Chris King returns to LFW with words of warning to temper the swathes of optimism currently washing over the QPR supporters post deadline day.
For many years Queens Park Rangers had been a bit-part player in the great footballing saga, celebration of excess and orgy of poor planning that is transfer deadline day.
Back in 2007 Mikele Leigertwood was signed by the R’s for £900,000 on said day in perhaps one of the most underwhelming ‘big money’ signings made by the club in recent times. This year, it was the turn of a host of Premier League heavyweights to hurry down to W12 and sign up to join the Warnock-Bhatia-Fernandes revolution. To suggest that having already snapped up troubled intellectual Joey Barton, Rangers would be making moves for Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand, even last year would’ve condemned one to isolation and ridicule on the grandest of scales. Yet this is the reality for Queens Park Rangers supporters, and I for one am excited by the prospect of at least a season in the Premier League with players of the calibre, experience and prestige of these pulling on the blue and white hoops.
Upon arriving in the Premier League, Rangers had more or less the same squad that secured promotion last year, and the likely first term was as follows: Kenny, Hill, Gabbidon, Hall, Orr, Derry, Faurlin, Smith, Taarabt, Campbell and Bothroyd. Just three new additions to the starting XI, and this was the team Warnock had been given to battle against relegation from one of the toughest leagues in world football. Not easy. The game against Bolton Wanderers showed just how inadequate this line-up was, with Orr made to look distinctly average, and Derry and Faurlin utterly bypassed in midfield. Campbell and Bothroyd were cut off in the second half, as QPR’s playing style regressed from slick passing and a high-tempo game to aimless long-ball football. This team was never going to be able to keep Queens Park Rangers in the Premier League, no matter its huge achievements last year; it was patently not good enough. A few weeks later and this is the side Warnock can call upon in the battle against the drop: Kenny, Traore, Ferdinand, Gabbidon, Young, Barton, Faurlin, Wright-Phillips, Taarabt, Campbell and Bothroyd.
So a flawless transfer deadline day and a magnificent late surge in the window itself have seen QPR transformed in a matter of days from relegation certainties to potential giant-killers in the Stoke City mould? Not exactly.
It remains to be seen whether Warnock can make this thoroughly disparate side gel in time, because the pressure on his shoulders will now be enormous, in line with Rangers’ newly-inflated wage bill. Newcastle United at home on Monday September 12 is fast-becoming one of the most anticipated games in the history of the club, but fans expecting a walkover ought to at least try and temper their excitement and expectation. Like every project, the ‘new QPR’ needs time, and unfortunately in the ‘best league in the world’ you don’t get a lot of time. Long-term planning, moderation and a sensible attitude to expenditure and decision-making exist only at a handful of clubs, and Queens Park Rangers are probably not one of these. Plus, a dark truth that nobody wants to acknowledge but is very real nonetheless is that if Warnock fails to keep the R’s in the Premier League, surviving in the Championship with a wage bill as large as Rangers’ now presumably is will be almost impossible. It's a huge risk to take, and the potential rewards are equally as significant as the possible pitfalls of taking the route the board and the manager have decided to.
Furthermore, despite all the excitement and the wonderful prospect of a prolonged stay in the Premier League, I can’t escape the horrible feeling that we’ve turned into another one of these rich clubs who don’t invest in youth, don’t manage their finances and just spend, spend and spend their way out of successive crises. Fans of other clubs will see us as nothing more than another rich club who’ve flexed their financial muscles in an effort to achieve success. We cannot be proud of what we’re doing here, at least not in the same way Norwich City could if they were to stay up.
QPR may have bought sensibly and secured a number of genuinely good players to assist in the battle against the drop, but at what cost? This ‘dream team from 2006’ of Shaun-Wright Phillips, Joey Barton, Anton Ferdinand and Luke Young has seen us truly embrace the Premier League lifestyle of splashing cash around like it’s going out of fashion. Maybe I’m naïve, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the Ian Holloway side which was built on a shoestring but achieved some amazing things, including the best footballing night of my life when we beat Oldham Athletic 1-0 at Loftus Road. I can’t feel the same way about this team, but maybe in time I’ll learn to love them as well.
As a final aside, amidst all the excitement of the Deadline Day, some may have missed the fact that Antonio German was released by the club this week. A product of our academy, I wonder if we’ll ever have one of these again. He’s now at Stockport County, and I wish him the best of luck in progressing up through the leagues. Who knows – perhaps we’ll be splashing out £10 million on him in 2015 to help us with our bid to shatter the glass ceiling of the Premier League top ten.
@chriskking