Chris King returns to LoftforWords to give his opinion on the latest goings on in W12 with a takeover by Tony Fernandes apparently in the offing.
Achieving Premier League survival has, in recent years, become akin to swimming across the English Channel in the early 1900s in terms of the gargantuan outlay required in order to execute the task. Whereas traversing the waters between France and England requires endless training, supreme courage and indefatigable strength, staying in the Premier League has come to depend simply on spending an astronomical sum of money, having the right manager, enjoying a significant amount of luck and, crucially, finding three inferior teams.
QPR have already satisfied the second requirement; Neil Warnock is about as experienced as an English manager could hope to be, boasts superb organisational skills, can inspire teams to greatness and has a bone to pick with the English top flight after his relegation with Sheffield United back in 2007. He will want to prove, having already made huge strides at Loftus Road in just over a year, to himself, the footballing world, the W12 faithful and the media, that he is ready for Premier League management.
Based on the events of the past year, luck ought not to be a problem either. The old football cliché states that, if the ball goes one way you’re a winner, if it goes the other, you’re confined to a mere footnote in history. Rangers, along with Norwich City and Swansea City, would probably still be meandering in the Championship had it not been for moments of huge fortune. Adel Taarabt’s opener against Portsmouth back in February certainly comes to mind on this front.
However when it comes to the ‘throwing money around in the hope of building a team fit for 17th’, the Premier League’s Clause IV, QPR look destined for immediate relegation. There is a nauseatingly bargain basement feel to the R’s recruitment this summer, and very few connected with the club will be unaware as to why this is the case. Kieron Dyer, Jay Bothroyd and Danny Gabbidon have all arrived on free transfers, whilst the club is set to well and truly splash out in completing a £1.25million move for Blackpool striker DJ Campbell.
There is a sense that Norwich City are also building a squad to a cost, but if so the Canaries have managed to control their outlay about as well as those who took charge of the construction of Wembley Stadium. Swansea City have also trumped the R’s in terms of spending, but neither side looks substantially stronger on paper than Warnock’s charges. Despite this, Danny Gabbidon has done little to strengthen a defensive motley crew that, despite its size, offers little variation in ability from ‘probably not up to scratch’ to ‘unfit for Premier League football.’
In fact, it may coherently be argued that Adel Taarabt has been Rangers’ best signing so far this summer. With most pundits agreeing that Kieron Dyer was signed as a charity shop replacement for Adel Taarabt, like an electronic children’s toy that only turns on every few days and runs out of battery within ten minutes, with Taarabt now remaining at Loftus Road, where else could Dyer fit into the starting eleven? DJ Campbell and Jay Bothroyd, on the other hand, actually seem to constitute sensible additions to the striking ranks, previously bereft of anybody even approaching suitability for top flight football.
So moving on to the final category, are there three teams in the Premier League less well equipped to survive than QPR? In short, probably not. Barring some inconceivably high profile signings by either club, Norwich and Swansea will probably be fairly close to the R’s by May 2012. The catastrophic ineptitude of clubs such as Wigan Athletic and Wolverhampton Wanderers, halted in the final few weeks of the season to superb effect, may be enough. Yet both sides boast greater top flight experience, altogether more complete teams and plentiful squads than Rangers.
The final bolt from the blue was the bizarre statement issued by the club concerning talks with a potential buyer, referring to a period between March and May of this year. Causing a wave of bemusement and utter confusion to spread across West London, it was followed by the news that Team Lotus principal and owner of Air Asia, Tony Fernandes was interested in purchasing the club. Discounting Fernandes’ affinity with West Ham United, which would naturally be a sore sport for diehard Rangers fans, this could actually be good for the club.
For without bringing cynicism into every aspect of life, QPR supporters probably gave up a long time ago on any dreams of eternal footballing happiness or even extended contentment in this field. The logic therefore must go that whoever owns the club – be it the eminently untrustworthy Paladini, the perennial enemy Briatore, the pint-sized Judas Ecclestone or the outsider Fernandes – should be judged not on their moral suitability but the financial commitment they are willing to make to QPR Football Club.
With the Premier League’s ‘fit and proper persons test’ widely derided as irrelevant and lacking any jurisdiction regarding takeovers, Rangers fans ought to institute one of their own. First question; do they have the money? Second; are they willing to spend it? Third; will they support the manager? Finally; will the revenue from player sales be passed on to the manager? If the answer to all four is yes, then frankly any other concerns surrounding background, morality, intention and a tendency towards profiteering are of no concern.
QPR board members are, sadly, never going to be emotionally tied to a club like Norwich City, which still feels as though it is being run by men and women with an actual connection to it. For as long as most will remember, the club has been a disaster, run by characters ranging from the incredible to the utterly ludicrous, so all that matters now is that money is put in place, a vaguely competent squad assembled, and that the blue and white hoops have a sponsor’s logo on them by the time Warnock’s side take to the field against Bolton Wanderers on August 13.