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It's always interesting reading about 76, especially as it's our 'what if' season.
I'm too young to have been there but like so many of us fans since, that team seem to be the reference point of how good the Rs can be.
The 69 Marsh side smashed the lower leagues and won the league cup but weren't top flight so can't be considered our best.
Venables 82 side were brilliant and unlucky in the replay but didn't challenge in the league.
The Smith 86 side kind of kept the momentum going but no silverware, no glory.
The early 90s renaissance and top 6 finish under Francis showed that we were the best in London but proved short-lived.
Since then we've only enjoyed glimpses of how good we can be but we still compare those glimpses to 76.
When we compare Eze to Taraabt, we're really comparing them both to Bowles, even though many of us never saw Bowles in the flesh. Buszaky? Cook? Wegerle? Currie? Where do they rate next to Bowles. The general consensus is some get closer than others but Stan stands alone.
Except for Rodney. It seems that's too close to call. Those that saw them both play, are generally torn. My dad, for example, loves them both but finds it hard to be drawn on who was better. However, asked which is the better side, there's no hesitation.
The 76 side were the best. So it would seem by default that Bowles is our greatest ever. He defines what quality means when it comes to QPR. We use him to compare our stock against the past in a very particular way. At QPR only the number 10 really matters.
Francis was England captain yet we don't compare him to Waddock or Wilkins. Clement is revered yet we don't put him in comparison with Bardsley or Walker. We know McLintock and Webb were formidable but rarely do we debate their merit against Fenwick and Hazel or Macca and Parker. Sinton and Sinclair could do their thing though Thomas had done it effortlessly before. Givens was great but Allen, Stainrod and Ferdinand are never really compared to him.
It may be because we got close in 76 but didn't win it that QPR fans look for something else to define us. We use the number 10 shirt (or those players that encompass the essence of it these days). Personally, I love that we have that tradition. I'm enjoying Eze while I can. I loved Adel and made the most of that while it lasted because I realised that is where the joy of supporting the Rs lies. He was flawed as lots of geniuses are.
Which brings me back round to Stan and 76. I think we'd have won the league if it wasn't for the flaws in his genius.
Years ago I read his autobiography and lapped up all his anecdotes. Drunken nights out, bookies before games, knocking over the FA cup on the sideline for a bet, reading the programme at a corner. Entertaining stuff.
One thing that got me though, was his relationship with Jim Gregory. Stan recalled that when his gambling debts got out of hand he called in the chairman to pay them off. Indulgently, Jim did this more often than not. However, on some occasions it seemed that Jim put his foot down and didn't bail Stan out. In his autobiography Bowles says that on some of those occasions he refused to play and subsequently missed a few games that season. In a proudly perverse way, Stan said that the Rs didn't win any of the games he missed.
In 76 we lost 7 games. A point from any of those games and we would have won the league.
I don't know how true those stories are but ever since reading his autobiography, it's rankled with me. I'm well aware that without Stan we wouldn't have been competing at the top of the league but I also think f*ck'ng hell, what a d*ck.
For that reason, I rate Rodney above Stan as our best ever number 10. But thank you Stan for making that 76 team what it was.
[Post edited 3 Jun 2020 1:48]
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75/76 through fresh eyes - Column on 01:54 - Jun 3 with 339 views
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