up and gamble on the future. You just have to hope they stay the course.

Say a chunk of those older players lose form or get injured. Or even if they don't, they still have very little re-sale value. I'm not in panic mode by a long shot, but we're going to be haemorraging money like crazy. If the squad we have doesn't catapult us up the league, Hughes will end up looking to improve and bring more players in, but we won't have much capital to buy new ones unless we sell, and we havn't got a very re-sellable squad outside of players i'd never want us to sell. I'm not of the school of thought that says old players looking for one last Prem pay-day are inherently unmotivated, not always the case by a long shot, but I can't see many of our recent older signings moving "up" from us - they'll either drop down a league or go abroad for less money, retire, or sit in the squad unused and withdrawing money. So that puts far more pressure on the board funding-wise when it comes to the "next step" of the project.

[jezzzzzza]

Aug 23, 2012 17:42:11 GMT bowranger said:

Aug 23, 2012 17:36:06 GMT jezzzzzza said:

A net spend of £1.5m is all I keep hearing and reading about from the owners. That's all well and good or bad depending on how you look at it. What is very concerning is how big the wage bill is and how big is it gonna be once we've signed cesar, carvalho and dawson or whoever else we might end up employing. Its just not sustainable for a club with home gates of 18,000 and frankly that scares me

Definitely - it's not sustainable now and wasn't a year ago either - we're just lucky enough to have a board room who are willing to suck that up and gamble on the future. You just have to hope they stay the course.

Say a chunk of those older players lose form or get injured. Or even if they don't, they still have very little re-sale value. I'm not in panic mode by a long shot, but we're going to be haemorraging money like crazy. If the squad we have doesn't catapult us up the league, Hughes will end up looking to improve and bring more players in, but we won't have much capital to buy new ones unless we sell, and we havn't got a very re-sellable squad outside of players i'd never want us to sell. I'm not of the school of thought that says old players looking for one last Prem pay-day are inherently unmotivated, not always the case by a long shot, but I can't see many of our recent older signings moving "up" from us - they'll either drop down a league or go abroad for less money, retire, or sit in the squad unused and withdrawing money. So that puts far more pressure on the board funding-wise when it comes to the "next step" of the project.

absolutely bowranger, I guess we need to keep the faith with Mr Fernandes and the board who I'm quite sure know what they're doing but I do wish the transfer window would close sooner and then we could all concentrate on supporting the R's on the pitch

[ingham]

My impression is that we sign about 40 players a season, and have been doing so for 15 years. My other impression is that around 25 of each season's recruits are, at best, baffling, or nondescript, or of questionable value because of age, injury or character.

While the rest are so obviously useless that one suspects some other reason than football for providing them with the long contracts that so many seem to enjoy.

And when I hear what supporters, the Board or the press say, I can't work out whether we are spending vast sums, or next to nothing. If someone says we're spending bucketloads, someone else says they're all free transfers.

Yet we're told we're building not only a team, but the future, and a VAST stadium to boot. Assuming that a reasonable average attendance for QPR over the last 50 years would be 12-15,000, no other Club that I know of has proposed to build a stadium three times the size of its usual support.

As far as building a team goes, and leaving aside all the home-grown players at the time, I recall the Rs signing Les Allen, a player who could do everything except run. Then adding Marsh, a 'difficult' player, and with them, we had a team in the Third Division - our usual stamping ground - that was suddenly playing like Brazil.

Subsequently we saw Jago, and then Sexton, fashion a side with what looked like care. Goalkeeper? Get the kid from Walsall. Striker? Givens, who could run, shoot, and score with head and foot, and, on his day, play a bit. A Third Division centre forward (I imagined 'Bowles' must be a burly, no-nonsense lower league workhorse, and was amazed with what we actually ended up with), Thomas for pace, the future England captain as the pick of our home-grown players ...

Nobody said QPR were spending vast sums, although we had certainly changed from a Club that had to sell the likes of Clive Clark and Mark Lazarus to a Club that was looking to pick up not just effectiveness, but quality.

Later, we saw the same thing happen in a more workmanlike fashion. Hucker playing goalkeeper (and as far as I could make out, sweeper as well, so quickly did he come off his line). Dawes and Neill, classic home-grown full-backs. The big central defender, Mac, the nondescript-looking but ever overperforming Fenwick.

Dear God, we even got, what was it, 16 or 18 goals out of Tony Sealy, in our promotion year.

Like Leeds or Liverpool in their 60s heyday, the team picked itself. You didn't have more people in the squad than there were in the Loft, because, among other things, it wasn't possible.

You just couldn't carry dozens of players of no particular distinction.

And even then, with what must remain our three best-ever sides (given their various League and Cup exploits), it was very difficult to make an impact. The great 76 side which came up in 1973 was back down in 1979.

That's football, it's tough, even when you're at your best. But now, we can go 15 years or more with just a couple of promotions to show (which are almost inevitable if you're bad enough to go down in the first place), and yet the talk is all of how well everyone is doing.

Each manager will do the job. Each vast herd of players will meet the Club's needs. The people in the boardroom who have no idea what is going on now somehow, mysteriously, know all about the future.

It wasn't just QPR. Remember Robson's Ipswich, who lurked around what would now be the Champions League places for around 8 years, playing superb football, and suffering agonising near-misses for the title.

They somehow fashioned quality out of very limited resources, but the point, as with QPR, was that the Club's performances were what they were.

Now, it's the other way round. No matter how little is happening, the real action is in an imaginary future. Big ground, wow, great manager, wow, a team that will gel, wow.

Not now, naturally. But sometime. Once, if we lost, we didn't think 'in 5 years time, 45,000 will watch us every home game'. We didn't really think anything of that kind, because even when you were doing well, you knew it was so brittle, and it slipped away so quickly.

United faded for 20 years after Busby. Liverpool suddenly popped up, alongside Leeds, but their glory days are long ago. Small Clubs, well, it was wait and see. Once you'd seen it, you knew. Now, every johnny come lately in the boardroom has seen it all before there's anything to see.

Unsurprisingly, the smaller Clubs are less and less effective. Walker bought the League for Blackburn (although Dalglish still had to win it, no mean feat in itself0.

And since then? A QPR 1976? Not a chance. A small Club playing as well as the top sides for nearly a decade like Robson's Ipswich? There isn't one which could say that for even one season, let alone 7 or 8. A Burnley or Ipswich actually winning the title? Is there a Clough and Taylor partnership out there which will bring Derby or Forest League And European glory?

Not even remotely. The best they could hope for would be the 5th place we managed two or three times, and few small or medium sized Clubs have got anywhere near that in the ever more 'elite' Premiership.

The Saints managed runners-up, I think. So did West Ham. These Clubs have rebuilt their grounds, or moved to new ones, no doubt with lots of big talk about what a difference it would make, and what difference has it made?

They're less competitive than they ever were.

[Macmoish]

I would say in we're so far down in the hole that we just have to hope it works - and at minimum, we stay up.

We've built the entire infrastructure on hopes/plans...

If it doesnt work - unless we have several years to readjust downwards, we are so screwed.

So we're either going to be a much bigger club. Or we're going to be a much smaller club (way down...)

[Macmoish]

Mark Hughes’ short term fix not a long term solution
www.footballfriendsonline.com/blogs/2012/8/23/mark-hughes-short-term-fix-not-a-long-term-solution.html