Post by Marc on Feb 3, 2015 14:26:02 GMT
9 Years ago today Redknapp Resigns as QPR Manager
Originally entitled Harry's Gone!..Hoddle Gone -
QPR Official Feb 3, 2015 at 9:28am
Harry Redknapp resigns from managerial position at QPR ...
HARRY Redknapp has tendered his resignation at QPR, which has been accepted by the Board.
Redknapp – who joined the club in November 2012, overseeing 105 matches in charge – informed Chairman Tony Fernandes of his decision to resign this morning.
He will undergo knee replacement surgery in the coming weeks.
Redknapp told http://www.qpr.co.uk: “I have had such a fantastic time at QPR. I would like to thank the Board, the players and all my staff, and especially the supporters who have been absolutely fantastic to me since I arrived at the club for their tremendous support.
“Sadly I need immediate surgery on my knee which is going to stop me from doing my job in the coming weeks. It means I won’t be able to be out on the training pitch every day, and if I can’t give 100 per-cent I feel it’s better for someone else to take over the reins.
“My relationship with Tony Fernandes has been one of the highlights of my footballing career and I wish the club every success. I am confident they will survive in the Premier League this year.”
Speaking on behalf of the Board, QPR Chairman Tony Fernandes added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Harry for everything he has done for QPR during his time in charge.
“We part on good terms and I would personally like to wish him all the best for the future.”
Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey have been placed in temporary charge of the team until further notice.
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/40893/redknapp-resigns-qpr-manager-today#ixzz562R6I1Mw
GLENN HODDLE EXITS
GLENN HODDLE last night released a statement to Zapsportz.com following the exit of Harry Redknapp as manager of QPR and his own departure from the club. He had joined Redknapp (pictured together, above) as first team coach last August. This is what Glenn had to say:
“I am a bit shocked and surprised, to tell you the truth. We all know football is a results-orientated businesss but I always felt that given a few more games, Harry could have turned it around down there at the bottom.
“It would have only taken a couple of good results to have achieved that as it is very tight down there.
“But that’s football for you. I have enjoyed coming back into coaching and I thanked Harry for giving me that opportunity to tip my toe back into the coaching arena.
“I have enjoyed every minute. I wished him all the best and I do sincerely hope QPR can stay up. I would love the players to turn it around as I have enjoyed working with them – and hope I have improved them.”
zapsportz.com/glenn-hoddle-exclusive-statement-on-leaving-qpr/
MAIl/Martin Samuel
HARRY REDKNAPP EXCLUSIVE: Why I REALLY had to leave QPR, but I am not quitting football
Harry Redknapp resigned as QPR manager on Tuesday
Redknapp says he needs two knee replacements and was unable to continue
Redknapp rang QPR owner Tony Fernandes at 5.30am to tell him of his decision
Published: 10:52 EST, 3 February 2015 | Updated: 11:27 EST, 3 February 2015
Harry Redknapp quit Queens Park Rangers – after a dramatic 5.30am phone call to Tony Fernandes.
Redknapp, 67, revealed he came to the decision he could not continue after being told he would need replacements for both right and left knees. Unable to walk even 100 yards, he accepted he was not the man to lead Rangers into their relegation fight. And he called owner Fernandes in the small hours to deliver the news.
'I was awake all night, thinking about it,' Redknapp told me. 'I'm struggling so badly now. I can't walk, I can barely stand and watch. I'm in pain all the time. I've been putting it off, and putting it off, but it has got to the stage where I cannot do the job.
Harry Redknapp quit QPR with the club second bottom of the Premier League
Redknapp says his knee problem was the main reason why he had to quit QPR as he could no longer walk
'I booked a ticket for Fulham's FA Cup game with Sunderland on Tuesday night, but my first thought was, 'how am I going to get to the ground?' Even if I get a car park pass there is going to be some walking. I can't walk around Craven Cottage anymore, I can't walk down the street – that's how bad it has got.
'I went to see my grandson play football at the weekend, and after five minutes had to go back to the car. I couldn't even stand up. What sort of life is it if you can't watch the kids play? That sort of made my mind up. I went to bed thinking I would sleep on it, but then I couldn't sleep a wink. That's when I decided to call Tony. It must have been 5.30am. I just told him he needed someone who could properly coach and manage the team in the next ten weeks. It's such an important time. They need someone who can give it everything.'
Redknapp's resignation immediately brought speculation that he had become frustrated at a lack of activity in the transfer window. Rangers face financial fair play restrictions, and a huge fine, and have been working to cut budgets.
Yet he insisted this was not the case. 'I haven't got the hump, we haven't had a row,' said Redknapp. 'I knew some while ago that we were not going to be able to get much done in January. We had one real target on the last day, Emmanuel Adebayor, because we are short upfront. But he was too much money. I accept that. There are no hard feelings on my part – I've not had a problem with Tony Fernandes in all my time there.
Redknapp says he had a good relationship with QPR owner Tony Fernandes
Redknapp says he had a good relationship with QPR owner Tony Fernandes
Harry Redknapp guided QPR back to the Premier League at the first attempt via the play-offs
Harry Redknapp guided QPR back to the Premier League at the first attempt via the play-offs
Redknapp says Emmanuel Adebayor was his only transfer target on deadline day - but he was too expensive
Redknapp says Emmanuel Adebayor was his only transfer target on deadline day - but he was too expensive
'I even went to training this morning because it was my intention to say goodbye to the lads. I went to sort out some bits and pieces with the club and by the time I had finished they were gone. It's been that quick. I just made my mind up because events were piling up. Being told I needed both knees replaced was a huge blow. It would put me out of the game for months because you can't have them done together.
'Steve McClaren called me when he heard the news and we were talking about our time together at Rangers last year. He reminded me that I was on crutches for ten weeks back then. It's been a problem for too long now.
'I know what people think – that I've been sacked, or stormed off because we couldn't get the players in. My son Jamie said that my timing has to be the worst in the world. When I look back on my career, it certainly isn't my strong point – but I can't control what people think. I feel positive about the future at Rangers – Sandro is back at the weekend and he will make a huge difference. We've got other players coming back from injury, too – if I could get out and coach them like I could five years ago, I'd be optimistic. But I can't.
Redknapp and QPR have not won a single point away from home this season
Redknapp's final game in charge of QPR was the 3-1 defeat at Stoke
'I was totally honest with Tony. I told him he needed someone who could commit to every aspect of the job in the next ten weeks, and that's not me. I still don't think I'm finished with football. When I've had the operations, I'll be looking for work again, I know that. I can't imagine my life without it. But right now, I've got to make my health the priority.
'I can't even walk the dogs. I stand watching the team play, and I'm struggling. It's reached a point where I can't ignore it any longer. It's not a decision I would take lightly. I've thought about it a few times this season, but have always decided to give it one last go.
'The last week has been the tipping point. I can barely move and I'm not enjoying my life. I need to get this done as quickly as I can and try to move on. Nigel Pearson at Leicester City told me he had a knee replacement and was ready to go again after six weeks. I'm not sure I'll be hopping about in that time, but I'll talk to Andy Williams, my surgeon, and we'll work out a plan.'
Queen Park Rangers Manager Harry Redknapp Harry Redknapp quits as QPR manager with club embroiled in... Former QPR scout reveals he received £50 for recommending... Football - Stoke City v Queens Park Rangers - Barclays Premier League - Britannia Stadium - 31/1/15 QPR's Joey Barton and Yun Suk Young look dejected at full time Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Alex Morton Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. Harry Redknapp deserves better from his QPR side who pretend... Emmanuel Adebayor stalling on QPR loan move as Tottenham...
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2938087/Harry-Redknapp-exclusive-REALLY-leave-QPR-not-quitting-football.html#ixzz3QhXn3lyM
Fan’s view: Harry Redknapp’s QPR reign has been a predictable shambles
From a litany of preposterous signings to not knowing his best formation, the former manager won’t be missed. But Tony Fernandes should take much of the blame for this cursed club’s crisis too
www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/03/qpr-harry-redknapp-fans-view-michael-hann
Back when Harry Redknapp was appointed Queens Park Rangers manager in November 2012, I said on the Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast that I wasn’t overjoyed about him coming in to the club I support. Rangers would still be relegated, I predicted, we’d just do it more expensively. It was one of the rare football predictions I’ve made that was right. You won’t be surprised, then, to hear I’m not sorry he’s gone.
Redknapp’s reign has been a shambles, to be frank. There have been a preposterous number of signings, at a total cost reputed to be £58m, both on permanent deals and on loans, most of whom have been anonymous at best, and shocking at worst. The club wasted £12m on buying Christopher Samba from Anzhi Makhachkala in the January transfer window two years ago, to be rewarded with performances that redefined the word “ineffectual” (why Anzhi paid the same fee to bring him back at the end of the season is one of those mysteries that has one wondering quite what the deal was all about).
This season’s big peculiarity has been Jordon Mutch – bought last summer for £5.5m, given 11 games, none of them in his preferred position as an attacking central midfielder, then discarded for £4.75m to Crystal Palace, because – as chairman Tony Fernandes tweeted – he was “not in the manager’s plans”. If he wasn’t in the manager’s plans, why did the manager buy him in the first place?
Presumably because last summer he was in the manager’s plans. Redknapp intended to play a 3-5-2 based around Rio Ferdinand in central defence. The only problem with that being the one that was widely foreseen by everyone except Ferdinand and Redknapp: that the former Manchester United skipper was no longer up to being the linchpin of a Premier League defence, certainly when those alongside him were not of the very highest class. Both Ferdinand and 3-5-2 were discarded before we had to put on jumpers to go to matches, leaving Redknapp with a selection quandary – that being that he didn’t have the right players in midfield for any other formation. Rangers have had a glut of No 10s – Leroy Fer, Niko Kranjcar, the now departed Mutch, the ostracised Adel Taarabt – but played a system without No 10s, and with central players out of position on the wings. Nor did he have the defenders: he’d got rid of the club’s one true right back, Danny Simpson, and replaced him with a wing-back, Mauricio Isla, who often looks lost in a flat back four.
Rangers fans haven’t been happy with Redknapp for most of his tenure, and there’s going to be a fair amount of “ding dong the witch is dead” over the next few days. Though the club won promotion via the playoffs last season, it was hardly the triumphal procession it should have been, given the resources at Redknapp’s disposal. The football was usually pretty dreadful, especially away from home. At times the atmosphere at away games got poisonous as a result, with the loss away at Charlton last season a nadir, Rangers performing woefully in front of a large travelling support that seemed to spent more time squabbling among themselves about whether it was appropriate to let the team know exactly how bad they were rather than watching the game.
And yet, last summer, there was a certain amount of optimism. Rangers had Charlie Austin to bang in goals, and most of the new signings appeared to be the kind of players Rangers needed – young and talented, with resale value, rather than old lags cashing in one last time. So what’s gone wrong?
The answer can’t just be that Redknapp didn’t know what he was doing, though that did often seem to be the case as he tinkered with formations and failed to address defensive and attacking shortcomings in favour of piling up midfielders. Two successive managers with good records have come to Loftus Road and failed; they’ve bought youngish players who’ve looked good and done well elsewhere but failed in west London. Mark Hughes brought in Stéphane Mbia, Esteban Granero and Junior Hoilett; Redknapp’s brought in Austin (his one great success), Matt Phillips, Steven Caulker, Jordon Mutch and Leroy Fer. But still Rangers have struggled. The club has taken good managers and players and turned them into dross, giving them the footballing anti-Midas touch. Last time Rangers were in the Premier League it was apparently all Hughes’s fault the team was a disgrace, and that he’d been found out as a manager. Well, he’s done all right at Stoke, hasn’t he? And Mutch will now doubtless go on to shine for Palace.
The obvious conclusion from the last few years is that there is a deep-seated problem within the culture of the club, whereby failure is tolerated. Possibly the reason, in many fans’ eyes, is that the football club doesn’t seem to be central to the ambitions of Tony Fernandes and the consortium that owns Rangers.
Just look at the bungled announcement of its intention to build a new ground at Old Oak Common in northwest London (bungled because the owner of a chunk of the site, Car Giant, made plain it wanted to develop the land itself, without a football stadium, thank you very much). Or the signing of Ji-Sung Park, another of the underwhelming blasts from the past who’ve come to Loftus Road, pocketed their pay and not performed but acted as a useful marketing tool for Fernandes’s Air Asia. Building a strong football club seems to be somewhere down the list of priorities.
QPR is a club without any sense of vision. For all Fernandes’s boasts about long-term strategies, still no spade has gone into the earth on the promised new training facilities. The youth system has failed to produce a first-team regular in … well, I really don’t know how long. I can’t remember one – that’s how long it is. Fernandes inherited a tonne of these problems – Rangers had been a club that overpaid mediocre players for some years, and under the previous regime of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, the fact that Patrick Agyemang arrived for home games in his Bentley was seen by fans as the symbol of that stupidity.
But he has solved none of them and added more – internal debt of £170m, which would leave the club bankrupt if Fernandes and his friends decided to pull out and demand repayment, plus two bank loans totalling £42m.
And after all that, QPR are still in the same position they were when Fernandes took over – pootling along at the foot of the Premier League. You don’t hear his name sung very often at games anymore, and the mood of the messageboards has shifted.
Harry Redknapp did not do a good job at QPR. I am not sorry to see him gone. But the question remains: could anyone succeed at this cursed club?
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/40893/redknapp-resigns-qpr-manager-today#ixzz562S80BH1
This 10 Days after
Simon Johnson
Monday 26 January 2015
Talk from the Top: Fernandes reaffirms Redknapp backing Getty
QPR chairman Tony Fernandes admits the club will 'live or die' by their decision to keep faith with manager Harry Redknapp.
Fernandes released a statement last week confirming Redknapp will stay in charge for the rest of the season.
It had been reported that he would be fired if QPR lost at home to Manchester United (which they did 2-0) and that former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood would replace him.
Rangers are currently second from bottom and have lost all 10 of their away games - which is a Premier League record.
A section of fans wanted Redknapp to go and Fernandes said: "There will be debates on the rights and wrongs, but that's the call myself and the shareholders have made. We will live or die by it.
"I want everyone to be focussed and I think speculation is bad. It distracts from the matter at hand, which is maintaining our Premier League status.
"I have been very consistent in saying Harry will be here for the whole season - there was never any indication that was going to change."
Fernandes spoke with Redknapp on the phone before backing the 67-year-old publicly.
He explained: "I wanted to reassure him. Harry is like any human being and must have been wondering if the stories were true.
"I was just reassuring him that our word is our bond. I wanted to make sure he was up for the fight, which he very much is.
"He is not a quitter. This is his team. The majority are his players. Stability is important."
www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/qpr-will-live-or-die-by-decision-to-keep-harry-redknapp-in-charge-admits-chairman-tony-fernandes-10002569.html
A couple weeks later - Telegraph Feb 21, 2015
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
Main man: Tony Fernandes has spoken for the first time about Harry Redknapp's sacking Photo: ACTION IMAGES
Jason Burt
By Jason Burt
9:30PM GMT 21 Feb 2015
Tony Fernandes “drew a line” once Harry Redknapp called him to say he was quitting as Queens’ Park Rangers manager.
It was time, the QPR chairman says in an interview with Telegraph Sport, to “do things properly”, to stop “chasing our tail” and to “put our foot down”.
Fernandes is desperately hoping that come the end of the Premier League season QPR are above another line – the relegation zone – but if the worst happens “we will deal with it”, he says, “because it’s not the end of the world”.
That includes the threat of a fine of up to £40million 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 “sense” prevails.
And neither will relegation necessarily mean the end of Chris Ramsey’s 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 – at 6.30am the day after the January transfer window closed – when the 67-year-old told him he could not carry on.
“A lot of people said ‘Harry wasn’t getting any players so he decided to call it a day’,” Fernandes says. “But that was not the case at all. They also said we’d lined up Tim Sherwood and that wasn’t true either.
"He (Redknapp) called me up and said ‘Tony, my legs don’t feel good. I really don’t think I can give it the best shot. It’s going to be a dog-fight and I really think someone else can give it a better shot’. I think it’s admirable from his side. So I just felt it right that I didn’t try and persuade him.”
But why not? “What’s the point in persuading someone? It’s tough enough anyway. If you have a bit of self-doubt then I can’t do it,” Fernandes says. “So I put the phone down and thought ‘Mmm, what am I going to do?’ I was brushing my teeth – so I finished doing that! And I thought ‘well I always wanted Chris Ramsey as a coach and I’ve always wanted a coaching leader’.
“I’ve 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 ‘good players are good players’ but I think you can always make players better and the game has moved on so much.”
Out: Harry Redknapp quit due to concerns over his health
But Ramsey was initially only put in caretaker charge with Fernandes tweeting before the away game against Sunderland that he had found his “dream manager” – and it clearly was not the former Tottenham Hotspur coach. And neither was it Michael Laudrup.
“My first thing was ‘ok, 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 – and the speculation was irritating me, to be honest.
“But I actually did find someone who I really liked. Then I tweeted ‘I’ve found the dream manager’ 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 ‘okay, we’ve found someone, let’s go and play’.
“When I did that I then saw some of the reaction and I spoke to Chris Ramsey – and it was a phenomenal phone call. He’d finished a training session, he’d 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 ‘what’s 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 positive’.
“We’ve had some serious injuries and Chris Ramsey is like ‘we’ll get by Tony. There’s enough in the squad. I will find people and we’ll get organised’. As opposed to other people who might say ‘we’re finished, how are going to cope?’
Chosen one: Chris Ramsey impressed Tony Fernandes with his energy (REX)
“I love positive energy, I’ve lived off it all my life. And suddenly I thought ‘this dream manager, yes I’ve found someone but I don’t really know him that well. He looks to fit the bill but here’s someone I know who actually ticks all the boxes’. Yes, he (Ramsey) is not experienced but Harry was the most experienced manager in the Premier League. So I thought ‘let’s give him (Ramsey) the gig until the end of the season’. Just like Raheem Sterling. He gets the gig at Liverpool and the next moment he’s playing for England at the World Cup.”
But what happens at the end of the season?
“It’s for him to lose,” Fernandes says of Ramsey. “If we get relegated he can still do great. It’s not ‘if he stays up then he gets it’ although, of course, he would because I’d be crazy to let him go. But if we go down it doesn’t mean he won’t get the job.
“We 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 that’s how we will make our decision.
“The names that I was looking at where not ‘names’. 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 – look at Charlie Austin, Dwight Gayle at (Crystal) Palace now.”
Target: Charlie Austin's goals have made him coveted by other clubs
Mentioning Austin raises another fear of QPR fans – that the striker, who has just one more season after this on his contract, might leave. It could happen, Fernandes admits. “Charlie is great guy. We are in discussions (on a new deal),” he says.
“But we are a new QPR and we are going to do what’s right for the club. I’m 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 it’s a short career, players have to look after themselves and we have to respect that. It’s a big decision for him.”
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.
“I’m a big believer in the British system of fairness,” he says. “Look, 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.
“As a Premier League club if we go down we can’t just sack players and neither can we give up half way through the season and say ‘I’m going to get relegated so I will cut every cost’.
“On the other side – 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. We’ve learnt the ropes much better. So the effort has been put in there. I’m a believer – and here’s the irony – 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.”
Fan power: Tony Fernandes calls himself 'an accountant' - but is also a QPR supporter
But can QPR cope? “Look, I’m an accountant,” Fernandes adds. “We’ll have to deal with it if we have to deal with it. But I’m comfortable. People predicted the end of us when we got relegated last time if you remember correctly and we came straight back up.
“We never wanted to be a buying club. We always wanted to develop players but we’ve always been chasing our tail, so to speak – promotion or fighting relegation. And we’ve just said ‘look, let’s draw the line here and do things properly’.
“If we go down it’s 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.
“We’ve now put our foot down and said ‘we want to develop this club and we want to do it our way’. That’s 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).
“Of course we were winning 2-0 but it wasn’t 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. It’s 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 ‘I want to go there’. We shouldn’t lose players like (19-year-old) Josh Laurent to Brentford – that was just sacrilege.
Close: Fernandes sees Les Ferdinand as integral to QPR
“We are getting the messaging right. I wanted a football guy to run football and a CEO to run everything else and that’s why Philip (Beard) decided that it wasn’t what he wanted to do so we parted.
“We 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.
“We made our decision as to how we wanted to run the club after four years (of ownership). We’d 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.
“I 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 – I’ve talked about it for so long and the pieces of what we always wanted are now there.”
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
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/41043/year-flashback-tony-fernandes-tells#ixzz6CsPYwhDp
In the Summer of 2015, this from Tony Fernandes
the summer of 2015, this from Fernandes
Later...
QPR chairman has revealed the real reason why Harry Redknapp resigned
10:40, 29 June 2015
By Paul Warburton
Tony on why Harry left Rangers
The last time: Harry Rednapp's final game in charge was a 3-1 defeat at Stoke
QPR chairman has revealed the real reason why Harry Redknapp resigned.
Tony Fernandes was in a different part of the world when the ex-manager called to say he was quitting the club a day after the January transfer window closed.
The former Tottenham manager cited ongoing trouble with his knees for walking out on a side deep in relegation trouble.
But Fernandes sees a different side to the shock resignation.
Action Images
Football - Hull City v Queens Park Rangers - Barclays Premier League - The Kingston Communications Stadium - 21/2/15 QPR Chairman Tony Fernandes in the stands Reuters / Andrew Yates Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
“I was brushing my teeth in a different time zone, and I really feel my legs are going and it’s going to be a dogfight if I stepped down and you got someone else,” Fernandes explained.
“I asked him if that’s really what you want to do, and he said: ’yeah.’ We left it as good friends. But I think the main cause was he had given all he’d got.”
Redknapp was clearly frustrated players failed to arrive in January, with Fernandes and Rs determined to finally get a grip on club finances.
And although the chair readily admitted he had spoken to Tim Sherwood, who finally ended up at Aston Villa, the way forward was to appoint Chris Ramsey, and a period of consolidation and rebuilding.
Way forward: Chris Ramsey
Fernandes said: “It would have been dumb not to have spoken to Tim, as well as some other guys. But didn’t think it was right. I’m desperate for some longevity, and someone who will be here for a long time.
It didn’t sit in the scheme of things (to appoint Sherwood). I kept pushing Chris before Harry left, but Harry was comfortable with the team he had.
VIEW GALLERY
“Fans were saying give him a chance. Players were texting me after (an away win over) Sunderland (see gallery), but we had already made the decision on the Sunday before.
“I wanted someone who believed in coaching players; someone who could take an 18-year-old and make him something special. Chris fits that.
“For players who haven’t been playing, especially those low on confidence, it was good to have someone whose hands on and gives you confidence
www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/qpr-chairman-revealed-real-reason-9545499
Originally entitled Harry's Gone!..Hoddle Gone -
QPR Official Feb 3, 2015 at 9:28am
Harry Redknapp resigns from managerial position at QPR ...
HARRY Redknapp has tendered his resignation at QPR, which has been accepted by the Board.
Redknapp – who joined the club in November 2012, overseeing 105 matches in charge – informed Chairman Tony Fernandes of his decision to resign this morning.
He will undergo knee replacement surgery in the coming weeks.
Redknapp told http://www.qpr.co.uk: “I have had such a fantastic time at QPR. I would like to thank the Board, the players and all my staff, and especially the supporters who have been absolutely fantastic to me since I arrived at the club for their tremendous support.
“Sadly I need immediate surgery on my knee which is going to stop me from doing my job in the coming weeks. It means I won’t be able to be out on the training pitch every day, and if I can’t give 100 per-cent I feel it’s better for someone else to take over the reins.
“My relationship with Tony Fernandes has been one of the highlights of my footballing career and I wish the club every success. I am confident they will survive in the Premier League this year.”
Speaking on behalf of the Board, QPR Chairman Tony Fernandes added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Harry for everything he has done for QPR during his time in charge.
“We part on good terms and I would personally like to wish him all the best for the future.”
Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey have been placed in temporary charge of the team until further notice.
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/40893/redknapp-resigns-qpr-manager-today#ixzz562R6I1Mw
GLENN HODDLE EXITS
GLENN HODDLE last night released a statement to Zapsportz.com following the exit of Harry Redknapp as manager of QPR and his own departure from the club. He had joined Redknapp (pictured together, above) as first team coach last August. This is what Glenn had to say:
“I am a bit shocked and surprised, to tell you the truth. We all know football is a results-orientated businesss but I always felt that given a few more games, Harry could have turned it around down there at the bottom.
“It would have only taken a couple of good results to have achieved that as it is very tight down there.
“But that’s football for you. I have enjoyed coming back into coaching and I thanked Harry for giving me that opportunity to tip my toe back into the coaching arena.
“I have enjoyed every minute. I wished him all the best and I do sincerely hope QPR can stay up. I would love the players to turn it around as I have enjoyed working with them – and hope I have improved them.”
zapsportz.com/glenn-hoddle-exclusive-statement-on-leaving-qpr/
MAIl/Martin Samuel
HARRY REDKNAPP EXCLUSIVE: Why I REALLY had to leave QPR, but I am not quitting football
Harry Redknapp resigned as QPR manager on Tuesday
Redknapp says he needs two knee replacements and was unable to continue
Redknapp rang QPR owner Tony Fernandes at 5.30am to tell him of his decision
Published: 10:52 EST, 3 February 2015 | Updated: 11:27 EST, 3 February 2015
Harry Redknapp quit Queens Park Rangers – after a dramatic 5.30am phone call to Tony Fernandes.
Redknapp, 67, revealed he came to the decision he could not continue after being told he would need replacements for both right and left knees. Unable to walk even 100 yards, he accepted he was not the man to lead Rangers into their relegation fight. And he called owner Fernandes in the small hours to deliver the news.
'I was awake all night, thinking about it,' Redknapp told me. 'I'm struggling so badly now. I can't walk, I can barely stand and watch. I'm in pain all the time. I've been putting it off, and putting it off, but it has got to the stage where I cannot do the job.
Harry Redknapp quit QPR with the club second bottom of the Premier League
Redknapp says his knee problem was the main reason why he had to quit QPR as he could no longer walk
'I booked a ticket for Fulham's FA Cup game with Sunderland on Tuesday night, but my first thought was, 'how am I going to get to the ground?' Even if I get a car park pass there is going to be some walking. I can't walk around Craven Cottage anymore, I can't walk down the street – that's how bad it has got.
'I went to see my grandson play football at the weekend, and after five minutes had to go back to the car. I couldn't even stand up. What sort of life is it if you can't watch the kids play? That sort of made my mind up. I went to bed thinking I would sleep on it, but then I couldn't sleep a wink. That's when I decided to call Tony. It must have been 5.30am. I just told him he needed someone who could properly coach and manage the team in the next ten weeks. It's such an important time. They need someone who can give it everything.'
Redknapp's resignation immediately brought speculation that he had become frustrated at a lack of activity in the transfer window. Rangers face financial fair play restrictions, and a huge fine, and have been working to cut budgets.
Yet he insisted this was not the case. 'I haven't got the hump, we haven't had a row,' said Redknapp. 'I knew some while ago that we were not going to be able to get much done in January. We had one real target on the last day, Emmanuel Adebayor, because we are short upfront. But he was too much money. I accept that. There are no hard feelings on my part – I've not had a problem with Tony Fernandes in all my time there.
Redknapp says he had a good relationship with QPR owner Tony Fernandes
Redknapp says he had a good relationship with QPR owner Tony Fernandes
Harry Redknapp guided QPR back to the Premier League at the first attempt via the play-offs
Harry Redknapp guided QPR back to the Premier League at the first attempt via the play-offs
Redknapp says Emmanuel Adebayor was his only transfer target on deadline day - but he was too expensive
Redknapp says Emmanuel Adebayor was his only transfer target on deadline day - but he was too expensive
'I even went to training this morning because it was my intention to say goodbye to the lads. I went to sort out some bits and pieces with the club and by the time I had finished they were gone. It's been that quick. I just made my mind up because events were piling up. Being told I needed both knees replaced was a huge blow. It would put me out of the game for months because you can't have them done together.
'Steve McClaren called me when he heard the news and we were talking about our time together at Rangers last year. He reminded me that I was on crutches for ten weeks back then. It's been a problem for too long now.
'I know what people think – that I've been sacked, or stormed off because we couldn't get the players in. My son Jamie said that my timing has to be the worst in the world. When I look back on my career, it certainly isn't my strong point – but I can't control what people think. I feel positive about the future at Rangers – Sandro is back at the weekend and he will make a huge difference. We've got other players coming back from injury, too – if I could get out and coach them like I could five years ago, I'd be optimistic. But I can't.
Redknapp and QPR have not won a single point away from home this season
Redknapp's final game in charge of QPR was the 3-1 defeat at Stoke
'I was totally honest with Tony. I told him he needed someone who could commit to every aspect of the job in the next ten weeks, and that's not me. I still don't think I'm finished with football. When I've had the operations, I'll be looking for work again, I know that. I can't imagine my life without it. But right now, I've got to make my health the priority.
'I can't even walk the dogs. I stand watching the team play, and I'm struggling. It's reached a point where I can't ignore it any longer. It's not a decision I would take lightly. I've thought about it a few times this season, but have always decided to give it one last go.
'The last week has been the tipping point. I can barely move and I'm not enjoying my life. I need to get this done as quickly as I can and try to move on. Nigel Pearson at Leicester City told me he had a knee replacement and was ready to go again after six weeks. I'm not sure I'll be hopping about in that time, but I'll talk to Andy Williams, my surgeon, and we'll work out a plan.'
Queen Park Rangers Manager Harry Redknapp Harry Redknapp quits as QPR manager with club embroiled in... Former QPR scout reveals he received £50 for recommending... Football - Stoke City v Queens Park Rangers - Barclays Premier League - Britannia Stadium - 31/1/15 QPR's Joey Barton and Yun Suk Young look dejected at full time Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Alex Morton Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. Harry Redknapp deserves better from his QPR side who pretend... Emmanuel Adebayor stalling on QPR loan move as Tottenham...
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2938087/Harry-Redknapp-exclusive-REALLY-leave-QPR-not-quitting-football.html#ixzz3QhXn3lyM
Fan’s view: Harry Redknapp’s QPR reign has been a predictable shambles
From a litany of preposterous signings to not knowing his best formation, the former manager won’t be missed. But Tony Fernandes should take much of the blame for this cursed club’s crisis too
www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/03/qpr-harry-redknapp-fans-view-michael-hann
Back when Harry Redknapp was appointed Queens Park Rangers manager in November 2012, I said on the Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast that I wasn’t overjoyed about him coming in to the club I support. Rangers would still be relegated, I predicted, we’d just do it more expensively. It was one of the rare football predictions I’ve made that was right. You won’t be surprised, then, to hear I’m not sorry he’s gone.
Redknapp’s reign has been a shambles, to be frank. There have been a preposterous number of signings, at a total cost reputed to be £58m, both on permanent deals and on loans, most of whom have been anonymous at best, and shocking at worst. The club wasted £12m on buying Christopher Samba from Anzhi Makhachkala in the January transfer window two years ago, to be rewarded with performances that redefined the word “ineffectual” (why Anzhi paid the same fee to bring him back at the end of the season is one of those mysteries that has one wondering quite what the deal was all about).
This season’s big peculiarity has been Jordon Mutch – bought last summer for £5.5m, given 11 games, none of them in his preferred position as an attacking central midfielder, then discarded for £4.75m to Crystal Palace, because – as chairman Tony Fernandes tweeted – he was “not in the manager’s plans”. If he wasn’t in the manager’s plans, why did the manager buy him in the first place?
Presumably because last summer he was in the manager’s plans. Redknapp intended to play a 3-5-2 based around Rio Ferdinand in central defence. The only problem with that being the one that was widely foreseen by everyone except Ferdinand and Redknapp: that the former Manchester United skipper was no longer up to being the linchpin of a Premier League defence, certainly when those alongside him were not of the very highest class. Both Ferdinand and 3-5-2 were discarded before we had to put on jumpers to go to matches, leaving Redknapp with a selection quandary – that being that he didn’t have the right players in midfield for any other formation. Rangers have had a glut of No 10s – Leroy Fer, Niko Kranjcar, the now departed Mutch, the ostracised Adel Taarabt – but played a system without No 10s, and with central players out of position on the wings. Nor did he have the defenders: he’d got rid of the club’s one true right back, Danny Simpson, and replaced him with a wing-back, Mauricio Isla, who often looks lost in a flat back four.
Rangers fans haven’t been happy with Redknapp for most of his tenure, and there’s going to be a fair amount of “ding dong the witch is dead” over the next few days. Though the club won promotion via the playoffs last season, it was hardly the triumphal procession it should have been, given the resources at Redknapp’s disposal. The football was usually pretty dreadful, especially away from home. At times the atmosphere at away games got poisonous as a result, with the loss away at Charlton last season a nadir, Rangers performing woefully in front of a large travelling support that seemed to spent more time squabbling among themselves about whether it was appropriate to let the team know exactly how bad they were rather than watching the game.
And yet, last summer, there was a certain amount of optimism. Rangers had Charlie Austin to bang in goals, and most of the new signings appeared to be the kind of players Rangers needed – young and talented, with resale value, rather than old lags cashing in one last time. So what’s gone wrong?
The answer can’t just be that Redknapp didn’t know what he was doing, though that did often seem to be the case as he tinkered with formations and failed to address defensive and attacking shortcomings in favour of piling up midfielders. Two successive managers with good records have come to Loftus Road and failed; they’ve bought youngish players who’ve looked good and done well elsewhere but failed in west London. Mark Hughes brought in Stéphane Mbia, Esteban Granero and Junior Hoilett; Redknapp’s brought in Austin (his one great success), Matt Phillips, Steven Caulker, Jordon Mutch and Leroy Fer. But still Rangers have struggled. The club has taken good managers and players and turned them into dross, giving them the footballing anti-Midas touch. Last time Rangers were in the Premier League it was apparently all Hughes’s fault the team was a disgrace, and that he’d been found out as a manager. Well, he’s done all right at Stoke, hasn’t he? And Mutch will now doubtless go on to shine for Palace.
The obvious conclusion from the last few years is that there is a deep-seated problem within the culture of the club, whereby failure is tolerated. Possibly the reason, in many fans’ eyes, is that the football club doesn’t seem to be central to the ambitions of Tony Fernandes and the consortium that owns Rangers.
Just look at the bungled announcement of its intention to build a new ground at Old Oak Common in northwest London (bungled because the owner of a chunk of the site, Car Giant, made plain it wanted to develop the land itself, without a football stadium, thank you very much). Or the signing of Ji-Sung Park, another of the underwhelming blasts from the past who’ve come to Loftus Road, pocketed their pay and not performed but acted as a useful marketing tool for Fernandes’s Air Asia. Building a strong football club seems to be somewhere down the list of priorities.
QPR is a club without any sense of vision. For all Fernandes’s boasts about long-term strategies, still no spade has gone into the earth on the promised new training facilities. The youth system has failed to produce a first-team regular in … well, I really don’t know how long. I can’t remember one – that’s how long it is. Fernandes inherited a tonne of these problems – Rangers had been a club that overpaid mediocre players for some years, and under the previous regime of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, the fact that Patrick Agyemang arrived for home games in his Bentley was seen by fans as the symbol of that stupidity.
But he has solved none of them and added more – internal debt of £170m, which would leave the club bankrupt if Fernandes and his friends decided to pull out and demand repayment, plus two bank loans totalling £42m.
And after all that, QPR are still in the same position they were when Fernandes took over – pootling along at the foot of the Premier League. You don’t hear his name sung very often at games anymore, and the mood of the messageboards has shifted.
Harry Redknapp did not do a good job at QPR. I am not sorry to see him gone. But the question remains: could anyone succeed at this cursed club?
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/40893/redknapp-resigns-qpr-manager-today#ixzz562S80BH1
This 10 Days after
Simon Johnson
Monday 26 January 2015
Talk from the Top: Fernandes reaffirms Redknapp backing Getty
QPR chairman Tony Fernandes admits the club will 'live or die' by their decision to keep faith with manager Harry Redknapp.
Fernandes released a statement last week confirming Redknapp will stay in charge for the rest of the season.
It had been reported that he would be fired if QPR lost at home to Manchester United (which they did 2-0) and that former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood would replace him.
Rangers are currently second from bottom and have lost all 10 of their away games - which is a Premier League record.
A section of fans wanted Redknapp to go and Fernandes said: "There will be debates on the rights and wrongs, but that's the call myself and the shareholders have made. We will live or die by it.
"I want everyone to be focussed and I think speculation is bad. It distracts from the matter at hand, which is maintaining our Premier League status.
"I have been very consistent in saying Harry will be here for the whole season - there was never any indication that was going to change."
Fernandes spoke with Redknapp on the phone before backing the 67-year-old publicly.
He explained: "I wanted to reassure him. Harry is like any human being and must have been wondering if the stories were true.
"I was just reassuring him that our word is our bond. I wanted to make sure he was up for the fight, which he very much is.
"He is not a quitter. This is his team. The majority are his players. Stability is important."
www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/qpr-will-live-or-die-by-decision-to-keep-harry-redknapp-in-charge-admits-chairman-tony-fernandes-10002569.html
A couple weeks later - Telegraph Feb 21, 2015
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
Main man: Tony Fernandes has spoken for the first time about Harry Redknapp's sacking Photo: ACTION IMAGES
Jason Burt
By Jason Burt
9:30PM GMT 21 Feb 2015
Tony Fernandes “drew a line” once Harry Redknapp called him to say he was quitting as Queens’ Park Rangers manager.
It was time, the QPR chairman says in an interview with Telegraph Sport, to “do things properly”, to stop “chasing our tail” and to “put our foot down”.
Fernandes is desperately hoping that come the end of the Premier League season QPR are above another line – the relegation zone – but if the worst happens “we will deal with it”, he says, “because it’s not the end of the world”.
That includes the threat of a fine of up to £40million 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 “sense” prevails.
And neither will relegation necessarily mean the end of Chris Ramsey’s 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 – at 6.30am the day after the January transfer window closed – when the 67-year-old told him he could not carry on.
“A lot of people said ‘Harry wasn’t getting any players so he decided to call it a day’,” Fernandes says. “But that was not the case at all. They also said we’d lined up Tim Sherwood and that wasn’t true either.
"He (Redknapp) called me up and said ‘Tony, my legs don’t feel good. I really don’t think I can give it the best shot. It’s going to be a dog-fight and I really think someone else can give it a better shot’. I think it’s admirable from his side. So I just felt it right that I didn’t try and persuade him.”
But why not? “What’s the point in persuading someone? It’s tough enough anyway. If you have a bit of self-doubt then I can’t do it,” Fernandes says. “So I put the phone down and thought ‘Mmm, what am I going to do?’ I was brushing my teeth – so I finished doing that! And I thought ‘well I always wanted Chris Ramsey as a coach and I’ve always wanted a coaching leader’.
“I’ve 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 ‘good players are good players’ but I think you can always make players better and the game has moved on so much.”
Out: Harry Redknapp quit due to concerns over his health
But Ramsey was initially only put in caretaker charge with Fernandes tweeting before the away game against Sunderland that he had found his “dream manager” – and it clearly was not the former Tottenham Hotspur coach. And neither was it Michael Laudrup.
“My first thing was ‘ok, 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 – and the speculation was irritating me, to be honest.
“But I actually did find someone who I really liked. Then I tweeted ‘I’ve found the dream manager’ 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 ‘okay, we’ve found someone, let’s go and play’.
“When I did that I then saw some of the reaction and I spoke to Chris Ramsey – and it was a phenomenal phone call. He’d finished a training session, he’d 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 ‘what’s 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 positive’.
“We’ve had some serious injuries and Chris Ramsey is like ‘we’ll get by Tony. There’s enough in the squad. I will find people and we’ll get organised’. As opposed to other people who might say ‘we’re finished, how are going to cope?’
Chosen one: Chris Ramsey impressed Tony Fernandes with his energy (REX)
“I love positive energy, I’ve lived off it all my life. And suddenly I thought ‘this dream manager, yes I’ve found someone but I don’t really know him that well. He looks to fit the bill but here’s someone I know who actually ticks all the boxes’. Yes, he (Ramsey) is not experienced but Harry was the most experienced manager in the Premier League. So I thought ‘let’s give him (Ramsey) the gig until the end of the season’. Just like Raheem Sterling. He gets the gig at Liverpool and the next moment he’s playing for England at the World Cup.”
But what happens at the end of the season?
“It’s for him to lose,” Fernandes says of Ramsey. “If we get relegated he can still do great. It’s not ‘if he stays up then he gets it’ although, of course, he would because I’d be crazy to let him go. But if we go down it doesn’t mean he won’t get the job.
“We 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 that’s how we will make our decision.
“The names that I was looking at where not ‘names’. 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 – look at Charlie Austin, Dwight Gayle at (Crystal) Palace now.”
Target: Charlie Austin's goals have made him coveted by other clubs
Mentioning Austin raises another fear of QPR fans – that the striker, who has just one more season after this on his contract, might leave. It could happen, Fernandes admits. “Charlie is great guy. We are in discussions (on a new deal),” he says.
“But we are a new QPR and we are going to do what’s right for the club. I’m 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 it’s a short career, players have to look after themselves and we have to respect that. It’s a big decision for him.”
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.
“I’m a big believer in the British system of fairness,” he says. “Look, 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.
“As a Premier League club if we go down we can’t just sack players and neither can we give up half way through the season and say ‘I’m going to get relegated so I will cut every cost’.
“On the other side – 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. We’ve learnt the ropes much better. So the effort has been put in there. I’m a believer – and here’s the irony – 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.”
Fan power: Tony Fernandes calls himself 'an accountant' - but is also a QPR supporter
But can QPR cope? “Look, I’m an accountant,” Fernandes adds. “We’ll have to deal with it if we have to deal with it. But I’m comfortable. People predicted the end of us when we got relegated last time if you remember correctly and we came straight back up.
“We never wanted to be a buying club. We always wanted to develop players but we’ve always been chasing our tail, so to speak – promotion or fighting relegation. And we’ve just said ‘look, let’s draw the line here and do things properly’.
“If we go down it’s 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.
“We’ve now put our foot down and said ‘we want to develop this club and we want to do it our way’. That’s 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).
“Of course we were winning 2-0 but it wasn’t 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. It’s 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 ‘I want to go there’. We shouldn’t lose players like (19-year-old) Josh Laurent to Brentford – that was just sacrilege.
Close: Fernandes sees Les Ferdinand as integral to QPR
“We are getting the messaging right. I wanted a football guy to run football and a CEO to run everything else and that’s why Philip (Beard) decided that it wasn’t what he wanted to do so we parted.
“We 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.
“We made our decision as to how we wanted to run the club after four years (of ownership). We’d 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.
“I 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 – I’ve talked about it for so long and the pieces of what we always wanted are now there.”
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
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/41043/year-flashback-tony-fernandes-tells#ixzz6CsPYwhDp
In the Summer of 2015, this from Tony Fernandes
the summer of 2015, this from Fernandes
Later...
QPR chairman has revealed the real reason why Harry Redknapp resigned
10:40, 29 June 2015
By Paul Warburton
Tony on why Harry left Rangers
The last time: Harry Rednapp's final game in charge was a 3-1 defeat at Stoke
QPR chairman has revealed the real reason why Harry Redknapp resigned.
Tony Fernandes was in a different part of the world when the ex-manager called to say he was quitting the club a day after the January transfer window closed.
The former Tottenham manager cited ongoing trouble with his knees for walking out on a side deep in relegation trouble.
But Fernandes sees a different side to the shock resignation.
Action Images
Football - Hull City v Queens Park Rangers - Barclays Premier League - The Kingston Communications Stadium - 21/2/15 QPR Chairman Tony Fernandes in the stands Reuters / Andrew Yates Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
“I was brushing my teeth in a different time zone, and I really feel my legs are going and it’s going to be a dogfight if I stepped down and you got someone else,” Fernandes explained.
“I asked him if that’s really what you want to do, and he said: ’yeah.’ We left it as good friends. But I think the main cause was he had given all he’d got.”
Redknapp was clearly frustrated players failed to arrive in January, with Fernandes and Rs determined to finally get a grip on club finances.
And although the chair readily admitted he had spoken to Tim Sherwood, who finally ended up at Aston Villa, the way forward was to appoint Chris Ramsey, and a period of consolidation and rebuilding.
Way forward: Chris Ramsey
Fernandes said: “It would have been dumb not to have spoken to Tim, as well as some other guys. But didn’t think it was right. I’m desperate for some longevity, and someone who will be here for a long time.
It didn’t sit in the scheme of things (to appoint Sherwood). I kept pushing Chris before Harry left, but Harry was comfortable with the team he had.
VIEW GALLERY
“Fans were saying give him a chance. Players were texting me after (an away win over) Sunderland (see gallery), but we had already made the decision on the Sunday before.
“I wanted someone who believed in coaching players; someone who could take an 18-year-old and make him something special. Chris fits that.
“For players who haven’t been playing, especially those low on confidence, it was good to have someone whose hands on and gives you confidence
www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/qpr-chairman-revealed-real-reason-9545499
