8 Years Ago - Tony Fernandes "My Lifelong Committment"

[Macmoish]

Flashback 8 Years today

QPR OFFICIAL SITE

TONY: MY LIFELONG COMMITMENT

PUBLISHED

12:39 18th March 2013


R’s Chairman urges fans to focus on the future …
QPR Chairman Tony Fernandes has spoken of his “lifelong commitment” to QPR following Saturday’s disappointing loss at Aston Villa.

Rangers find themselves seven points adrift of safety after the 3-2 loss at Villa Park, and while Fernandes admits he is “feeling miserable,” he has urged R’s fans to “show the world what type of club we are” and says they should be excited about the future.

In a personally written message that he has asked to be shown to “all our fans and staff,” Fernandes said:

“I sit here in Malaysia feeling miserable. I am down. The fact that I and my other shareholders are feeling so miserable just means we care.

“We should have won at the weekend and made it easier for ourselves, but we didn't. So what!

“There are still eight games to go. We beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and showed against Southampton and Sunderland that we are capable of putting wins together.

“And we have scored seven goals in our last three fixtures, so anything can happen.

“We fight and we fight. I am not despondent at all. QPR has come a long, long way from where we were, and the plan continues.

“We inherited a club that lacked so many things, and we are rebuilding every aspect. That's a huge challenge.

“In any business there will be hiccups. But this is not a one-year or two-year project. This is a lifelong commitment.

“The shareholders have that commitment. The journey ahead is so exciting.

“We need a new training ground, a new stadium, a more successful academy. That's so exciting. How can anyone feel down for too long?

“Forget Aston Villa. Focus on the future. The path in front of us is exciting.

“So come on, let's show the world NOW what type of club we are. We’re a club that believes, a club that has passion, and a club that never gives up.

Kind regards
Tony

www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/180313-tony-my-lifelong-commitment-721625.aspx

[cpr]

Couldn't be any clearer.

So some people will choose to ignore it.

[Macmoish]

In sense of committing to stay, continue with his plans, absolutely

But I think Fernandes makes it sound as though we've made a lot of progress...And of course training ground is big deal, etc.

But just passes over the extent to which actually drove us into the ditch/dug a big hole. And we clearly have not made "big, big progress" on the field....

[bradfieldhoop]

If the words are true and why shouldn't they be then good on you TF--whilst I will forever support the R's whatever comes their way I fully realise that I will never have any influence in either their on or off field activities but I will admire a man that sticks to his word and continues to invest (not really the correct use of wordage for the MH reign) his hard earned when things aren't going to plan. In my opinion TF seems a decent man.

[superckat]

Mar 18, 2013 13:20:12 GMT cpr said:

Couldn't be any clearer.

So some people will choose to ignore it.

Yeah but what we all want to know is, will he still be here if we get relegated? He could have said.

[Sabas]

And a club that is still a club, regardless of the league position, or, simply - the league.

Villa could've been a turning point. But it wasn't meant to be. Something didn't click. In that game and in this season as a whole.

A time to learn from mistakes and get back to basics of running a football club.

Onwards and upwards ... I understand that that implies starting from scratch and dealing with a huge mess, but I kind of miss the Championship.

[nomar]

Fair play to TF.

Couple of wins over Fulham and Wigan and it will be game on again. We are not dead yet. If we were still playing the way we were 6 weeks ago I'd have folded up the tents and gone home.

But we have improved massively in the last month and can still get enough points from the games left to do this.

[superckat]

Look. Lets not mess around here. We've f**ked up. We f**ked up last season and didn't learn and have f**ked up again. It's alright TF talking about being disappointed, but he along with Hughes and the players have a lot to answer for. We are fortunate to have some of the biggest backers in the English leagues and most of Europe. Poor decision making and the willing to try and run before we can even crawl has meant clubs like Swansea, Norwich, Southampton, West Ham have leap frogged us and made us look very incompotent in the process.

He needs to learn and learn quickly. I don't know who is advising him. But he needs to stoip listening to them, because they're sh*t. He would be better off listening to the QPR podcast. I honestly believe if he had done we would be better off than we are now. FFS stop focussing on trying to force people half way across the world to look at our club. Because all they're seeing now is a club that looks out of it's depth in the Premier League. Instead focus on West London get things right here first and then people might start to notice from the other side of the world.

Wherever we are next season. Surely he has learnt his lesson now. Stop listening to agents and start using the scouts we are supposed to have. Get players in the club who haven't already peaked and only come for the money or to use as a stepping stone and get players with guts, desire and ability to take us forward. Lets do it properly now. Set some foundations and build this club up. If he is here lifelong, then what's the rush? Build slowly but surely. I don't care if we're in the championship for 2 or 3 seasons. As long as there is progress. If we don't come back up at all, again I don't care as long as we still have a club. So TF stop f**king around, do things properly and let's all hope that lifelong means a long life.

[Macmoish]

I basically had one (or two) Twitter "Followers" stop following me because I something similar today (in 140 characters!) - Even as I have said time and time and time again: I Want him to stay. I'm glad he's staying

[superckat]

Mar 18, 2013 14:21:33 GMT Macmoish said:

I basically had one (or two) Twitter "Followers" stop following me because I something similar today (in 140 characters!) - Even as I have said time and time and time again: I Want him to stay. I'm glad he's staying

Who was that, Fenandes and Beard?

[Bushman]

I personally couldn't give a toss what he says one way or the other any more.

[alfaranger]

Mar 18, 2013 14:13:26 GMT superckat said:

Look. Lets not mess around here. We've f**ked up. We f**ked up last season and didn't learn and have f**ked up again. It's alright TF talking about being disappointed, but he along with Hughes and the players have a lot to answer for. We are fortunate to have some of the biggest backers in the English leagues and most of Europe. Poor decision making and the willing to try and run before we can even crawl has meant clubs like Swansea, Norwich, Southampton, West Ham have leap frogged us and made us look very incompotent in the process.

He needs to learn and learn quickly. I don't know who is advising him. But he needs to stoip listening to them, because they're sh*t. He would be better off listening to the QPR podcast. I honestly believe if he had done we would be better off than we are now. FFS stop focussing on trying to force people half way across the world to look at our club. Because all they're seeing now is a club that looks out of it's depth in the Premier League. Instead focus on West London get things right here first and then people might start to notice from the other side of the world.

Wherever we are next season. Surely he has learnt his lesson now. Stop listening to agents and start using the scouts we are supposed to have. Get players in the club who haven't already peaked and only come for the money or to use as a stepping stone and get players with guts, desire and ability to take us forward. Lets do it properly now. Set some foundations and build this club up. If he is here lifelong, then what's the rush? Build slowly but surely. I don't care if we're in the championship for 2 or 3 seasons. As long as there is progress. If we don't come back up at all, again I don't care as long as we still have a club. So TF stop f**king around, do things properly and let's all hope that lifelong means a long life.

From the heart mate! From the heart!

But the rush is the new television deal - or lack of it if we go down.

Read "Ingham", chapters 1 to 10.

[Macmoish]

This guy probably won't be receiving a Christmas card from the club this year

George Ian Cooper ‏@qprtimes
Just read Tony Fernandes latest on #QPR. Hmm. Comical Ali meets General Melchett. But nowhere near as funny.

[Macmoish]

2m George Ian Cooper George Ian Cooper ‏@qprtimes

To clarify, I admire Fernandes' optimism, and intentions. But he has shown a naivity in running a football club which has been punished.

#QPR Naivity in the club's transfer policy, and naivity in his stadium plans (he said in July, expect positive news in two weeks)

“@qprtimes: Should he leave? No. Give up? No. A little less propaganda? Yes. Until policies change it's empty words. #QPR”

“@qprtimes: Anyway, I've been banging this drum for 18 months. I hope #QPR stay up, I really do. But even more, I hope that they do it right next time.”

[Jon Doeman]

Are you backtracking a bit there Georgie? ;D

[terryb]

I believe that they will be staying.

I will be staying but that does not mean that I will automatically renew my season ticket.

Between now & the end of the season the board have major decisions to make. Pricing must be correct or we will lose a lot of supporters going through the turnstiles.

As important is how they are going to approach next season. If, as I expect, we are in the Championship I hope that we will not throw even more silly money about. Building from a firm base is far more important.

[canadaranger]

Thank-you, Tony!

[Macmoish]

David McIntyre ‏@davidmcintyre76

Clever as usual from Fernandes. Will have many all misty-eyed with a warm fuzzy feeling inside no doubt. #QPR

[Markqpr]

So the bloke who has been saying for the past 12 months that he is not going anywhere no matter if we're relegated or not has just come out and said that he is not going anywhere no matter if we're relegated or not.

OK. Good. That's established then.

He's taken the club backwards since he's been here but he's got plenty of time to sort it out. A lifetime.

Good thing we're a patient and loyal lot, unfortunately the same can't be said of the new overseas fans who have only followed us since our promotion and for whom I feel this is written with in mind, more so than us mugs.

I'm glad he's staying, purely like the rest of us because of his willingness to spend and dream of glory like a supporter does, but Tony do us a favour: Please stop fu(king it up and sort it out quickly or you'll be writing something similar next March.

[nomar]

Mar 18, 2013 20:57:54 GMT Markqpr said:

So the bloke who has been saying for the past 12 months that he is not going anywhere no matter if we're relegated or not has just come out and said that he is not going anywhere no matter if we're relegated or not.

OK. Good. That's established then.

He's taken the club backwards since he's been here but he's got plenty of time to sort it out. A lifetime.

Good thing we're a patient and loyal lot, unfortunately the same can't be said of the new overseas fans who have only followed us since our promotion and for whom I feel this is written with in mind, more so than us mugs.

I'm glad he's staying, purely like the rest of us because of his willingness to spend and dream of glory like a supporter does, but Tony do us a favour: Please stop fu(king it up and sort it out quickly or you'll be writing something similar next March.

Yes, but if we want Tony to stop stuffing it up then he absolutely has got to stop spending and dreaming of glory.

If we go down we need a fresh start. An abandonment of the spendthrift ways of recent few windows and a refocus on instilling pride back into the club.

I still think there are more twists to come in the relegation battle though so its not cast in stone yet that we will be going down. Looks highly likely now but in football fortunes can change in a few weeks.

[Macmoish]

A series of Tweets from Dave McIntyre
twitter.com/davidmcintyre76

[Macmoish]

[/img]

[Markqpr]

Mar 18, 2013 21:18:23 GMT nomar said:

Yes, but if we want Tony to stop stuffing it up then he absolutely has got to stop spending and dreaming of glory.

No, he just has to spend wisely and more prudently. That might include paying up a few contracts. Beard's would be good start.

What should he dream of? Mid table mediocracy?

My point being we like him because he is like a fan not because he's proven to be a good chairman.

We tried not spending once, though not out of choice and were left with Nardiello up front and Barker and Curtis in defence. Surely that's a lesson learnt.

I just think he needs to 'invest' more wisely and slowly over time and build a squad rather than this mad rush that has been his downfall since his arrival.

[Lonegunmen]

Can the board please pay the alleged 89 million pound debt forthwith and thus let us start next season REALLY debt free so that fans can not have to put up with more ABC type scenarios??

being debt free will give us a fresh start but we've been told we are debt free and the reality is that we are not.

I don't plan on going anywhere. QPR forever!

[Macmoish]

[pizanti]

Mar 19, 2013 7:17:29 GMT Lonegunmen said:

Can the board please pay the alleged 89 million pound debt forthwith and thus let us start next season REALLY debt free so that fans can not have to put up with more ABC type scenarios??

being debt free will give us a fresh start but we've been told we are debt free and the reality is that we are not.

I don't plan on going anywhere. QPR forever!

Obviously, presumably, the debt is a lot lot higher than the latest accounts. Counter in pay offs for staff plus the new signings and the debt is over 100m.

Saying we are "debt free" was a lie by the board. They're very very good at spinning the fanbase.

[Macmoish]

That having been said re spending, finances, debt: are we better off having Fernandes et al stay, or have someone else? I'd say Fernandes et al

[scarletpimple]

Perhaps if he gave us an insight to what that exciting future is , what has he changed at the club for us to have improved so much from when he took over, we still look all over the place.

[ingham]

All that talk about a training ground, a new ground, an academy.

Strange, isn't it? The Club never GETS anything from him and all the people like him, does it? Gregory, and Bulstrode, and Marler and Wright, who all wanted to take the Ground AWAY.

And what does his mouthpiece tell us? That the Club will lose its home - and get nothing.

It will be - a 'tenant'.

Really? Whose tenant? His? This 'benefactor'?

So his 'generosity' is that the Club will pay HIM to play in a Ground HE owns, while the Club owns nothing, because he and multibillionaire can't find a way of paying off the £10 million debt his predecessors ran up at the Club's expense.

That IS principled, isn't it? And for £10 million? And he and his chums are looking for ANOTHER way to put money in their pockets at QPR's expense.

That, after all, is what a tenant does, isn't it?

Come on, admit it. You don't think QPR will actually OWN this behemoth of a stadium. Big enough to host any number of losing runs. We've broken the record once, but why stop there?

Strange, too, isn't it, that while they are falling over themselves to sign one useless squad after another - they hardly sign individual players now, it's entire herds of the things - they can't put aside £10 million of the Clubs OWN money to pay off a debt the Club - once again - owes to THEM.

He had no league status. No stadium. No support. To say QPR is lacking is an insult.

HE is lacking. He is nothing in football. He has achieved nothing in football. Except to make our rivals laugh.

And any achievements, in future, as in the past, will be QPR's. Whoever is the 'shareholder of the month'. It will the Club's name, the Club's resources, and the Club's money - not to say the Club's support - which makes it possible, and nothing else.

People who run up record - oh yes, that's another record, of course, the losses - RECORD losses just make it all that much harder.

The day QPR gets on with being a football club, and forgets the empty boasting, and the me, me, me of people who think that a Club that has survived any number of people like them is somehow lacking while they have got what it takes, that will be the day indeed.

Football, that is what is lacking. The Club has all the potential it can handle. If only it had the kind of people running it who respected the reality of the game, and had the humility to realise how little THEY had and how laughable it is to compare themselves with a Club like QPR and find US wanting!

So I agree with Bushman. There's always another one along in a minute. The Club fought off Gregory's various attempts to help himself to the Club's resources, Bulstrode, Marler, Wright, and we're still lumbered with Thompson's £10 million asking price, the price, I assume of taking us DOWN, which was his parting gift.

The curious thing is that we can live with that. We have no choice, given the quality of most of them. But while we live in the real world, they go on losing the Club's money, and trying to kid us - as his pal Bhatia has been doing - that there IS no debt.

Thompson is gone. Wright is gone. But there seem to be plenty more where he came from. And the battles to keep the Club afloat despite them, may be long and hard for a long time to come.

What - precisely - is the point of having them at all? Why on earth would anyone or anything want to LOSE its home, LOSE hundreds and millions, but provide an easy vehicle for the people responsible to MAKE money out their lack of experience, know-how and talent for the game.

If the Club got steadily bigger and richer, or at the very least, wealthier, more profitable, year by year, with all these wealthy and profitable INVESTORS jumping on and off, that would be a justification in itself.

But 40 years on from when Gregory arrived, nothing of the kind has ever happened.

Oh yes, in the year 2525, if man is still alive ...

We'll still be hearing the same old same old.

[alfaranger]

Mar 19, 2013 10:39:09 GMT ingham said:

All that talk about a training ground, a new ground, an academy.

Strange, isn't it? The Club never GETS anything from him and all the people like him, does it? Gregory, and Bulstrode, and Marler and Wright, who all wanted to take the Ground AWAY.

And what does his mouthpiece tell us? That the Club will lose its home - and get nothing.

It will be - a 'tenant'.

Really? Whose tenant? His? This 'benefactor'?

So his 'generosity' is that the Club will pay HIM to play in a Ground HE owns, while the Club owns nothing, because he and multibillionaire can't find a way of paying off the £10 million debt his predecessors ran up at the Club's expense.

That IS principled, isn't it? And for £10 million? And he and his chums are looking for ANOTHER way to put money in their pockets at QPR's expense.

That, after all, is what a tenant does, isn't it?

Come on, admit it. You don't think QPR will actually OWN this behemoth of a stadium. Big enough to host any number of losing runs. We've broken the record once, but why stop there?

Strange, too, isn't it, that while they are falling over themselves to sign one useless squad after another - they hardly sign individual players now, it's entire herds of the things - they can't put aside £10 million of the Clubs OWN money to pay off a debt the Club - once again - owes to THEM.

He had no league status. No stadium. No support. To say QPR is lacking is an insult.

HE is lacking. He is nothing in football. He has achieved nothing in football. Except to make our rivals laugh.

And any achievements, in future, as in the past, will be QPR's. Whoever is the 'shareholder of the month'. It will the Club's name, the Club's resources, and the Club's money - not to say the Club's support - which makes it possible, and nothing else.

People who run up record - oh yes, that's another record, of course, the losses - RECORD losses just make it all that much harder.

The day QPR gets on with being a football club, and forgets the empty boasting, and the me, me, me of people who think that a Club that has survived any number of people like them is somehow lacking while they have got what it takes, that will be the day indeed.

Football, that is what is lacking. The Club has all the potential it can handle. If only it had the kind of people running it who respected the reality of the game, and had the humility to realise how little THEY had and how laughable it is to compare themselves with a Club like QPR and find US wanting!

So I agree with Bushman. There's always another one along in a minute. The Club fought off Gregory's various attempts to help himself to the Club's resources, Bulstrode, Marler, Wright, and we're still lumbered with Thompson's £10 million asking price, the price, I assume of taking us DOWN, which was his parting gift.

The curious thing is that we can live with that. We have no choice, given the quality of most of them. But while we live in the real world, they go on losing the Club's money, and trying to kid us - as his pal Bhatia has been doing - that there IS no debt.

Thompson is gone. Wright is gone. But there seem to be plenty more where he came from. And the battles to keep the Club afloat despite them, may be long and hard for a long time to come.

What - precisely - is the point of having them at all? Why on earth would anyone or anything want to LOSE its home, LOSE hundreds and millions, but provide an easy vehicle for the people responsible to MAKE money out their lack of experience, know-how and talent for the game.

If the Club got steadily bigger and richer, or at the very least, wealthier, more profitable, year by year, with all these wealthy and profitable INVESTORS jumping on and off, that would be a justification in itself.

But 40 years on from when Gregory arrived, nothing of the kind has ever happened.

Oh yes, in the year 2525, if man is still alive ...

We'll still be hearing the same old same old.

I started by highlighting all the passages in this post that I liked and agreed with. Then I realised that I had highlighted the whole thing.

Liked the Zager and Evans quote at the end too -