Post by Macmoish on Feb 21, 2015 22:05:26 GMT
Flashback 8 Years... Telegraph - Jason Burt
Tony Fernandes: I had to draw a line after Harry Redknapp quit QPR
Exclusive: Rangers chairman tells Jason Burt the truth behind Redknapp's departure, why Charlie Austin is likely to leave this summer - and how Chris Ramsey could stay even if the club are relegated
Tony Fernandes: Chris Ramsey could stay as QPR manager - even if we are relegated
By Jason Burt
9:30PM GMT 21 Feb 2015
Tony Fernandes âdrew a lineâ once Harry Redknapp called him to say he was quitting as Queensâ Park Rangers manager.
It was time, the QPR chairman says in an interview with Telegraph Sport, to âdo things properlyâ, to stop âchasing our tailâ and to âput our foot downâ.
Fernandes is desperately hoping that come the end of the Premier League season QPR are above another line â the relegation zone â but if the worst happens âwe will deal with itâ, he says, âbecause itâs not the end of the worldâ.
That includes the threat of a fine of up to ÂŁ40million from the Football League for infringing their rules on Financial Fair Play. Fernandes will fight any punishment, arguing the rules have been changed, in the hope that âsenseâ prevails.
And neither will relegation necessarily mean the end of Chris Ramseyâs hopes of succeeding Redknapp on a permanent basis as head coach. Far from it, in fact. The Malaysian entrepreneur is minded to keep the 52-year-old come what may.
But, first, how did he deal with that phone call from Redknapp â at 6.30am the day after the January transfer window closed â when the 67-year-old told him he could not carry on.
âA lot of people said âHarry wasnât getting any players so he decided to call it a dayâ,â Fernandes says. âBut that was not the case at all. They also said weâd lined up Tim Sherwood and that wasnât true either.
"He (Redknapp) called me up and said âTony, my legs donât feel good. I really donât think I can give it the best shot. Itâs going to be a dog-fight and I really think someone else can give it a better shotâ. I think itâs admirable from his side. So I just felt it right that I didnât try and persuade him.â
But why not? âWhatâs the point in persuading someone? Itâs tough enough anyway. If you have a bit of self-doubt then I canât do it,â Fernandes says. âSo I put the phone down and thought âMmm, what am I going to do?â I was brushing my teeth â so I finished doing that! And I thought âwell I always wanted Chris Ramsey as a coach and Iâve always wanted a coaching leaderâ.
âIâve always felt we could get more out of our players and it was something I always had a discussion with Harry about. His view was âgood players are good playersâ but I think you can always make players better and the game has moved on so much.â
But Ramsey was initially only put in caretaker charge with Fernandes tweeting before the away game against Sunderland that he had found his âdream managerâ â and it clearly was not the former Tottenham Hotspur coach. And neither was it Michael Laudrup.
âMy first thing was âok, Chris for the next few games but do we keep Chris for the long-term or do we look for someone else?. Obviously everyone was applying for the job, I started looking around â and the speculation was irritating me, to be honest.
âBut I actually did find someone who I really liked. Then I tweeted âIâve found the dream managerâ because I wanted the fans to realise and wanted the players to stop speculating as well and focus on the game at Sunderland. So it was âokay, weâve found someone, letâs go and playâ.
âWhen I did that I then saw some of the reaction and I spoke to Chris Ramsey â and it was a phenomenal phone call. Heâd finished a training session, heâd gone to the EDS (the development squad), then he had trained the under-14s and then he was in the office finishing off some paper work. And I thought âwhatâs my dream manager?
"My dream manager is someone who has passion, who loves the game first for what it is as opposed to money, who wants to coach, wants to develop young players and is positiveâ.
âWeâve had some serious injuries and Chris Ramsey is like âweâll get by Tony. Thereâs enough in the squad. I will find people and weâll get organisedâ. As opposed to other people who might say âweâre finished, how are going to cope?â
âI love positive energy, Iâve lived off it all my life. And suddenly I thought âthis dream manager, yes Iâve found someone but I donât really know him that well. He looks to fit the bill but hereâs someone I know who actually ticks all the boxesâ. Yes, he (Ramsey) is not experienced but Harry was the most experienced manager in the Premier League. So I thought âletâs give him (Ramsey) the gig until the end of the seasonâ. Just like Raheem Sterling. He gets the gig at Liverpool and the next moment heâs playing for England at the World Cup.â
But what happens at the end of the season?
âItâs for him to lose,â Fernandes says of Ramsey. âIf we get relegated he can still do great. Itâs not âif he stays up then he gets itâ although, of course, he would because Iâd be crazy to let him go. But if we go down it doesnât mean he wonât get the job.
âWe have to assess what he does on 15 matches. Have we improved? Is he going to continue to improve? Is he going to commit to a playing philosophy? And thatâs how we will make our decision.
âThe names that I was looking at where not ânamesâ. There were guys in Ireland, England, different parts of the world but they were all English. I wanted someone who understood English football. I was not keen on a foreign manager and there is lots of talent out there in the same way as we are looking at players in League One, League Two. We signed Ryan Manning (18-year-old from Galway) and it was a show of our cards as to what we want to do. There are enough of them out there â look at Charlie Austin, Dwight Gayle at (Crystal) Palace now.â
Mentioning Austin raises another fear of QPR fans â that the striker, who has just one more season after this on his contract, might leave. It could happen, Fernandes admits. âCharlie is great guy. We are in discussions (on a new deal),â he says.
âBut we are a new QPR and we are going to do whatâs right for the club. Iâm very optimistic that Charlie will be with us for a very long time. If you ask him I think he enjoys being at QPR tremendously but itâs a short career, players have to look after themselves and we have to respect that. Itâs a big decision for him.â
If QPR are relegated then they face being penalised heavily under Football League FFP for the losses they incurred when they went down last time. But Fernandes will fight it.
âIâm a big believer in the British system of fairness,â he says. âLook, the rules have changed. Why should we be penalised on old rules when they are now new rules which are clearly, much fairer? On our side we have made every attempt to do things properly.
âAs a Premier League club if we go down we canât just sack players and neither can we give up half way through the season and say âIâm going to get relegated so I will cut every costâ.
âOn the other side â if you look at our transfer windows, the last transfer window we bought nobody and every player we bought last summer has a re-sale value. Weâve learnt the ropes much better. So the effort has been put in there. Iâm a believer â and hereâs the irony â that football clubs should make money and I voted in favour of that (FFP).
"I was the deciding vote when we went down that season, much to the distain of some richer clubs. So I think sense will prevail and the effort we are putting in to run a sensible football club will prevail.â
But can QPR cope? âLook, Iâm an accountant,â Fernandes adds. âWeâll have to deal with it if we have to deal with it. But Iâm comfortable. People predicted the end of us when we got relegated last time if you remember correctly and we came straight back up.
âWe never wanted to be a buying club. We always wanted to develop players but weâve always been chasing our tail, so to speak â promotion or fighting relegation. And weâve just said âlook, letâs draw the line here and do things properlyâ.
âIf we go down itâs not the end of the world because we are still going to be on a disciplined course and doing the right thing. And hopefully becoming a Southampton or a Swansea or one of those clubs who have done the right thing and invested in the right ways.
âWeâve now put our foot down and said âwe want to develop this club and we want to do it our wayâ. Thatâs why we went ahead with Les (Ferdinand, director of football) and Chris. The highlight recently for me was (22-year-old academy product) Michael Doughty coming on (as a substitute against Sunderland).
âOf course we were winning 2-0 but it wasnât a vanity move as it was a critical game for us to win and yet Chris brought on an EDS player. That made me really happy. Itâs a great message - and we should be a club like that.
"The chances of someone moving up from the Chelsea academy to the first-team are slim because of who they are but QPR should be a club where people say âI want to go thereâ. We shouldnât lose players like (19-year-old) Josh Laurent to Brentford â that was just sacrilege.
âWe are getting the messaging right. I wanted a football guy to run football and a CEO to run everything else and thatâs why Philip (Beard) decided that it wasnât what he wanted to do so we parted.
âWe needed a football man (Ferdinand). Philip Beard was not a football man and we had all our eggs in the basket of a manager. Now we have a football man and a manager who can look at the longer-term of the club.
âWe made our decision as to how we wanted to run the club after four years (of ownership). Weâd learnt a lot. We made lots of mistakes but despite that we are still in the Premier League and we still have a chance of staying up.
âI feel very content. I feel very at ease because I think we have finally got the recipe and finally heading towards putting an infrastructure in place â Iâve talked about it for so long and the pieces of what we always wanted are now there.â
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/queens-park-rangers/11426813/Tony-Fernandes-I-had-to-draw-a-line-after-Harry-Redknapp-quit-QPR.html
Tony Fernandes: I had to draw a line after Harry Redknapp quit QPR
Exclusive: Rangers chairman tells Jason Burt the truth behind Redknapp's departure, why Charlie Austin is likely to leave this summer - and how Chris Ramsey could stay even if the club are relegated
Tony Fernandes: Chris Ramsey could stay as QPR manager - even if we are relegated
By Jason Burt
9:30PM GMT 21 Feb 2015
Tony Fernandes âdrew a lineâ once Harry Redknapp called him to say he was quitting as Queensâ Park Rangers manager.
It was time, the QPR chairman says in an interview with Telegraph Sport, to âdo things properlyâ, to stop âchasing our tailâ and to âput our foot downâ.
Fernandes is desperately hoping that come the end of the Premier League season QPR are above another line â the relegation zone â but if the worst happens âwe will deal with itâ, he says, âbecause itâs not the end of the worldâ.
That includes the threat of a fine of up to ÂŁ40million from the Football League for infringing their rules on Financial Fair Play. Fernandes will fight any punishment, arguing the rules have been changed, in the hope that âsenseâ prevails.
And neither will relegation necessarily mean the end of Chris Ramseyâs hopes of succeeding Redknapp on a permanent basis as head coach. Far from it, in fact. The Malaysian entrepreneur is minded to keep the 52-year-old come what may.
But, first, how did he deal with that phone call from Redknapp â at 6.30am the day after the January transfer window closed â when the 67-year-old told him he could not carry on.
âA lot of people said âHarry wasnât getting any players so he decided to call it a dayâ,â Fernandes says. âBut that was not the case at all. They also said weâd lined up Tim Sherwood and that wasnât true either.
"He (Redknapp) called me up and said âTony, my legs donât feel good. I really donât think I can give it the best shot. Itâs going to be a dog-fight and I really think someone else can give it a better shotâ. I think itâs admirable from his side. So I just felt it right that I didnât try and persuade him.â
But why not? âWhatâs the point in persuading someone? Itâs tough enough anyway. If you have a bit of self-doubt then I canât do it,â Fernandes says. âSo I put the phone down and thought âMmm, what am I going to do?â I was brushing my teeth â so I finished doing that! And I thought âwell I always wanted Chris Ramsey as a coach and Iâve always wanted a coaching leaderâ.
âIâve always felt we could get more out of our players and it was something I always had a discussion with Harry about. His view was âgood players are good playersâ but I think you can always make players better and the game has moved on so much.â
But Ramsey was initially only put in caretaker charge with Fernandes tweeting before the away game against Sunderland that he had found his âdream managerâ â and it clearly was not the former Tottenham Hotspur coach. And neither was it Michael Laudrup.
âMy first thing was âok, Chris for the next few games but do we keep Chris for the long-term or do we look for someone else?. Obviously everyone was applying for the job, I started looking around â and the speculation was irritating me, to be honest.
âBut I actually did find someone who I really liked. Then I tweeted âIâve found the dream managerâ because I wanted the fans to realise and wanted the players to stop speculating as well and focus on the game at Sunderland. So it was âokay, weâve found someone, letâs go and playâ.
âWhen I did that I then saw some of the reaction and I spoke to Chris Ramsey â and it was a phenomenal phone call. Heâd finished a training session, heâd gone to the EDS (the development squad), then he had trained the under-14s and then he was in the office finishing off some paper work. And I thought âwhatâs my dream manager?
"My dream manager is someone who has passion, who loves the game first for what it is as opposed to money, who wants to coach, wants to develop young players and is positiveâ.
âWeâve had some serious injuries and Chris Ramsey is like âweâll get by Tony. Thereâs enough in the squad. I will find people and weâll get organisedâ. As opposed to other people who might say âweâre finished, how are going to cope?â
âI love positive energy, Iâve lived off it all my life. And suddenly I thought âthis dream manager, yes Iâve found someone but I donât really know him that well. He looks to fit the bill but hereâs someone I know who actually ticks all the boxesâ. Yes, he (Ramsey) is not experienced but Harry was the most experienced manager in the Premier League. So I thought âletâs give him (Ramsey) the gig until the end of the seasonâ. Just like Raheem Sterling. He gets the gig at Liverpool and the next moment heâs playing for England at the World Cup.â
But what happens at the end of the season?
âItâs for him to lose,â Fernandes says of Ramsey. âIf we get relegated he can still do great. Itâs not âif he stays up then he gets itâ although, of course, he would because Iâd be crazy to let him go. But if we go down it doesnât mean he wonât get the job.
âWe have to assess what he does on 15 matches. Have we improved? Is he going to continue to improve? Is he going to commit to a playing philosophy? And thatâs how we will make our decision.
âThe names that I was looking at where not ânamesâ. There were guys in Ireland, England, different parts of the world but they were all English. I wanted someone who understood English football. I was not keen on a foreign manager and there is lots of talent out there in the same way as we are looking at players in League One, League Two. We signed Ryan Manning (18-year-old from Galway) and it was a show of our cards as to what we want to do. There are enough of them out there â look at Charlie Austin, Dwight Gayle at (Crystal) Palace now.â
Mentioning Austin raises another fear of QPR fans â that the striker, who has just one more season after this on his contract, might leave. It could happen, Fernandes admits. âCharlie is great guy. We are in discussions (on a new deal),â he says.
âBut we are a new QPR and we are going to do whatâs right for the club. Iâm very optimistic that Charlie will be with us for a very long time. If you ask him I think he enjoys being at QPR tremendously but itâs a short career, players have to look after themselves and we have to respect that. Itâs a big decision for him.â
If QPR are relegated then they face being penalised heavily under Football League FFP for the losses they incurred when they went down last time. But Fernandes will fight it.
âIâm a big believer in the British system of fairness,â he says. âLook, the rules have changed. Why should we be penalised on old rules when they are now new rules which are clearly, much fairer? On our side we have made every attempt to do things properly.
âAs a Premier League club if we go down we canât just sack players and neither can we give up half way through the season and say âIâm going to get relegated so I will cut every costâ.
âOn the other side â if you look at our transfer windows, the last transfer window we bought nobody and every player we bought last summer has a re-sale value. Weâve learnt the ropes much better. So the effort has been put in there. Iâm a believer â and hereâs the irony â that football clubs should make money and I voted in favour of that (FFP).
"I was the deciding vote when we went down that season, much to the distain of some richer clubs. So I think sense will prevail and the effort we are putting in to run a sensible football club will prevail.â
But can QPR cope? âLook, Iâm an accountant,â Fernandes adds. âWeâll have to deal with it if we have to deal with it. But Iâm comfortable. People predicted the end of us when we got relegated last time if you remember correctly and we came straight back up.
âWe never wanted to be a buying club. We always wanted to develop players but weâve always been chasing our tail, so to speak â promotion or fighting relegation. And weâve just said âlook, letâs draw the line here and do things properlyâ.
âIf we go down itâs not the end of the world because we are still going to be on a disciplined course and doing the right thing. And hopefully becoming a Southampton or a Swansea or one of those clubs who have done the right thing and invested in the right ways.
âWeâve now put our foot down and said âwe want to develop this club and we want to do it our wayâ. Thatâs why we went ahead with Les (Ferdinand, director of football) and Chris. The highlight recently for me was (22-year-old academy product) Michael Doughty coming on (as a substitute against Sunderland).
âOf course we were winning 2-0 but it wasnât a vanity move as it was a critical game for us to win and yet Chris brought on an EDS player. That made me really happy. Itâs a great message - and we should be a club like that.
"The chances of someone moving up from the Chelsea academy to the first-team are slim because of who they are but QPR should be a club where people say âI want to go thereâ. We shouldnât lose players like (19-year-old) Josh Laurent to Brentford â that was just sacrilege.
âWe are getting the messaging right. I wanted a football guy to run football and a CEO to run everything else and thatâs why Philip (Beard) decided that it wasnât what he wanted to do so we parted.
âWe needed a football man (Ferdinand). Philip Beard was not a football man and we had all our eggs in the basket of a manager. Now we have a football man and a manager who can look at the longer-term of the club.
âWe made our decision as to how we wanted to run the club after four years (of ownership). Weâd learnt a lot. We made lots of mistakes but despite that we are still in the Premier League and we still have a chance of staying up.
âI feel very content. I feel very at ease because I think we have finally got the recipe and finally heading towards putting an infrastructure in place â Iâve talked about it for so long and the pieces of what we always wanted are now there.â
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/queens-park-rangers/11426813/Tony-Fernandes-I-had-to-draw-a-line-after-Harry-Redknapp-quit-QPR.html